Our book club loved this book. Couldn't wait to read the sequel to The Kitchen House (which we read and considered brilliant) which was a tough book to match. A very good read but nothing could surpass the first!

The year is 1830 and Jamie Pyke, a celebrated silversmith and notorious ladies' man, is keeping a deadly secret. Passing as a wealthy white aristocrat in Philadelphian society, Jamie is now living a life he could never have imagined years before when he was a runaway slave, son of a southern black slave and her master. But Jamie's carefully constructed world is threatened when he discovers that his married socialite lover, Caroline, is pregnant and his beloved servant Pan, to whose father Jamie owes his own freedom, has been captured and sold into slavery in the South.
Fleeing the consequences of his deceptions, Jamie embarks on a trip to a North Carolina plantation to save Pan from the life he himself barely escaped as a boy. With the help of a fearless slave, Sukey, who has taken the terrified young boy under her wing, Jamie navigates their way, racing against time and their ruthless pursuers through the Virginia backwoods, the Underground Railroad, and the treacherous Great Dismal Swamp.
this was a pretty good read. The character of Jamie was not my favorite. While i was taking into consideration the era he was supposed to be in , and how conflicted he was about his race, he was still an adult when he went to rescue Pan. And yet he had a very difficult time listening to the advice and recommendations of others. Which is what got him into trouble.

Once I became invested in the characters, I could not put this book down. It moves easily from one character to another without getting confusing or difficult to follow. The stories told within the book are both heartbreaking and inspiring. I did not read the prequel and this book stands alone. I plan to read The Kitchen House next and hope there is a third book coming!