From Booklist
Regina Pearson has reached the ripe age of 40 knowing nothing about her family, so after her father's death she decides it's time to leave Hawaii, where she's lived with native Hawaiians, having no clue about African American life on the mainland. She finds an aunt in New Bern, North Carolina, who welcomes her, but the rest of the family keeps their distance. Regina takes a job managing a large hotel and there meets Colonel Justin Duval, who is designing the hotel's interior, and even though they clash at work, a personal relationship develops that is threatened by Regina's quest to have a relationship with her relatives. Justin would rather live without his large extended family and can't comprehend Regina's desire to wade into her gene pool. Regina realizes that maybe she had unrealistic expectations, but her tenacity starts to yield results even as her new family ties jeopardize her relationship with Justin. Forster's sensitive portrayal of a woman trying to find her roots offers some unusual offshoots and is a cut above the ordinary. Patty Engelmann
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Book Description
No one brings home the power of family to shape and heal us like national bestselling author Gwynne Forster. Now, in BLUES FROM DOWN DEEP, she crafts an unforgettable story of one woman’s search for the family she’s never known—but whose pull she’ll never be able to escape again… BLUES FROM DOWN DEEP Regina Pearson has never really known any family other than her late, widowed father. He cut ties with his family in North Carolina long ago and moved to Hawaii with Regina’s mother, then raised Regina alone following his wife’s accidental death. Living among the native Hawaiians so different from herself created in Regina an aching for people to call her own. Regina finds among her late parents’ effects a letter written forty years earlier that leads to her mother’s sister, Maude, a been-there, done-that blues singer, and her nonagenarian maternal grandfather, head of the extended family in New Bern, North Carolina. For Regina, going to North Carolina to see Aunt Maude is the chance of a lifetime—an opportunity to bond with the people who share her roots, her blood, and her heart, and find the pieces of her she’s been lonely for all these years. But the big, warm, loving family Regina’s dreamed about is nowhere in sight. Instead, she finds uncles, aunts, and cousins torn apart by secrets and lies, petty squabbles and heartbreaking wounds stretching back for years—a contentious clan ready to draw Regina front-and-center into their troubles whether she wants to be there or not. And just as her new family conflict threatens to overwhelm her, Regina discovers a passionate connection she hadn’t counted on with a man who’s ready to show her what real family’s all about—and what it takes to keep the love flowing. Filled with heartfelt wit and homespun wisdom, BLUES FROM DOWN DEEP is a joyous reminder that love comes when we least expect it, from every side of life, and the family that makes us crazy can also lead us home to the place where we belong.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Regina Pearson has never really known any family other than her late, widowed father. He cut ties with his own relatives in North Carolina long ago and moved to Hawaii, then raised Regina alone following her mother￯﾿ﾽs accidental death. Living among the native Hawaiians so different from herself created in Regina a yearning for people to call her own. Then she finds among her late parents￯﾿ﾽ effects a letter written forty years earlier that leads to her mother￯﾿ﾽs sister, Maude, a been-there, done-that blues singer, and her nonagenarian maternal grandfather, head of the extended family in New Bern, North Carolina.