1960’s north carolina.

Diane Chamberlain is a kick ass author, this is not new information. Her latest novel Necessary Lies deviates from her usual style, but it’s still just as enjoyable as the rest.

Jane Forrester, newly married and recently graduated from Woman's College in Greensboro with a degree in sociology, is hired on as a caseworker for the Department of Public Welfare in Raleigh circa 1960’s. One of the families Jane is responsible for is the Hart family. The grandmother, suffering with diabetes and arthritis, is raising her two teenage granddaughters, Ivy and Mary Ella. Jane becomes much too emotionally involved with this family (especially Ivy) to do the work of a caseworker in this time period. She spends much of the story fighting for Ivy’s rights to grow up and have her own family one day, rather than be sterilized like the government demands, while her marriage is jeopardized by her douchey husband. Necessary Lies is a tragic story spotlighting the underprivileged in a way that breaks your heart, but ends in a way that lifts you up again.