by Bret Lott
First published 2011
Jewel lives in the Mississippi backwoods with her husband Leston and their five children. The land blooms with honeysuckle and grapevine around their home. In 1943, Jewel welcomes her newest daughter, Brenda Kay, grateful for what appears to be a healthy baby. She considers this last child a blessing, the completion of their family. But life shifts without warning. A single moment transforms everything Jewel thought she knew about motherhood and her future. Brenda Kay becomes both challenge and gift, testing Jewel's strength while revealing depths of love she never imagined possible. Jewel must navigate the demands of caring for a child who needs her in ways her other children never did. The bond between mother and daughter intensifies as Jewel discovers that devotion takes forms she never expected. She finds herself walking a path she never chose, guided by instincts she never knew she possessed. Brenda Kay reshapes not just Jewel's daily life but her understanding of what it means to be chosen for something greater than herself.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: chosen-one, found-family
Setting: Mississippi
Period: 1943
370 pages · Kindle Edition · Washington Square Press