Michael Phillips, Never Too Late Review

Never Too Late

Michael Phillips

Bethany House, Jan 2007, $13.99

ISBN: 0764200437



Seffie was born a slave. At seven years old or about she is bought by Peter Mesiner as a companion to his sickly eight-year-old daughter Grace who suffers from the after effect of scarlet fever. Grace may now be blind and her heart very weak, but she loves to read so Peter buys Seffie and takes her to his Louisiana home. Life seems good to Seffie who learns to read and even to speak French, but as before when she and her brother were accused of arson by their previous owner who sold them to punish them by separating them from their mother, life intercedes and she is gone again.



In 1869 in Greens Crossing, North Carolina the Ku Klux Klan secret men's vigilante club set afire the home of free Blackman Henry Paterson for no apparent reason except the color of his skin. He and Seffie, though victims of many heartbreaks and tragedies caused by god-faring righteous individuals, are attracted to one another, but too many unfair and unjust setbacks make any relationship between them unlikely.



The third Carolina Cousins historical tale (see A PERILOUS PROPOSAL and THE SOLDIER'S LADY) brings home the plight of free blacks just after the Civil War is over and they have been emancipated yet with few real rights. Seffie is a terrific lead character as she has learned life's lessons that the powerful can do anything to impoverish people and that tragedy is the norm. Whereas she fears close relationships, Henry remains optimistic for the future and willing to risk his life in spite of the threatened vigilante injustice of the KKK to lynch or burn him. Together and enhanced by a strong cast, they make an inspiring Reconstruction Era thriller.



Harriet Klausner