In What Passes as Love Trisha R Thomas has...so brilliantly...written a powerful, thought provoking, truly cinematic historical novel that will have you turning pages well into the wee hours of the morning. Her story is simply wonderful.
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The Secret Keeper of Main Street
“The newest novel by bestselling author Trisha R. Thomas (Nappily Ever After) is a spell-binding novel that encapsulates readers from the onslaught.” —-Essence
“Thomas explores themes of race, class, and gender in 1950s Oklahoma while still managing to craft a happy ending.”— Booklist
1954: In the quaint town of Mendol, Oklahoma, brides whisper that dressmaker Bailey Dowery can tell if their love is faithful and foresee the success of a marriage. Bailey possesses a unique gift inherited from her mother. Despite her aunt Charlene’s caution to avoid meddling in “White folks’ business,” she occasionally provides discreet readings during fittings at the Regal Gown shop. A mere graze of skin allows her fleeting glimpses into her clients’ hopes and dreams, and even their past and future. To shield herself from learning too much, she wears gloves as she pins them into their gowns.
Elsa Grimes is the least jubilant bride Bailey has ever encountered, although she hails from one of Oklahoma’s wealthiest oil families. Despite her impending grand society wedding, Elsa begs for Bailey’s assistance. She wants to know if the one she truly loves feels the same way, but what Bailey sees instead shocks her to her core. When a prominent family’s son is found dead on the eve of Elsa’s wedding and the bride-to-be is accused of murder, Bailey finds herself thrust into a storm that threatens not only her, but also everyone she holds dear.
The inspiration for writing The Secret Keeper
Historical Fiction
The most compelling Freedom story ever written with a voice of Love…..
A young woman pays a devastating price for freedom in this heartrending and breathtaking novel of the nineteenth-century South.
1850. I was six years old the day Lewis Holt came to take me away.
Born into slavery, Dahlia never knew her mother—or what happened to her. When Dahlia’s father, the owner of Vesterville plantation, takes her to work in his home as a servant, she’s desperately lonely. Forced to leave behind her best friend, Bo, she lives in a world between black and white, belonging to neither.
Ten years later, Dahlia meets Timothy Ross, an Englishman in need of a wife. Reinventing herself as Lily Dove, Dahlia allows Timothy to believe she’s white, with no family to speak of, and agrees to marry him. She knows the danger of being found out. She also knows she’ll never have this chance at freedom again.
Ensconced in the Ross mansion, Dahlia soon finds herself held captive in a different way—as the dutiful wife of a young man who has set his sights on a political future. But when Bo arrives on the estate in shackles, Dahlia decides to risk everything to save his life. With suspicions of her true identity growing and a bounty hunter not far behind, Dahlia must act fast or pay a devastating price.
“I saw this picture, of these young girls, in the Library of Congress and they immediately started to tell me their story….” Trisha R. Thomas
Praise for What Passes as Love
Kimberla Lawson Roby
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Kate Manning
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Trisha R. Thomas’s What Passes as Love is a fiery story of romance, resilience, and resistance, even amidst the evils of slavery. In antebellum Virginia, her daring heroine, Dahlia Holt, enslaved and yearning for liberty, exploits the ignorance and lies of her captors to protect herself and her beloved. Her weapons? Beauty and deception, education and daring. Dahlia’s dazzling escapes, her selfless passion, her dogged determination, and the risks she takes for love and freedom will keep readers turning pages in suspense.