A powerful read which follows the lives of four generations of Black American women. It was challenging for me and gave me much to think about but it was not an easy read and I found the style of writing difficult to get to grips with and to follow what was happening. I ended up not
finishing this book as it wasn’t really the type of family saga I had been hoping for.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book.

One Daughter, two mothers, is blood thicker than water? A thought provoking book, its great, recommended.

This was a slow starter but once it got going I was hooked.

Centered around the lives of three black women, linked by family. We start with Grace growing up in the Jim Crow era South, then move to Dolores, and eventually to Ray.

This is a hard-hitting read. Millner covers topics of racism, rape, adoption, abortion, infidelity and more.

This is a generational tale focusing on the resilience and strength of black women and how they may struggle to not pass on their trauma but also show their strengths.

Not always the easiest of reads but is worth it.

An intensely moving and at times very emotional read for me. I could really empathise and put myself in the protagonists shoes, It must be a constant weight on the mind of an adoptee - where they come from, who their biological parents are and why did they abandon them or in many cases chose to give them up to a better life.
So glad I got the opportunity to read this book and I am really excited to read more like it from the same author but also it has opened a curiosity in me to want to find out more about adoption from the eyes of those that have experienced it. Overall this is a story about the power of love, determination, and lived experiences being passed on to the next generation. I give this 10 out of 10

A beautiful moving story following three generations of women, told from all three's point of views. One Blood is a powerful, emotional and heartbreaking read, a story that is sure to stay with you long after you finish reading.

"One Blood" by Denene Millner is an emotionally charged family saga that delves deep into the complexities of identity, race, and heritage. Millner's storytelling is powerful, offering a thought-provoking exploration of the African American experience. The characters' struggles and triumphs are relatable and moving, revealing the resilience of the human spirit. As the narrative unfolds, it becomes a poignant reminder of the importance of unity, understanding, and the bonds that connect us all. "One Blood" is a compelling and heartfelt journey through generations of history and heritage.

Black female stories in the south, Miler explores the heavily racist and deeply patriarchal Deep South, but following four generations of women and their lives.

Incredibly well written, this is gorgeous.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and of course the author for gifting me this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

What an incredible and moving book - it will definitely stay with me for a long time. Full of emotions that have you on your rollercoaster throughout filled with love, heartbreak, tears, power and it is so beautifully told.

I always enjoy stories following generations of a family, especially mother-daughter stories, and I really appreciated the twist on this with the two mothers.

This book follows 3 women in the same blood line starting from the Jim Crow South in the era of segregation. We first meet Grace, who was a teen when her mother was killed by a her abusive boyfriend. Her grandmother also went to jail before her mother was laid to rest due to assisting a white couple with the birth of their child, only to fine out the child was the result of an affair with a black man. She is sent to live with her aunt in NY. Grace’s grandmother adored her, but her aunt was not happy that Grace ended up on her doorstep. Grace becomes pregnant and her baby is taken away from her.

The following generations also deal with emotional pain in their lives. Grace’s daughter, Rae, is adopted by a woman who can’t have children and not connected to being a mother at all. While Rae’s adoptive mother was rough growing up, their relationship changed once Rae became a mother herself. It was interesting watching relationship become closer once Rae was grown and had her own child.

I appreciated hearing the perspective of the Civil Rights movement riots from some of the black middle class in the north. This book covers many themes including racism, domestic violence, murder of black children (if child is by white women who are unfaithful with black men), rioting, adoption, among others.

I recommend this book but you will taken on quite an emotional ride with these characters. I personally became invested in the characters. I didn’t like feeling I was left hanging on fate of some of the characters. Other than that I really enjoyed the book.

Each of the 3 books follows the story of a black girl/woman through defining moments in their lives. Set over 3 generations the book deals with core themes of misogynoir, the legacy of slavery in Black communities and the touch of Jim Crow throughout the whole of America. The book also addresses the resilience Black women have to have because the world has decided to pour its trauma on to them and they have to take it or die. The book also explores the impact of this as it’s passed down through maternal lines.

This appears to be the authors first solo novel and what a novel it is! At times it was hard to breathe because of the content packed in from start to finish. This isn’t just a novel it’s an epic! You don’t just get insights into the 3 main characters but get great characterisation of countless others. At times this book is heavy with the weight of the trauma - it’s definitely not a binge read. I had to sit with some of the plot and process it but at the end I was left wanting more from Denene and will read whatever she writes next!

This one took me a while to pick but once i did i regretted leaving it so long.
I adored this novel and it really made me take time to think more about the subject.

