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A review by divineblkpearl
Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
5.0
My FAVORITE Beverly Jenkins book! I finished it in three sittings. If you're a fan of the romance genre and of seeing black folk in love in historical settings, you should check out Beverly's work.
This particular work was more interesting because the heroine Eddy is one of my favorites of her books. The circumstances she finds herself in :being robbed and swindled and like all the black women I know in my family rising back up the occasion and dealing with life and making a way. Eddy is headstrong and a hard worker. She's a dreamer and not easily wooed.
And the love interest, Rhine? Actually a son of a African slave woman her slave master. (I know, I know but bear with me) He's a biracial person who is passing for white, looking for his also sister, Sable who is of the same parentage. He's a man of wealth who supports the Black ("Colored") community in his town and baffles the white side of town but they have no say so on where he puts his money.
It's a great analysis of not only what a black woman would be thinking of, traveling to and working as (occupation wise) at this point of history in time in the late 1870s. It's a portrait of a women born of two freed slaves and what her hopes and dreams would be. It's a reveal of a woman who had to earn her own and support a sibling at the previous age of 12.
It's also a great analysis of a biracial person living in this time period. While not Beverly's first biracial fictional character, Rhine passes for white and learns to navigate society using his white privilege. The turning point in the novel where he fully embraced his blackness is a interesting one and an eye opener on white society treats you once leaned that you are in fact, not a white man.
Overall, this novel felt genuine to me. Eddy was a very cautious Black woman because as she knew what even the gossip about her and a white man could mean. Eddy always worked for her own and didn't wait for others to get the job done.
Whether or not you like Rhine, he's a man who never forgot about black people in general (going forth to buy land and help jumpstart black businesses in town because he knew they weren't going to get help and 2) did his best to protect Eddy (well...mostly)
This particular work was more interesting because the heroine Eddy is one of my favorites of her books. The circumstances she finds herself in :being robbed and swindled and like all the black women I know in my family rising back up the occasion and dealing with life and making a way. Eddy is headstrong and a hard worker. She's a dreamer and not easily wooed.
And the love interest, Rhine? Actually a son of a African slave woman her slave master. (I know, I know but bear with me) He's a biracial person who is passing for white, looking for his also sister, Sable who is of the same parentage. He's a man of wealth who supports the Black ("Colored") community in his town and baffles the white side of town but they have no say so on where he puts his money.
It's a great analysis of not only what a black woman would be thinking of, traveling to and working as (occupation wise) at this point of history in time in the late 1870s. It's a portrait of a women born of two freed slaves and what her hopes and dreams would be. It's a reveal of a woman who had to earn her own and support a sibling at the previous age of 12.
It's also a great analysis of a biracial person living in this time period. While not Beverly's first biracial fictional character, Rhine passes for white and learns to navigate society using his white privilege. The turning point in the novel where he fully embraced his blackness is a interesting one and an eye opener on white society treats you once leaned that you are in fact, not a white man.
Overall, this novel felt genuine to me. Eddy was a very cautious Black woman because as she knew what even the gossip about her and a white man could mean. Eddy always worked for her own and didn't wait for others to get the job done.
Whether or not you like Rhine, he's a man who never forgot about black people in general (going forth to buy land and help jumpstart black businesses in town because he knew they weren't going to get help and 2) did his best to protect Eddy (well...mostly)