“We Hope for Better Things has it all: fabulous storytelling, an emotional impact that lingers long after you turn the last page, and a setting that immerses you. I haven’t read such a powerful, moving story since I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. This book will change how you look at the world we live in. Highly recommended!”–Colleen Coble, USAToday bestselling author of the Rock … bestselling author of the Rock Harbor series and The View from Rainshadow Bay
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When Detroit Free Press reporter Elizabeth Balsam meets James Rich, his strange request–that she look up a relative she didn’t know she had in order to deliver an old camera and a box of photos–seems like it isn’t worth her time. But when she loses her job after a botched investigation, she suddenly finds herself with nothing but time.
At her great-aunt’s 150-year-old farmhouse, Elizabeth uncovers a series of mysterious items, locked doors, and hidden graves. As she searches for answers to the riddles around her, the remarkable stories of two women who lived in this very house emerge as testaments to love, resilience, and courage in the face of war, racism, and misunderstanding. And as Elizabeth soon discovers, the past is never as past as we might like to think.
Debut novelist Erin Bartels takes readers on an emotional journey through time–from the volatile streets of 1960s Detroit to the Underground Railroad during the Civil War–to uncover the past, confront the seeds of hatred, and discover where love goes to hide.
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“A timely exploration of race in America, We Hope for Better Things is an exercise of empathy that will shape many a soul.”–Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Perennials
“I applaud [Erin’s] courage, her authenticity, her beautiful turn of phrase, the freshness of her imagery, and the depth of her story that speaks to a contemporary world where understanding is often absent. We Hope for Better Things is a remarkable debut novel.”–Jane Kirkpatrick, award-winning author of Everything She Didn’t Say
“Erin Bartels’s We Hope for Better Things shares the joys and sorrows of three women from different generations. A roller coaster of emotions awaits as you share the lives of these women and hope along with them for better things.”–Ann H. Gabhart, bestselling author of River to Redemption
“Storytelling at its finest. Erin Bartels delivers a riveting story of forbidden love, family bonds, racial injustice, and the power of forgiveness. We Hope for Better Things is a timely, sobering, moving account of how far we’ve come . . . and how much distance remains to be covered. A compulsively readable, incredibly powerful novel.”–Lori Nelson Spielman, New York Times bestselling author of The Life List
“There is the Detroit we think we know, and there is the Detroit full of stories that are never brought to the forefront. With We Hope for Better Things, Erin Bartels brings full circle an understanding of contemporary Detroit firmly rooted in the past, with enthralling characters and acute attention to detail. It’s a must not just for Detroit lovers but also for those who need to understand that Detroit history is also American history.”–Aaron Foley, city of Detroit’s chief storyteller and editor of The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook
“In this powerful first novel . . . Bartels successfully weaves American history into a deeply moving story of heartbreak, long-held secrets, and the bonds of family.”–Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
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Debut author Erin Bartels delivers a gripping and thought provoking read in We Hope for Better Things.
Readers follow three women through turbulent times of race relations in the Detroit area—the Civil War, the 1960s, and present day. Each story thread is well developed and connects seamlessly with the other two. Even the present day first person point of view and past third person POVs work with this story.
Bartels handles the issues of race relations with an air of humility while meting out the unsavory consequences of some of the choices—good and bad—these women make in their lives.
We Hope for Better Things is a reminder of both the strides we’ve made when it comes to race divisions and how far we have yet to go. This is one story I will be digesting for a while.
Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
This is a very emotional and powerful story that touches your soul and stays there for days after reading it. The author has a poetic way of bringing her characters to life and I felt attached to them. The story is moving and takes us back in time as we hear from several characters. I loved how the author brought them all together and intersected their lives in a way that is memorable and poignant. The beauty of the writing is exceptional and the author has a bright future in the publishing world.
The topic of racism is very prevalent in this story as it touches each character in a different way. Elizabeth was a very interesting character and I liked how she was brought in the story to discover her past. The story unfolds as we travel from the Civil War to to the Underground Railroad to the unforgiving streets of Detroit in the 1960s.
Mary is left alone while her husband goes off to fight in the Civil War. She is scared but when a man comes to her door for help, she opens her home to him. George is a decent man who comes to be very important in Mary’s life. Having George there could get her into trouble but her faith tells her to not turn anyone away who needs help. Mary has a giving heart and welcomes freed slaves into her
home with kindness and compassion.
Nora was probably my favorite character with her loving heart. When she falls in love with William, there are unforeseen consequences. I loved how the author lets readers experience what it is like to be discriminated against and the violence that people are exposed to in a world where the color of your skin dictated how you were treated . People did not accept mixed raced couples and I can only imagine what Nora and William were exposed to. The story definitely shows how judgmental people can be and how hatred spreads through generations. Nora’s discoveries will set the stage for generations with historical facts, secrets and a family that didn’t look at the color of skin, but helped each other out. I loved how the author gave us a historical journey through times and I most appreciated Martin Luther King in the story. His famous speech is one I will never forget.
