Dorie - Cats&Books :) not getting notifications's Reviews > The Kitchen House

This is an intriguing story of Lavinia, a girl orphaned on a ship from Ireland and brought to the home of a plantation owner where she is to live and work with the slaves in the kitchen house. She becomes deeply bonded to her black family but is set apart because of her white skin.

Eventually Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house where the master is absent and she battled opium addiction.

I can't put into words correctly the tragedies that this woman endures and the lives of the slaves in this early 1800's time period. The house slaves were treated better than the slaves who worked the tobacco fields, they were truly treated as property that needed to be fed and sheltered so that they could work, nothing more.

What's intriguing is that the story is told in two voices, that of Lavinia and Belle, a beautiful house slave who is actually the Master's daughter. She took Lavinia in as her own sister and helped her learn the ways of the plantation.

In the end Lavinia must make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare and lives are put at risk.

This book was a page turner. I absolutely loved it. The very detailed descriptions of the plantation and the country during this time period was excellent as was the character development.

Highly recommend to all historical fiction and literature lovers.