Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
In 1850, Jonathan Thomas, a young, personable, and aristocratic Southern gentleman, has returned to his antebellum home from an Ivy League school in the North. His father is dying and Jonathan is sole heir to the family's lavish prosperous, and renowned Rainbow Plantation. While up North, two major revelations had seriously shaken his self-image. His exposure to Northern abolitionism had permanently shaken his outlook on slavery, the South's peculiar institution. Worse, he had begun to believe he might be a sodomite, a most wretched creature reviled by the customs of nineteenth-century American society.

When he tours the plantation grounds for the first time in years, he sees that his boyhood playmate, a slave named Kumi, has matured into a black Adonis. Jonathan is instantly captivated. Now he is convinced he is a sodomite, and even worse, he is hopelessly smitten over a slave.

As he grapples with his sexual proclivity and the peculiar institution, he befriends Steven Wentworth, a social non-conformist living an esoteric lifestyle, who has a deep, hidden connection to him. Under Steven's progressive influence, and from another unlikely source-the Bible-Jonathan is able to unravel his demons and triumph in the end.

BOOK REVIEW:
I want to start out by saying that this book, hands down, was one of the best I have read about the south and pre-Civil War yet. Jonathan Thomas was a spoiled rich kid who got sent North to school and during that time his views on slavery changed. During his childhood he played with Kumi his companion who was a slave. When they reached puberty they started exploring each other and then Jonathan was sent up North to continue his schooling.

Upon his father's death Jonathan comes home and is the sole heir to the plantation as he is the only son, his sister Sarah disappearing years before never to be heard from again. Or is she?

Since I love anything and everything about the south, plantations and all the grandeur of it all, this book was perfect for me. Mr. Sheeley described the plantation down to the shantys in "niggertown" to the inside of the big house. I felt as if I were there next to Jonathan the entire story. I could feel what he was feeling and I could smell what he was smelling when he ate his breakfast or the family had a big feast for his wedding.

Enter Stephen a clerk for his father's attorney who becomes fast friends with Jonathan unbeknownst to him for a reason which hit me like a ton of bricks when I found out. I don't want to give anything away as I want people to read this but I think you will find the twist particularly intriguing.

I am hoping for a sequel as I think there is so much more to hear from Jonathan, Kumi and Stephen. Kudos to Mr. Sheeley on this excellent book. I am more than happy to give it a 5 rating.

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