Relentless:
A Family's Struggle to Survive
About the Book
Deep South. North Carolina. 1861. Lies, hate, biases, cruelty, deception, fraud, frustrations and murders abound as a slave family struggles to escape to freedom and a Jewish Lawyer and unhappily married white southern belle navigate a 200-member plantation. Old Grand Papa Pete determined to be free, help his grandsons come of age as he prepares them to survive and escape bondage. Unexpected news interrupts his plan to escape from Round Pond plantation. Suddenly his life and wellbeing of his family depends on his wits and ability to manipulate whites around him as it becomes intertwined with the problems of the southern belle, Eva, whom he despises. Eva who has always regretted marrying her poor, cruel, dumb, socialite husband, feeling that she traded her money for his name. But the Smith name was not worth her humiliation and disgrace. Now that he is missing. Her humiliation has furthered into desperation, cruelty and mental instability when the plantation that she's known all her life is ordered to be auction in order to pay her husband's gambling debts. Pete races to escape to freedom before he and his family is sold. Desperate to save her home Eva summons the only two people she can turn to: Old Grand Papa Pete, the slave she mistreats and has a secret of his own and John Francis Bernard Kaufman, the man she betrayed.
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Review
As an extraordinarily generous, intelligent, and compassionate African American woman, she is a gift-giver who keeps on giving.
Her most recent gift, Relentless; a well-written, well-researched, and inspirational novel about a struggling family during very trying times, is something that family and friends should share; just as I did when I ordered a copy for my thirteen-year-old granddaughter.
In her well-researched and well-written novel Dr. Johnson takes the reader on an exciting, fast-moving, and fascinating journey of joy and pain that you dare not miss if you want to fully experience the joys and pain of being human.
Reminiscent of Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage, Relentless blends a deep understanding of the human condition with a style that is easy to read and is clear as a bell; with an attention to details that is striking. In the tradition of an expression that is now popular among African American women, Dr. Johnson “keeps it moving” in short and crisp chapters that provide rich and colorful images of characters that are impossible not to care to love or hate.
Reviews
This HAS to be the 1st book of a series!! I simply cannot allow this to be the end!
I was gifted this book and read it in hours. I could not put it down. Relentless reads like a true story and pulls you in with its vivid imagery, making you feel like you a literally a fly on the wall.
Relentless is not just a story about a salves and plantation owners. It's for anyone who has felt or feels trapped by life and needs to be reminded of you they are and the refreshing power and hope that comes if we just believe that trouble don't last always.
Helen F. Johnson has written an OUTSTANDING piece that is sure to leave you dreaming, salivating for more!
This book is a page turner and well written. The characters just pop out at you. You will love Grand Papa Pete, William, Daniel, Mama Emma, Aunt Sarah, Jenny, Mrs. Burks and Carolyn. They know they must work together to survive and do it in the most unconventional ways. Mrs. Eva and her husband Mr. Ed Smith are plantation owners will pay a price for their long mistreatment of their slaves. Mrs. Eva is evil to core. Mrs. Eva is being forced to sell the plantation believing she is paying of a gambling debt that her husband created on his way to new Orleans to marry another woman. NOT SO!!!!!!! This writer gives this book a TWIST because the slaves can read and plot against Mrs. Eva. They spy, listen in and plot to survive. Can't
wait to see what this writer is whipping up next.
About the Author
Dr. Helen Fleming Johnson is a former middle school principal. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View, Texas and The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She has completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard University. Helen lives in Lilburn, GA.