All her life Elsinore (Elsa) Walcott has been told she’s a plain Jane and she’s destined for spinsterhood. One night, she decides she wants to go out dancing and her father is very much against it. He thinks she’s dressed like a harlot and summons her to go back to her room. But Elsa defies him and heads out. The doorman at the speakeasy won’t let her enter and on the street she meets an extremely handsome chap called Rafaello (Rafe) Martinelli. They start talking and end up having sex that same night.
A few months later, Elsa’s mother deduces she is pregnant, and her parents disown her after dropping her at Rafe’s parents’ farm. Though the news of her pregnancy is not met with joy there either, Rafe marries Elsa. They have a daughter, Loreda and later on they have a son, Anthony. Rafe’s parents quickly begin to love the hardworking women their son married.
Rafe, however, is a bit of a wet lettuce, I guess he’s depressed because the country’s going down the dumps but he appears to have no backbone when he just up and leaves. Loreda is heartbroken and blames her mother. She’s a very angry teenager but Elsa has the patience of a saint in dealing with her. Then Anthony becomes gravely ill with dust pneumonia, and Elsa is forced to leave Texas. She takes the children on a journey to California (her in-laws have decided to stay behind) in the hopes of reuniting the family with Rafe somehow.
Dang, another tearjerker by Kristin Hannah. The subject is something I knew nothing about, the Dust Bowl in Texas. Hannah paints a bleak picture… Elsa is a likeable heroine, and Loreda, I wanted to strangle her at times, but I so relate, I too was an angry teenager!
Read for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 49: The 24th book of an author.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