Elizabeth was a great character and I loved how her instincts lead her to her family history. It is amazing how great this book easily glides from one time period to the next. It made me thing of doing a genealogy search and reading about your ancestors . Another great part of the story is when Nora and Elizabeth meet. To me this is where the gaps in the story started to become clearer and how families were torn apart because of racism. It really opens your eyes to how little we have come in this world when it comes to accepting each other.
I loved this that was said in the story, “ We read the same scriptures , worship the same Lord. We may sing different songs, but I can assure you that we have been faithful to God.”
I received a copy of this book from Revell Publishing. The review is my own opinion.
We Hope for Better Things is a great introduction for me to Erin Bartels’s work. I enjoyed this book. It tells the story of several women living in different eras. I was intrigued with all three and how it all ended for them. I had it read in one day.
We Hope for Better Things gets a four and a half stars by me. I can not wait to see where else Erin Bartels takes her readers to in her next novel. I highly recommend this one.
I received this book from the publisher. This review is 100% my own honest opinion.
Erin Bartels amazing debut novel, We Hope for Better Things, takes the. reader on a journey of three different generations of the Balsam family from the Underground Railroad in Michigan, to the Detroit riots in the early 1960s, to a young journalist, Elizabeth, during the present time who has been fired by the Detroit Free Press. Elizabeth meets with a man who has a camera and a box of pictures. He wants Elizabeth to take the camera to an aging relative, Nora, to get Nora to see him. These aren’t the only secrets that get revealed. As Elizabeth lives with Nora, stories come out about Mary and her husband who are the owners of the house during the Civil War.
Erin has created an amazing story about prejudice, love, devotion, and redemption. A must read.! I received an ARC from NetGalley and Fleming H. Revel Co in exchange for an honest review.
What a great read, from beginning to end the author pulled me in, from Civil War time to present day, we meet the members of one family through the generations. This one of the best books I have read this year, and now looking for more from this writer.
We see injustice here in many forms, but mainly racism, and some that preach what they don’t practice. There is also some sweet romance here, and some tragic endings, family dynamics at the highest levels.
A don’t miss novel that will leave you wanting more!
I received this book through LibraryThing, and was not required to give a positive review.
Three women. Three eras. One struggle… We Hope for Better Things is the tale of Mary, Nora, and Elizabeth, each living in Detroit and/or Lapeer County, Michigan but in different eras: Civil War/Reconstruction, Civil Rights movement, and present day. Bound by blood, these women also share a compassionate nature, resilient spirit, and innate ability to see below the surface to what lies beneath.
For more, go to http://www.kindredconnection.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/we-hope-for-better-things/.
We hope for Better Things is an amazing debut novel by Author Erin Bartels. She writes about three different women from three different time periods; the civil war, the 1960’s Detroit riots, and present-day Michigan, and is unafraid to tackle issues of slavery, and racism, and interracial relationships during those time periods. She paints vivid pictures with her words and kept me guessing as we alternated between Elizabeth, Nora, and Mary’s stories.
“All it took to lose one’s history was a single generation that didn’t take the time to learn it and pass it on. I would do my part to keep it alive.”
I recommend We Hope for Better Things and discover a talented writer who keeps you thinking about this story long after turning the last page.
Erin Bartels did a fantastic job weaving together three generations of women. Each story is compelling. The three women all struggle with elements of racism, which changes over the decades. The characters and the setting are vivid.
Ms. Bartels gracefully addresses the racial issue. I was immediately immersed in the story. It’s well written and nicely paced. I was challenged to reflect on my own views of the racial issue. This novel is a must read!
Recommend to those who enjoy thought-provoking, inspirational fiction.
I won a copy. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
I really enjoyed reading We Hope For Better Things by Erin Bartels. Three women’s’ stories are revealed, Elizabeth in the present, Nora from both the 1960s and the present, and Mary from the time of the Civil War and beyond. Secrets are unearthed and racism and societal taboos are a main theme. I loved how the characters were developed and how the story unfolded at a perfect pace, going back and forth between the time periods and connecting the stories. I will definitely read another by this author and recommend this book.
I picked up this book while looking for another one by this author and glad that I did. It is a wonderful multi-generational story. The characters are well developed and beautifully brought to life. I lived near Detroit for 25 years and was familiar with several of the venues as well as having heard many stories of the riots. The author handled that event very well and brought enough tension to the story to evoke many different emotions for me.
By weaving three eras seamlessly throughout each other, We Hope for Better Things helped me understand how the lack of empathy feeds the ugly world of racism. My heart went out to each of the three white women who were blind to color and rich in love. This is the kind of book that will “stick to your ribs” and you will become a better person having read it.
This is such a beautifully written story! There are so many layers that come together seamlessly! There is such richness in telling the story through the generations and I love how this one welds together the three generations!
