Under the Magnolias
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4.6 • 76 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
2022 Christy Award finalist!
This night not only marked the end to the drought, but also the end to the long-held secret we’d kept hidden under the magnolias.
Magnolia, South Carolina, 1980
Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness.
Scratching out a living on the family’s tobacco farm is as tough as it gets. When a few random acts of kindness help to ease the Fosters’ hardships, Austin finds herself relying upon some of Magnolia’s most colorful citizens for friendship and more. But it’s next to impossible to hide the truth about the goings-on at Nolia Farms, and Austin’s desperate attempts to save face all but break her.
Just when it seems she might have something more waiting for her―with the son of a wealthy local family who she’s crushed on for years―her father makes a choice that will crack wide-open the family’s secrets and lead to a public reckoning. There are consequences for loving a boy like Vance Cumberland, but there is also freedom in the truth.
Weaving together themes of hope, grief, mental health, and faith into a beautiful and moving novel, Under the Magnolias features:
• Clean Christian romance
• A resilient Southern heroine
• Discussion questions for book clubs
• A playlist inspired by the book
T. I. Lowe’s gritty yet tender and uplifting coming-of-age tale reminds us that a great story can break your heart . . . then heal it in the best possible way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lowe (Beach Haven) delivers a powerful coming-of-age story set on a Magnolia, S.C., tobacco farm in the 1980s. After 13-year-old Austin Foster's mother dies, her father, David, teeters between lucidity and episodes of rage and hostility, leaving Austin to run the farm and take charge of her six younger siblings. David also pastors a small group of misfits in the small chapel on his nearby property. Known as the First Riffraff of Magnolia, the congregation consists of a Holocaust survivor, a tight-lipped African American couple, the local mortician, an exonerated ex-convict, and a flamboyant hairdresser. After Austin's father is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she spends a difficult seven years trying to hold her family together. Then Vance Cumberland, the mayor's son, takes a romantic interest in her. Despite a mutual attraction, Austin's fear that her father's mental illness will be exposed causes her to shy away. But then David publicly attempts to kill himself, prompting Austin to accept help from the community of Magnolia. The many colorful Magnolia characters, particularly the eccentrics of First Riffraff, rise to support Austin and nicely round out the slow-burning romance. Lowe's fans will be thrilled.
Customer Reviews
Heartbreakingly beautiful story
My emotions ran the gamut as I read this story. I was grieved, angry, joyful, hopeful… it will reach out and grab you by the heart! I loved it.
Under the Magnolias
Juvenile writing with a simple plot more appropriate for young adult readers. Tries hard to be timely and relevant addressing questions of mental illness, physical disability, the holocaust, racism, and other many issues. But, without adequate research or understanding does a disservice to these issue.