3.5
All We Were Promised
ByPublisher Description
A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia—“a gripping novel about standing up to impossible odds” (People, Best New Books)
The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this “beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom” (Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends).
BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, She Reads
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 reappears: 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.
The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this “beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom” (Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends).
BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, She Reads
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 reappears: 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.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities515 Reviews
3.5
Quinn R
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AngelaPatrice
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“This was a very engrossing novel. I was so invested in these women and what their futures would look like. The writing really transported me to that time and place. I was especially compelled by the setting - Philadelphia. I think so much of the pre-Civil War historical fiction I read is set in the South, and the North is positioned as the more progressive, forward-thinking region. This was a setting I haven’t seen before and it was truly eye-opening. The loopholes that kept people enslaved, despite residing in a free state, and the lengths white people went to keep people enslaved are infuriating, yet not surprising. I look forward to reading this author again. Excellent debut!”
Ashley Norman
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Bri Ulery
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The Burrow
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About Ashton Lattimore
Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning journalist and a former lawyer. She is the editor-in-chief at Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, and her nonfiction writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, CNN, and Essence. Lattimore is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Journalism School. She grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband and their two sons. All We Were Promised is her first novel.
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