Liz Tolsma: The Pink Bonnet

By Kelly Bridgewater

A Desperate Mother Searches for Her Child
Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime

Widowed in Memphis during 1932, Cecile Dowd is struggling to provide for her three-year-old daughter. Unwittingly trusting a neighbor puts little Millie Mae into the clutches of Georgia Tann, corrupt Memphis Tennessee Children’s Home Society director suspected of the disappearance of hundreds of children. With the help of a sympathetic lawyer, the search for Millie uncovers a deep level of corruption that threatens their very lives.

How far will a mother go to find out what happened to her child?

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My Thoughts:

What a tragic story! Liz Tolsma's The Pink Bonnet does a wonderful job at showing the horrors of the adoption agencies in the 1930's in Memphis Tennessee. I kept waiting for Tann to receive her justice, but if you read Tolsma's footnotes at the end, Tann never does. How sad! As a mother, I couldn't imagine the horrors of trying to struggle to put food on the table, then turn around and have someone turn your child in, only to learn they have been adopted by someone else who might be able to take care of them better than you. Tolsma's story had plenty of action especially the ending. Lots of hair raising moments where the characters come close to finding Millie, than something happens to make her a little farther out of reach. The only item I found unrealistic was the romance between Cecile  and Percy. It didn't quite fit with the way Tolsma created the characters. It felt completely out of place for the story. Overall, The Pink Bonnet by Liz Tolsma opened my eyes to another horror in our American history. The characters fought hard and made for a wonderful ending. Fans of this series should pick this one up too.

I received a complimentary copy of The Pink Bonnet by Liz Tolsma from Barbour Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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