March 1, 2023
Harrison (The Dust Bowl Orphans) crafts a stirring, pulse-pounding narrative mirroring the life of two women across centuries. Tessa Scott, voiced by Aure Nash, considers herself a modern woman devoted to her career ambitions, even as her boyfriend has become increasingly overbearing. When Tessa discovers a long-hidden diary at the ancestral home of her first love, she is plunged into the story of its courageous author. Tovah Ott provides the voice of Ona Judge, a young women enslaved in the household of General George Washington and his wife Martha. Nash's and Ott's narrations are admirably complementary, blending Tessa's modern vernacular and mannerisms with Ona's more formal and constrained speech. Ott portrays Ona's mounting realization of her subjugation with heartbreaking dread, making her flight to freedom even more enthralling. Nash's spirited Tessa echoes Ona's determination to create the future she knows she deserves. An author's note provides background on the life of the real Ona Judge. A handful of production and editing flubs don't keep this audio from being a likely crowd-pleaser. VERDICT Recommended for lovers of historical fiction with a commitment to depth and accuracy.--Natalie Marshall
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