new novel and warm weather, that sounds good, i’ll have that.

Tara Conkin’s The House Girl flawlessly switches between two time periods (pre-Civil War and 21^st century) telling the stories of Josephine, a slave girl, Carolina (Lina), a New York City attorney, and Lina's father, Oscar, an artist.

Josephine decides she must run away from her owners, and sets out to get as far away as possible. Lina, who seems discontent with her own life has been given the chance to head the research for her firm, representing a victim of slavery in a reparations case.

The two are tied together as Lina begins working the case and searching for a living descendant of an American slave, she goes inside of her father's world of art and learns of the controversy surrounding the paintings of the 19th century artist Lu Ann Bell. Through her father, Lina learns that many art critics believe that the paintings were really the work of Josephine Bell, Lu Ann's house girl, Josephine.

Ms. Conklin’s debut novel turned into a “just one more page” read for this girl. Kick ass.