Three timelines can be a daunting task, yet Bartels handles it well. I had some doubts about the relationship beginnings with her two historical main characters, but ultimately I got on board with the later development of those relationships and I enjoyed how the progression of the historical timelines (1960s and 1860s -which is a cool parallel) unfolded. Each chapter ends with a question, and when we return to that timeline, we see the later results, which I think really helps move this story forward. I enjoyed the connections, the historical portrayal (as told through a white woman’s eyes) and felt Bartels did a good job of representation. Well-written and I look forward to her coming novels.
Three women from three time periods, each confronting prejudice and racism. That’s what I was expecting this book to be about, and it was. However, what I was not expecting is that there would be three separate love stories as well. That still could have been OK, but given the circumstances of one of the romances, I could not root for the couple, and I ended up thinking less of the characters involved.
The book started out well enough. As I met Elizabeth, Nora, and Mary in turn, I found that I liked and wanted to know more about each woman.
The pacing seemed good, and the story moved smoothly between the three timelines, but sometimes many months would pass before we saw a character again. That didn’t leave much room for character development.
Still, I believe most fans of multi-generational historical fiction will enjoy this. Thank you to BookishFirst for the copy of this book.
This author has done an admirable job with a tough and ambitious topic, and I do hope to read more of her work, although it sometimes took great effort to keep my mind straight on where in time I was in the story with the many switches. I did love this astute quote from toward the end of the book: “All it took to lose one’s history was a single generation that didn’t take the time to learn it and pass it on.”
This book is fantastic. I had a hard time putting this book down. This story starts in the present and then goes from the 1950’s and way back to the Civil War. Elizabeth learns a lot about her family that she never knew while staying with Aunt Nora. Nora gets to tell a story that needed to be told and Elizabeth learns who she is. I received a copy of this book from Bookish First for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
I absolutely devoured this book. Undoubtedly, I am somewhat biased because the book is set in Michigan and so, in many ways, simply feels like home. More than that, though, I am in awe of the way that Erin Bartels essentially writes three separate stories about distantly-related women living in different times (the 1860s, the 1960s, and today) but in the same house (in Lapeer) and deftly weaves them together.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I frequently complain about books that have even two parallel storylines because too often one or the other suffers. Bartels manages all three beautifully, so that the reader reaches the end of We Hope for Better Things with an equal appreciation for all three. What’s more, she doesn’t insist on tying up every possible loose end for the sake of offering up a clean resolution by the closing pages. Her book is like life: beautiful and messy, warm and heavy, seldom with easy answers.
So, Elizabeth Balsam is an investigative reporter for the Free Press when an elderly gentleman contacts her out of the blue to return some old photos to an equally-elderly relative, Nora, that Elizabeth didn’t know existed. Elizabeth learns from other relatives that Nora, in fact, may have a touch of dementia and, down on her luck and out of options in Detroit, Elizabeth agrees to move into Nora’s remote farmhouse to determine whether Nora can remain on her own. Once there, she becomes fascinated by the history of the house and her family, particularly Mary, who presided over house and farm in the midst of the Civil War. Slowly, as Elizabeth and Nora get to know one another better, Elizabeth pieces together the stories of her family’s history.
But not all of it. As I said before, Bartels doesn’t wrap everything up and tie it with a bow. There’s an acknowledgement that after so much time and so many generations, some of that history would be lost, and what hasn’t been lost may still be distorted. In the end, she allows her reader to fill in the blanks, or not, all of which makes for an outstanding work of fiction.
My only criticism is that, as best I can calculate, Bartels’s dates are slightly off. I’m just not convinced that Nora is quite as “elderly” as she’s made out to be, and I’m also having a bit of difficulty with the math that would have have Nora’s grandfather, George, born in the 1860s. Not impossible, but enough to set me to calculating more than one, with pen and paper, how these characters were all related and when they appeared to be born. In the grand scheme of things, though, that is but a minor quibble.
(This review was originally published at https://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2019/03/we-hope-for-better-things.html)
Wow, I don’t know how to find the words to form a review. Emotionally gripping, gritty reality, forgiveness, bitterness and love all rolled into a smooth flowing and beautiful story. A tale we all need to read and sink into our hearts the reality of what goes on around us that we may or may not turn a blind eye to. Three different eras of love and life with the ups and downs that intertwine throughout all these generations. Civil war, Detroit riots and current city issues were so well done and detailed here. I loved how this author made it all come to life and sprinkled the romance into it. I know I will re-read this over again! A much loved bookshelf keeper for its depth and gripping emotions. I received this from Interviews and Reviews and this is my honest opinion.
I throughly enjoyed this book. It hit on subjects that during each time period were touchy subjects. Somewhat taboo back in the time. It was very well written and told with such emotion. I loved each character. How strong they were in most cases and how they held on to their beliefs and love completely. With how things are in this country right now this book resonates well.
Great plot. Wonderful characters. Strong beliefs, Lots of not so great prejudice. It is a good book that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a good book with a story of love, happiness, hardships, emotion and much much more.
Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC of this book. This is my opinion of this story and was in no way compensated for it.
A huge 4.5 stars. Loved it.