This Here Is Love

A Novel

De: Princess Joy L. Perry

Narrado por: Shayna Small

“A luscious storyteller, Princess Joy L. Perry brings to light the profound moral and emotional dilemmas her characters face, making the reader feel the weight of their impossible choices and everyday courage. A fierce and luminous debut.”—Sheri Reynolds, author of The Rapture of Canaan and The Tender Grave

Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—living beside each other, struggling against their circumstances, trying to bend destiny.

As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom.

Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother’s only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love.

David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother’s shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father’s dream of emancipation for the entire family.

Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain’s colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person’s life.

A breathtaking, haunting, and epic saga, This Here Is Love intimately intertwines us with these beautifully drawn, unforgettable American characters. Bless, taken to serve the slaveowner’s daughter, must decide where she belongs: with the enslaved or above them. David, sold away from his people, retreats into himself even as he yearns to unite with others. Jack, acting impetuously, changes his fortune, but will doing so sacrifice his humanity?

All three come together on Jack’s land. As they face and challenge each other, they will relinquish and remake beliefs about family and freedom, even as they confront the limits of love.

©2025 Princess Joy L. Perry (P)2025 Audible, Inc.

Compelling

I really enjoyed this well-written book. Ms. Perry deftly weaves together the stories of enslaved persons and indentured servants in early colonial America. While the characters are well developed, some of the storylines lost steam and drifted away, focusing on a the main protagonists. For this book, which speaks to the loss of connections and family imposed by slavery, it made sense for the plot. I found myself lost in the story, which doesn't often happen.

This is a book about love, family, courage, and redemption. With the recent attempts to misrepresent American history by ignoring difficult facts, this book reminds us of the reality of the suffering and exploitation that many unjustly endured.

The narration was great but the editing was careless and missed some performance errors. It didn't bother me at all, it just made it seem like a friend was reading it to me in person.