The Kitchen House: Orphaned Irish 7 year old Lavina arrives at a tobacco plantation where she will live and work alongside it's slaves. Under the care of Belle, the masters illegitimate daughter she becomes very attached to her stand in family yet is separated from them from the color of her skin. As Lavinia matures she is accepted into the world of the big house where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. So much more happens after this but you must read it to find out!!
The Secret Life of Bees: Lily Owens is a motherless child who lacks memory of her mothers presence and the cause of her death. She lives in a lonely abusive house with her father who is rarely home and when he is it is far from pleasant. When Lily's housekeeper whom serves as a stand in mother for her insults racist locals and gets herself beaten and jailed Lily bravely sets out to set them both free. They escape to South Carolina and are taken in by eccentric bee-keeping sisters who hold not only the secrets to the past but hope for the future.
