ARC Review: “All We Were Promised” by Ashton Lattimore

“All We Were Promised” by Ashton Lattimore

Publishing Date: April 6, 2024

Genre: Historical Fiction

Page Length: 352 pages (electronic review edition)

Synopsis:

The paths of three young Black women in pre-Civil War Philadelphia unexpectedly—and dangerously—collide in this debut novel inspired by the explosive history of a divided city.

Philadelphia, 1837 . After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.

Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.

Review:

All We Were Promised is a riveting historical fiction novel by Lattimore that is told through multiple point-of-views. The story follows Evie, Nell, and Charlotte as their lives intertwine in 1830s Philadelphia. The novel showcases the wide juxtaposition between the free and enslaved community as well as Abolitionists fighting for Civil Rights. I felt the alternating viewpoints gave readers a deeper insight into the characters and their backgrounds and how different their lives are from each other. Each character Is very vulnerable but also confident wanting to write the wrongs of their past and to help others. Nell especially sticks her neck out to help those even though it is frowned upon by the high society background that she comes from.

This novel is not about only powerful women but also gives a history lesson about America and what it was like, especially for Black women in this era. and. At times the novel is incredibly emotional and hard to read. The author does not shy away from many of the sad historical truths that played out in American history while some of the characters are based on real-life people in history (ex. Hetty Reckless was one of the Black founding members of the real-life Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society). I appreciated how the novel focuses on the early activism aspects of Philadelphia and learning about the Black women and men who were involved in the early abolitionist movement of this time which I knew had Some knowledge of but learned a lot more after reading this book.

This novel also presents such powerful and inspiring female characters that the reader can admire and root for but even toward the end of the story you know that there is more work to be done and that there is no shining away from the harsh reality of their lives. I think many readers will be able to take away a lot of lessons from this book as well as learn more about history that they weren’t already familiar with. I think that will inspire them to research this topic more as it did for me.

I enjoyed reading this novel from beginning to end and Latimore’s writing is lyrical, and powerful, and keeps the reading engaged constantly with the narrative of the novel’s three main characters. I hope to read more novels from this author in the future and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys delving into the history historical fiction genre.

Final Verdict: