I met this very young author at the Black Ink author festival in Charleston, SC last month, and after hearing her answers to some very excellent panel discussion questions, I put her book on hold at the public library. She says that her books are self published.
The setting and characters in her novel totally entranced me. "Romance" or "love story" are not genres that I read, but this book did not read like a formula novel (which is what I always think that the romance genre implies.)
The author is from a southern town about 30 miles from where I grew up, and the time settings are during my childhood, high school and college years. The 1950's, '60's and 70's were times of tremendous social changes in SC, to put it mildly. Her characters, black and white, reflect the social norms that were a part of my experience, although my family did not have a cook, and I did not have any opportunity to ever associate with Black children my age. I certainly recognize the ingrained racism of the white characters and their total lack of awareness of the experience of being Black in the South.
Her characters are not stereotypes, however. Benny's father is similar to my father, a man who knew that Blacks were not subordinate to whites, but felt confined by the social norms of the time to not make waves or upset the expected roles in their small towns. Benny's mother reminds me of my grandmother, whose opinions about race relations were in her bones. [Bless her heart! My grandmother was upset that I married a Catholic!] Benny's fraternity friends are as accurately portrayed as any I ever knew, with the horrible attitudes towards women and blacks that I remember - no exaggeration there.
The southern college that Coralee and Benny attended was far more integrated than any school I knew of in SC in 1968. Our high schools were NEARLY totally segregated then and it was not until about 1971 that there were Black students in any number in my high school. I personally knew two inter-racial couples who had to hide their relationship by having others pick them up and meeting up later to be together. In 1971, in my large SC city, crossing the color line was not done publicly.
Some may wonder if the "dialect" that the author puts into her characters mouths is accurate and I can say that it totally reads true to ear. Many Southerners, Black and white, will revert to colloquial language patterns with close friends and family.
As a "romance novel," it works. Very sweet, a little hot, and totally satisfying.

Good job, Savannah J. Frierson! I love seeing SC authors having a voice in today's publishing world. ( )