The Kitchen House

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Our main concern will never be making ourselves available to greet customers visting our showroom because in reality our time is best spent ensuring the clients we have are happy and that the projects run smoothly. Our client's projects almost become a real-life showroom and portfolio for us. Whenever Belle baked a molasses cake, I craved a taste. I did try several old recipes that I found, but I was unsatisfied with the results. So, using the old recipes as a baseline, my daughter, Erin, and I created our own version of a simple yet moist and tasty molasses cake. I am happy to share it with the readers. Evenin’, Dory.” The man’s voice was so deep, he might have been underground, and when he paused by baby Henry’s mama, his large hand covered the top of her head. “How your lil one doin’?” I had sorted this book as literature on my shelf well it is definitely not literature but more cheap sensational stuff based on stereotypes.

If you like historical fiction, excellent writing, beautifully developed characters, and plotlines we haven’t all read a million times before (um, who doesn’t?), The Kitchen House is one of the best recs I can make. Lavinia’s story is fresh and fascinating and sometimes distressing. I found it impossible not to sympathize with her plight. Grissom’s characters are complex; disturbingly well-rounded, to the point that I found myself understanding–if not agreeing with–the antagonists in the story. For me, that’s a sign of profoundly great writing. The novel grapples with themes of race, birthright, love and slavery, and handles them all with grace. this book was okay, it was interesting but also too depressing or at least trying to be. I liked the overall story but it didn't mean anything to me. I honestly just expected people to die at any given moment at one point. One would think I'd get lots of feelings from that... I didn't. It's like watching a sad movie and knowing you should be affected but you just can't. While I felt sympathetic towards the character, that was pretty much it.

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An amazing first novel! I rarely hand out 5 stars for a debut novel but this one certainly deserves it. The narration was good and the book was easy to follow. If you're into audiobooks and wondering about this book, then I say go for it. A different narrator read Belle's pov so it was pretty easy to distinguish it from Lavinia's (even if it was a lot less). Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food, while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family.

Belle said, “She comes down after him this time. She never do that before. And Marshall, he comes with her. When she sees the new comb and the book he gives me, she takes them up and throws them at me. That starts Marshall pushing and hitting on me. The cap’n grabs him and sends him out the door, but then Miss Martha starts crying and hitting on him. He says, ‘Martha, Martha, get ahold of yourself,’ but she’s so worked up, he tells me to go get Mama.” Belle put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands. What wonderful escapism this novel was and a reminder what great joy books bring to readers now more than ever. Belle, you ever think maybe when I first find out they movin’ you to the kitchen house, I think that way ’bout you?”THE KITCHEN HOUSE by KATHLEEN GRISSOM is a very touching, powerful, gripping, heart-wrenching, and a beautifully written Historical Fiction novel which is set on a plantation in the antebellum South that grabbed my listening ears right from the very first chapter.