REVIEWS

Readers who enjoy historical women’s fiction, particularly stories where a woman goes against societal standards to forge her own path, will enjoy Kate’s Pride.
-- Nanette Donohue - The Historical Novel Society

"A powerful tale, vividly descriptive, about a strong woman confronted by difficult choices, and daunting repercussions." - Midwest Book Reviews

"In the post Civil War South, things are already tough all over, but they just got tougher for Kate. Abandoned by her family, taken in by a black family as a charity case, used as a courtesan by a many who threatens her life, Kate still manages to make a life for herself and her two children that will touch your heart." - Habitual Reader

From Lisa Guidarini at Bluestalking reader: "Left pregnant by her unscrupulous boyfriend in post-Civil War Tennessee, she had to deal with the prejudices of a very conservative rural southern area."

From Bonnie Lass at Coffee Time Romance - "Kate's Pride is a dramatic and poignant account similiar to Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. This is not a light or upbeat book, but rather a raw and emotionally gripping historical narrative of one woman's never ending struggle against a whole way of life and society."

KATE'S PRIDE takes place in McNairy County, Tennessee just after the end of the Civil War. Young Kate Randsome was raised to believe in Family, God and the South. But when she finds herself pregnant and unmarried at the end of the Civil War, she learns that sometimes what you've been taught to believe isn't what's real if you step outside the lines of acceptable behavior.

Abandoned by family, ostracized by the community that she grew up in, Kate struggles to build a life for herself and her unborn child. Kate's Pride is the story of her struggle and how she overcame the initial obstacles, only to discover more thrown in her path.

Kate's story is one of survival, overcoming the odds and taking what life throws at you and binding it into a life that might seem lacking from the outside, but is full of warmth and love on the inside.

KATE'S PRIDE grew from two different directions.

In the late eighties I got on a geneaology kick and began researching my own family history. After spending several years poring over dusty records in various history departments, city hall's and geneaological departments, I had to admit defeat on one branch of my family. I could go as far back as my Great Great Grandmother and no further. It seems she'd had a couple of illegitimate children and been disowned by her family. It drove me nuts not to be able to find out any additional information about her.

I'd wanted to be a writer since junior high school, along with my best friend, had written numerous short stories and poems up through high school, but then went to college and put aside those dreams. I didn't think I had what it took to be a published author.

As I became more and more frustrated with the whole family geneaology business, my husband suggested I write a novel. This was pretty ironic sinced I'd never mentioned my secret childhood dream to him. I gave it some thought and he prodded me some more and I decided to write a story.

KATE'S PRIDE is that story. It isn't the story of my Great Great Grandmother. I have no way to know what actually happened to her. This book is the story of what could have happened to a young woman in that time and place and under those circumstances. All of the characters are fictitious although McNairy County and the towns mentioned in the novel are real places.

I hope you fall in love with Kate who did what she thought was right and paid the price.

Renee Russell