Title: Our Kept Hearts by Tennille Marie

Pages: 354

Genre: historical fiction, coming-of-age

Publisher: Purple Iris Printing LLC (Nov. 2, 2023)

Summary

A heart-warming coming-of-age debut novel where sisters learn that even motherless daughters must grow up and become women one day.

Arkansas, 1953. Nine-year-old Hazel McKay knows little girls need a mother. So, when her mother decides to leave her and her little sister, Ruthie, without any reason except she wants more, Hazel feels like her life is falling apart. With their father working out of town most days, Hazel and Ruthie are left on their own in the little house in the middle of the woods, where they find more than just animals and birds hiding in the forest.

Meanwhile, not far away, ten-year-old Joel lives with his alcoholic father. Caught in a struggle to survive his father’s volatile nature and the desire to satisfy his curiosity about the little girls that live in the house in the woods, Joel finds a world of friendship and love he never knew existed.

Together, the three encounter school dances, heartbreaks, first loves, and a world turned upside down by the threat of nuclear war. With a new beginning on the horizon, Hazel, Ruthie, and Joel find their happiness is in jeopardy when tragedy strikes, and they are forced to make a choice. Bury a secret so deep no one will ever know the truth or lose everything they hold dear.

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*I received a gifted copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own!*

This was such a heartwarming story! Set in the 1950’s in a small, Arkansas town, Our Kept Hearts follows the lives of two sisters, Ruthie and Hazel, as well as a boy named Joel, and the struggles they face and how their lives intertwine.

This book kept me hooked all the way to the end, and was just very readable to me. While there were a few parts that felt a little slow, I really did enjoy this one. I loved watching Ruthie, Hazel, and Joel grow up throughout this novel and overcome the struggles they faced in their lives.

I would recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, coming-of-age stories.

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