Book Description:
When prestigious plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah—her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not a proper southern belle she appears to be with ambitions of loving who she chooses and Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape. Both women bring these tumultuous secrets and desires with them to their new home, igniting events that spiral into a tale beyond what you ever imagined possible and it will leave you enraptured until the very end.
Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, Marlen Suyapa Bodden’s The Wedding Gift is an intimate portrait that will leave readers breathless.
My Thoughts:
The Wedding Gift is historical fiction at it’s best. I love reading just about anything on the human condition, human rights abuse, and slavery, has always been a fascinating topic to me. I just can’t seem to get enough of it. No matter how much I read about it, I don’t get it and never will. How can one human being treat another like that because their skin tone is different?
The story opens with Cornelius Allen takes his new bride, Theodora on a tour of his plantation. When they are at the slave quarters, he gives the children candy and boosts about how well he treats his slaves. They get the afternoon Saturday through Sunday off to rest, have their own church, and he encourages them to marry.
Of course it is illegal for slaves to marry in the legal sense and his motive for encouraging marriage is far from pure. He want his slaves to produce more slaves.
Theodora soon has children, one of which is their daughter Clarissa. Around the same time one of the kitchen slaves, Emmeline gives birth to Sarah, also Cornelious’s daughter. Clarissa and Sarah play together and are like best friends. Sarah is groomed to become Clarissa’s maid and when Clarissa is married, Sarah is her wedding gift.
Clarissa’s marriage is not a happy one and Sarah gets wrapped up in it in more ways than one can count. Through all of this, Sarah has always dreamed of running away to freedom but the odds of getting away successfully are slim. She also has a husband to think about as well. There is so much to tell but I don’t want to risk spoilers. Just know that there are lots of surprises.
It is hard to believe that this is Marlen Suyapa Bodden’s first book. She writes with great comand and poetic pose. Her characters are fresh and well drawn out and she captures both the time and place beautifully. I did not want this book to end! Highly recommended!
5/5
I received a ebook copy of this book for my honest review.
About Marlen Suyapa Bodden: 
Dr. Marlen Suyapa Bodden is a lawyer at The Legal Aid Society in New York City, the nation’s oldest and largest legal services organization. She has more than two decades’ experience representing poor people and low-wage and immigrant workers, many of whom are severely underpaid, if paid at all.
She drew on her knowledge of modern and historical slavery, human trafficking, and human rights abuses to write The Wedding Gift, her first novel.
On May 20, 2012, the University of Rhode Island conferred on Marlen an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Marlen is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Tufts University.
Thanks to Staci Burt of Wunderkind PR, I am giving one print copy of this book away. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends on October 9, 2013
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