Trouble the Water by Jacqueline Friedland

Abigail Milton was born into the British middle class, but her family has landed in unthinkable debt. To ease their burdens, Abby’s parents send her to America to live off the charity of their old friend, Douglas Elling. When she arrives in Charleston at the age of seventeen, Abigail discovers that the man her parents raved about is a disagreeable widower who wants little to do with her. To her relief, he relegates her care to a governess, leaving her to settle into his enormous estate with little interference. But just as she begins to grow comfortable in her new life, she overhears her benefactor planning the escape of a local slave—and suddenly, everything she thought she knew about Douglas Elling is turned on its head.

Abby’s attempts to learn more about Douglas and his involvement in abolition initiate a circuitous dance of secrets and trust. As Abby and Douglas each attempt to manage their complicated interior lives, readers can’t help but hope that their meandering will lead them straight to each other. Set against the vivid backdrop of Charleston twenty years before the Civil War, Trouble the Water is a captivating tale replete with authentic details about Charleston’s aristocratic planter class, American slavery, and the Underground Railroad.

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About The Author

Jacqueline Friedland holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from NYU Law School. She practiced as an attorney in New York before returning to school to receive her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New York with her husband, four children, and a couple of crazy dogs.

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My Review

Most of this book takes place in the 1840’s in Charleston South Carolina and we meet slavery head on, but there are so many other stories going on here, a bit of romance, unrequited love, jealousy, abuse, and more.
The author has given us a man who has suffered greatly from the hate of others, and we find him rebounding back to life, and then it seems to be snatched away from him.
There is also a young woman who is sent to live from England to an unknown place in South Carolina, she goes away from her family in hopes that life will be easier for them, but there is another reason she leaves.
You will need tissues handy when you get to the epilogue, has a happy, but very sad ending. This is a compelling page-turner, and you won’t be able to leave it until you have all of the answers.

I received this book through the Publisher SparkPress, and was not required to give a positive review.