Friday's Daughter
Patricia Sprinkle
Berkley, Mar 1 2011, $15.00
ISBN 9780451232199
Teensie MacAllester is the sole caretaker of her ailing father, a state senator and college president. Thus when he dies she is hurt that he left the family home to all of his three daughters; as Teensie felt she earned the ancestral mansion without co-owners who were never there for their dad and he promised the abode to her.
Teensie was planning to convert the house into a nursing home. However, her siblings refuse; instead deciding to sell the place. Her nervy sisters also try to dictate how she should live her impoverished middle age existence. Instead though despondent and unemployed, she ignores her sibling shrews to accept a position as a home nurse to Native American farmer Tobias Jones, who suffers from hepatitis. Jones hires her even though he loathes the MacAllester clan for stealing his people’s land two centuries ago. Tobias and Teensie are attracted to one another, which angers her prejudicial siblings embellishing his already doubts about any MacAllester. However, Teensie proves her worth when she helps him care for three young recently orphaned Native American relatives.
This engaging southern family drama stars a woman who deferred her dreams for years to care for an autocratic father only to find in his death he betrayed her; as do her sisters who give her the option of being the family charity case care-giver or remain impoverished. Although the good, the bad and the ugly parody of Cinderella and her sisters detracts from the tale as that only accentuates the lack of MacAllester morals (except for the protagonist), fans will enjoy the lead female’s efforts to liberate herself from her annoying kin who excommunicate her when she chose to live with the enemy who also makes clear he distrusts her due to her roots.
Harriet Klausner
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