Charles Markee's Book Review of:

Heart of Stones - a novel by Lanna Richards

Heart of Stones is the story of the Sullivans, a landed protestant Irish family set in the antebellum South. The family with children and grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Scottsville, Mississippi to escape the potato famine circa 1845. The story begins with the Sullivan family and their slaves on their plantation, Oak Hollow, working their sugar cane and corn through a dry spell.
The plantation and the South with its slave economy provide the backdrop for the primary story line which involves the four Sullivan children, Grace, Margaret, Matthew and Joseph as they evolve into young adults and encounter their first relationships.
The strength of this historical romance novel is the complexity of its plot that expertly weaves the lives of the characters and their interactions into the storyline. There is an appropriate amount of action, but the basic content is more intensely emotional than action oriented. The author cares about the characters and this caring reaches through the story to engage the reader.
The descriptions and scenes are well formulated and presented, some beautifully done. The novel has a nice balance between dialog and narrative and the dialog seems natural, flowing well between the characters and driving the story forward. I was particularly impressed with the dialect dialog used by the author to give us the flavor of the African Americans living on the plantations during the slave period.
The novel is overall well written, particularly in its narratives and descriptions of emotion. There is good detail about the furnishings and the clothing consistent with the antebellum period of the South. Ancillary details involving travel, farming, food preparation, ceremonies and relationships are both historically correct and consistent.
Progress through the story moves well. Difficulties for the Sullivans emerge in the beginning chapter. Later, as the deeper story unfolds and the young Sullivans evolve and move outside family boundaries more significant problems arise. The interaction between characters and crises is particularly well done. The emotional content builds toward the end of the novel and it becomes a real page-turner.
This was a good story and one that I enjoyed reading.