Gina’s Review: Balm by Dolen Perkinds-Valdez

Balm
written by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
published by Amistad Press, 2015

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: This was definitely not one of my favorite books. I don’t know if the author was trying to make the characters unlikeable, but I didn’t like any of them. I thought the story started promising but in the end was too depressing and fell flat. I was bored and ended up just skimming to try and finish it. I had high hopes for this book, but it didn’t leave me feeling much of anything.

 

Would I recommend it: Not particularly.

About the book – from Goodreads: The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life.

Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others’ suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and help those in need, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child.

Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift.

Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.

In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught up in a desperate, unexpected battle for survival in a community desperate to lay the pain of the past to rest.

Beautiful in its historical atmosphere and emotional depth, Balm is a stirring novel of love, loss, hope, and reconciliation set during one of the most critical periods in American history.