The Fayetteville Series: Book 1
Publication Date: October 1, 2022
Two Sisters of Fayetteville has been short listed for the 2023 Dante Rossetti Awards for YA Fiction. It also won Honorable Mention for Young Adult Fiction in the Firebird Book Awards for Fourth Quarter, 2022.
Seventeen-year-old Joanna Upshaw and her sister, sixteen-year-old Hannah, are two of twelve siblings in an insular, conservative, and evangelical Christian family- same as the Duggars, whose reality show they watch on TV. Joanna in particular is exhausted by the demands of helping her mother with the housework and childcare attendant in such a large family. She is also beginning to realize that she doesn’t measure up to her parents’ vision of a perfect Christian woman- or to any of their strict rules.
Hannah is the sister that Joanna is closest to, the one that shares her fatigue and anxiety. Both of them have spent their whole lives learning that their highest calling is to marry and have as many children as possible. However, as Joanna watches Hannah and two of their brothers court with the intention of marrying, she questions whether she is capable of doing the same, especially as her parents shoo her marriage prospects away one at a time. Afraid of becoming the old maid that never amounts to anything, Joanna finally makes plans to get away from her parents forever.
Fans of Jennifer Mathieu’s Devoted and Julia Watts’ Quiver will like this book.
A fire-and-brimstone novel set in Alabama, Two Sisters of Fayetteville by Tamar Anolic, portrays two close sisters, Joanna and Hannah, who always have each other’s backs.
Two very religious parents lead the Upshaw family. Their community is very much like them. The sisters are two of twelve children, and those old enough are homeschooled. Joanna and Hannah not only cook and clean, but they also help with the care of the younger ones. They participate in Bible studies at home and with friends. Only those who marry seem to escape to a new life.
Joanna starts a small business and knows she’ll never escape since her parents made sure two interested suitors were turned away. When her older brother and her twin get married and move out, and then Hannah as well, she knows she’ll never escape and needs strength to leave home. She’s ready when an opportunity presents itself in Texas, thanks to Hannah and her husband.
There is some happiness at times, but mostly gloom and doom, along with uncertainty and despair. Joanna’s time in Texas reinforces that she has to leave home permanently, but it won’t be easy. The ending was totally unexpected and offered some hope, but the story ended abruptly, leaving some loose ends.
Two Sisters of Fayetteville is a book about Christian families in a small town and how God directs their paths, even as their parents have a hand in how their lives unfold.
Tamar Anolic writes in a number of genres, from historical fiction to science fiction, YA and MG to adult fiction. Many of her books have won awards. The Abnormal Gumshoe is Tamar‘s first mystery.