Historical stories are not normally my choice, but I was intrigued with this book as it seemed more of a cultural understanding that needed to be read. It was quite shocking to read how awfully people have been treated in the past and probably to that extent even now, just because they have been deemed different due to skin colour. To be honest I wanted to continue to read to the end, but it made me feel sick knowing that there’s a lot of truth behind the story, to the point that I couldn’t continue. A brave and necessary book.

This a story about Grace. Grace lived in racially tense Virginia with her Grandmother, a 'Granny Midwife', unti, as a young teenager, she was sent to live with her Aunt in the North. Her Aunt is not kind, and betrays Grace in a terrible way.
This is a story about LoLo. LoLo lost her Mum when she was young, and her father left her in the family home to die. Unspeakable things happened to LoLo, that went on to shape the course of her life.
This is a story about Rae. Rae was adopted. Her father was kind, gentle, and loving. Her Mother hard, quick with her hands, and unable to outwardly show love..'Rae saw a simple, simple Woman who had survived an extraordinary sad, complicated life'...A beautifully composed tale

This is a character driven novel following the generations of a black family living in the south. I really liked how deep the book goes in terms of history, family, characterisation and what it means to be a woman.
I liked the language and the southern drawl throughout the writing. The book discusses huge topics such as racism, religion, infidelity, adoption and what family/blood really means.
I loved the food descriptions - they actually made my tummy rumble. The overall theme I took away from this is about what's it like being a woman, daughter, mother and still trying to figure a way to do what's right for you and not always everyone else.
I really enjoyed getting to know each of the main female characters Grace, Lola and Rae
'Ain't nobody playing small so somebody else can feel big - favourite line
I will be recommending to others and looking out for more from Denene

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A very powerful book, albeit a little confusing when trying to decipher each character's point of view. Nevertheless a most compelling read. Recommended.

This book lives up to its blurb. It is very well written and very powerful. It tells the story of three women and how their lives interrelate. The racism experienced by all the women makes uncomfortable reading but this is a story that needs telling.
It starts in segregated Virginia where Grace lives with her grandmother who she calls Maw Maw. She is a midwife but is treated by those who capture her as a witch. When her grandmother is imprisoned, the neighbours do little to help Grace who is sent to live with a social climbing aunt who treats her like a slave. When Grace falls pregnant, her baby is taken from her and left for adoption. I would like to have known more about what happened to Grace.
However, the book moves on to the story of Delores. Her story is told in flashbacks which help us to understand why she behaves as she does and why she cannot have children. She adopts Grace’s daughter Rae. She loves her but she is very strict often resorting to beating her daughter. She controls by fear.
The story is not just about racism but about violence against women. Both Delores and Rae have husbands but the role of a black woman is not an easy role. All these women have tough lives but are ultimately strong. Although we meet the men, the book centres around the women. Trauma goes down the generations but they learn to survive.
Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of a book that deserves to succeed.

I enjoyed the first part of this book about Grace, but the second part involving Rae I found over long and repetitive in places.
I kept hoping for a reunion of Grace and Rae but sadly this was not to be.

I will say that this is quite a difficult book to read: it has visceral portrayals of violence, including gender violence, race violence and child abuse. However, these things should be recorded, there is no suggestion on the marketing of the book that you are going to get an easy ride or a sanitised story, and Denene Miller is clearly a practised writer in whose hands we are safe. She really gets us into the detail of how Black people are set up to fail in both the American South and the North (the differences in demographics and the direct legacies of slavery making that different from the experiences in the UK in their origin, although many of the outcomes are similar in both countries).

Characters escape to the north, either travelling under their own steam or smuggled out, Grace having a particularly hard time of it when she loses her mother, her grandmother is arrested for hiding miscegenation and she's sent to an aunt in New York, only to become a sort of servant to her. Lolo is a wonderful strong character who has removed herself from a horrendous situation, again the link between parents and children being broken, and Rae takes the generations forward, again pondering what a good marriage and a good husband actually are. Lolo's group of women friends also offer us some alternative routes through relationships, especially when she's trapped in a sort of suburban 70s hellscape that I've only seen written about before in relation to White women. Millner resists tying up the ends neatly, for which I admire her: it's made clear at the end of the book that that is a decision based on her own experiences and it's probably more realistic.

Grace and Rae are linked by their special dreams and visions but Rae doesn't realise what they imply, and as we travel into the 21st century we see some gleams of hope and echoes of endurance, even when more hard decisions have to be made. The descriptions of violence and abuse in this book were at the edge of what I could bear, but I'm glad I helped bear witness through reading and sharing about this book to the legacies of slavery and racism in the US. I will definitely seek out more of this author's works, too.

My review on my blog will appear here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2023/08/26/book-review-denene-millner-one-blood/ on 26 August

Beautifully written emotional moving.A story of women told through their separate points of view their emotions.This is a special book that will stay with you even after you read the last page#netgalley #oneblood