Appalachian Journey Series | Brown Mountain Lights Series - by CC Tillery
Appalachian Journey Series
Whistling Woman
Whistling Woman - 2013 Finalist, Best of the Independent eBook Awards, Best Literary Fiction and Best General Fiction (Mainstream Fiction); Runner-up, 2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition Award.
In the waning years of the 19th century, Bessie Daniels grows up in Hot Springs, North Carolina. Secure in the love of her father and resistant to her mother’s desire that she be a proper Southern belle, Bessie is determined to forge her own way in life. Or, as her Cherokee great-grandmother Elisi puts it, be a whistling woman.
Life, however, has a few surprises for Bessie. First, her father carries home a dead man, which seems to invite Death for an extended visit in their home. And shortly before Bessie graduates from Dorland Institute, there’s another death, this one closer to her heart. But Death isn’t through with her yet. Proving another of Elisi’s sayings, death comes in three and strikes again, taking someone Bessie has recently learned to appreciate and cherish, leaving her to struggle with a family that’s threatening to come apart at the seams.
Even her beloved Papa seems to be turning into another person, someone Bessie disagrees with more often than not, and someone she isn’t even sure she can continue to love, much less idolize as she had during her childhood. But when her father makes a decision that costs the life of a new friend, the course of Bessie’s heart is changed forever.
When Bessie falls in love with Fletcher Elliott, a man her father does not approve of, she must make the decision whether to marry Fletcher and move with him to Stone Mountain, North Carolina, or abide by her father’s wants and remain in Hot Springs with her family.
In the waning years of the 19th century, Bessie Daniels grows up in Hot Springs, North Carolina. Secure in the love of her father and resistant to her mother’s desire that she be a proper Southern belle, Bessie is determined to forge her own way in life. Or, as her Cherokee great-grandmother Elisi puts it, be a whistling woman.
Life, however, has a few surprises for Bessie. First, her father carries home a dead man, which seems to invite Death for an extended visit in their home. And shortly before Bessie graduates from Dorland Institute, there’s another death, this one closer to her heart. But Death isn’t through with her yet. Proving another of Elisi’s sayings, death comes in three and strikes again, taking someone Bessie has recently learned to appreciate and cherish, leaving her to struggle with a family that’s threatening to come apart at the seams.
Even her beloved Papa seems to be turning into another person, someone Bessie disagrees with more often than not, and someone she isn’t even sure she can continue to love, much less idolize as she had during her childhood. But when her father makes a decision that costs the life of a new friend, the course of Bessie’s heart is changed forever.
When Bessie falls in love with Fletcher Elliott, a man her father does not approve of, she must make the decision whether to marry Fletcher and move with him to Stone Mountain, North Carolina, or abide by her father’s wants and remain in Hot Springs with her family.