Annie Laura’s Triumph
In Florida’s Panhandle, it’s 1915, and Annie Laura struggles to confront her past. Her firstborn, Viola Lee, was the product of rape, given up to a childless couple to raise in exchange for land. Now Viola Lee is about to be married, and Annie Laura wants to get to know her daughter. On the ferry to meet her, Annie Laura runs into Walter Blakeley, the man who raped her. He insinuates that Viola Lee’s fiancé, James, is also his child, which means she would be marrying her brother. While trying to discover the truth, Annie Laura must also deal with her husband Leonard’s fondness for the bottle and protect their children from his rages. As the wedding approaches, James does not return from a lumber camp where he was trying to earn some much-needed money. Annie Laura takes action, determined to protect Viola Lee.
My Florida relatives live in a city that didn’t exist before the 1970s, and when I visit them I get no sense of history in that area. So I was glad to read a book set in Florida that brings some of the history of the state to life. I hadn’t known about the dire conditions for men working in the lumber camps, for example, or what it was like to scratch out a living on a Florida farm.
This is a university press title, but the novel could have been published by a Christian fiction house, though the religious content is not heavy. Except for the villain, Blakeley, the characters are multi-dimensional, and Annie Laura as a heroine has strength of character while still being true to the period. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Florida history, and inspirational fiction fans will also enjoy it.
