THE MOONSHINER'S DAUGHTER BY DONNA EVERHART

Set in North Carolina in 1960 and brimming with authenticity and grit, The Moonshiner’s Daughter evokes the singular life of sixteen-year-old Jessie Sasser, a young woman determined to escape her family’s past . . .
Generations of Sassers have made moonshine in the Brushy Mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina. Their history is recorded in a leather-bound journal that belongs to Jessie Sasser’s daddy, but Jessie wants no part of it. As far as she’s concerned, moonshine caused her mother’s death a dozen years ago.

Her father refuses to speak about her mama, or about the day she died. But Jessie has a gnawing hunger for the truth—one that compels her to seek comfort in food. Yet all her self-destructive behavior seems to do is feed what her school’s gruff but compassionate nurse describes as the “monster” inside Jessie.

Resenting her father’s insistence that moonshining runs in her veins, Jessie makes a plan to destroy the stills, using their neighbors as scapegoats. Instead, her scheme escalates an old rivalry and reveals
long-held grudges. As she endeavors to right wrongs old and new, Jessie’s loyalties will bring her to unexpected revelations about her family, her strengths—and a legacy that may provide her with the answers she has been longing for.


THOUGHTS/REVIEW:


This is an amazing story set in North Carolina 1960, where a young woman is navigating the loss of her mother, and torn between the morality of her family’s legacy and the money they earn that puts food on their table. When she was only four years old, Jessie Sasser witnessed the death of her mother, burning alive from what she understands to be caused by their family’s Moonshine business. Her father refuses to talk about it.

Her father is convinced that moonshining runs in their blood as they are well known in those parts to having the best moonshine. Jessie would not have anything to do with the money they earn - refusing to eat or even buying much needed clothes! Determined to destroy the stills, her plans backfire when old rivalry escalates.

This is the first book I have read from Donna Everhart and what a great experience it was to read her amazing and unique characters full of grit, passion and strength.

The writing is solid and the plot kept my interest and fingers turning those pages. It was an entertaining read for me that I really enjoyed!


AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:

Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author who writes stories of family hardship and troubled times in a bygone south. Her debut, THE EDUCATION OF DIXIE DUPREE was an IndieNext Pick, Business Insider's Pick, Library Journal Top Pick, and long listed for the Southern Book Prize. Her second novel, THE ROAD TO BITTERSWEET was a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Okra Pick. She is the Southeastern Library Association's (SELA) Author of the Year in Fiction for 2018.

A native of North Carolina, she resides in her home state with her husband and their tiny heart stealing Yorkshire terrier, Mister.

Readers can also visit her at www.donnaeverhart.com.