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  • Location: Barbados, Bath, Bristol

Daughter of Destiny

Daughter of Destiny

Why a Booktrail?

1818:  A female slave is made pregnant by the son of a plantation owner.

  • ISBN: B0794NZZBF
  • Genre: Historical, Sagas

What you need to know before your trail

On a balmy night in Barbados, a female slave is made pregnant by the son of a plantation owner. The child, Blanche, comes of age but is left alone in the world when her mother dies. She is certain that Otis Strong, one of the plantation owner’s sons, is her father. He makes arrangements for Blanche to sail to Bristol where she will be taken in by his brother. Blanche sees it as a chance to learn the truth about her parentage and to reconnect with Nelson Strong, who she believes to be a cousin but with whom she is infatuated.

Upon arrival in England, Blanche is shocked to learn she’ll be treated as a servant. It is only Tom Strong, another ward of the family, who treats her as anything other. As Blanche gets closer to finding out the truth about her birth, she discovers there are some secrets that should remain untold…

Travel Guide

Barbados

A sunny, hot sticky place where the Strong family plantation house is. This is the place where white people own the land and the houses and the black slaves have to do what they are told. The opening chapter shows just what they have to do and the consequences of not obeying and more importantly, obeying.

Black women are expected to entertain white men. The Riverhead plantation is like many others in the region where sugar is money and the future and anything else doesn’t seem to matter. Bridgetown is the major city where Viola and the women go shopping but this is described as having a stench to it. The stench is made up of the smell of animals, overripe fruit and fish sizzling in ramshackle brazziers ( the later actually sounds quite nice but still)

It’s a hard place to live for a woman and when Blanche is set to England, things take a very difficult turn.

England

Sent to  Bristol and the Marstone Court home of the Strong family, this is the location where the sugar owners and  businessmen ply their trade. The waterways and harbour are doing  roaring trade here. The women go and feed the children who try and make a living on the dirty docks. There are several inns along the waterway such as the Hole and the Wall, Shakespeare and Radcliffe Wharf.

The Merchant Seaman Apprenticeship shop which features in the novel is also located here.

The author says: The tall ships are long gone from the city centre except during the Festival of the Sea which occurs in the summer when sailing ships from all over the world sail into what’s left of the old port. Brunel’s SS Great Britain is also docked in one facet that remains of the older part of the port. I based Marstone Court, the Strong’s mansion on Ashton Court which was once the home of the Smythe family who did indeed own sugar plantations in the West Indies. It is, like the Strong mansion, within sight of the Avon Gorge, though in their day Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge had not been built.

 

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

What a twisted web some people weave! The first chapter is dark and disturbing and sets the scene for the rest of the novel. The catalyst of what happens to one woman shows how society treats all women at that time and it’s very sad and tragic to read. I can’t say I liked any of the Strong family at this point.
But then the story takes us to Bristol where the family have a rich home and are based and the story takes on even more twists and turns than you might imagine. The themes in this novel are quite dark and unsettling but this first novel is the first of a trilogy so there’s going to be some unraveling and more twists.
The destinations are evoked in style  but I have to admit I wanted to stay a bit more in  Barbados and get some justice for the women there. It was nice to be in Bristol to find out about the sugar and shipping industry instead of London. More scene setting to come I hope
I will be coming back for parts two and three!

Booktrail Boarding Pass:  Daughter of Destiny

Destination: Barbados, Bristol, Bath  Author/Guide:  Erica Brown Departure Time: 1888

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