Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Historical Romance Anthology

This collection of four novellas spans a century of Juneteenth celebrations, each marking the anniversary of the day the last American slaves were told of their freedom. Each story tells a different tale of freedom and discrimination, including a journey west in 1866 (Hart’s “Amazing Grace”) and a teacher becoming pregnant in a small 1910 Georgia town (Huguley’s “A Sweet Way to Freedom”). The highlight of the collection is Cole’s thoughtful “Let It Shine,” in which good girl Sofie defies her strict father and gets involved with civil rights activism in 1961 Virginia, alongside a Jewish childhood friend. The variety of perspectives is refreshing, but the shorter format doesn’t allow for enough exploration of some very deep themes, such as freeborn African-Americans discriminating against former slaves in Alexander’s “Drifting to You” or the interaction of freed slaves with their former slavers in “Amazing Grace.” (BookLife)