Fine. Dolly is resourceful and smart as a whip. The majority of this is her being a businesswoman and the various white mens infatuated with her (varying in power imbalances from much to little to none). Wealth becomes a security blanket for Dolly, helping keep the nightmares, the past, the racism, and the feelings of inadequacy at bay.

Don’t be put off by the length. Each chapter is bite-sized.

I was very impressed by what the author was able to infer from historical documents. The narrative voice for Dolly was also good. I had never heard of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas before this. But I wanted more about how Dolly started training her workers than all the dalliances with mens.

Cells was just raggedy to me, and he never really stopped. i think he liked the push and pull. ( )

Based on the true life of Dorothy (Doll) Kirwan Thomas, born a slave in Montserrat, she worked countless years to buy her (& her family’s) freedom to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in the Caribbean. Repeatedly raped by her white brother, surviving multiple rebellions, saving a sister from auction, her beginnings were so harsh. She is written as a very real person, with her past very much shaping how she approached life. view of slavery from a tender age of five when she hadn’t quite grasped that she was “owned.” As she grew up and through her life her views on slavery also grew up. It was eye-opening and poignant. ( )

Gorgeous descriptions, but while Dolly's hard work and rise to successful business woman was there, it seemed to always take a backseat in the narrative to her love life. ( )

Sweeping family saga that covers sixty years in the life of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas (aka Miss Doll or Dolly). Born in 1756, she is a no-nonsense strong woman who works her way up from slavery to business owner. She starts a housekeeping business on several Caribbean islands. Her home base is Roseau, Dominica. We meet her various men, many of whom desert her after she bears them one or more children. She is fiercely loyal to her family.

Dorothy Kirwan Thomas was a real person, and Vanessa Riley has done a wonderful job of bringing her to life as a complex personality with many strengths and weaknesses. She overcomes a variety of obstacles such as illiteracy, racial issues, postpartum depression, sexual abuse, and patriarchal laws. It feels a bit lengthy (600 pages), especially toward the end. This book would make a fabulous mini-series.
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The story began when Dorothy was five-years-old. It started out slow but picked up when Dorothy was 18. At that point I couldn't put the book down. There were a couple of unsavory sections where Dorothy or another female family member were being raped and/or referred to with racist and sexist language. The book is not for everyone but it does tell a part of history that we don't usually hear about. I was surprised at how easily and quickly Dorothy was able to save money to buy herself and several family members freedom from their slave owners. This ease seemed wrong from the history that I have been told over the years. Her ability to get away with talking back to her white owners did not feel right to me either. Perhaps she was able because she lived in the Caribbean. I am not sure. Dorothy was able to build several businesses and became one of the most wealthy women in the Caribbean. It would be interesting to find out whether this was a norm or an anomaly for black women in the Caribbean during the early 1800s.

Dorothy pushed her daughters to marry white men. She prospered off of these relationships but perhaps her motivation was just to ensure that her children had food to eat. These white husbands had the power of manumission and this was one way for Dorothy to keep her descendants free people. The language used in the book took some getting used to. The West Indies dialect as well as the Irish words used by the white slave owners was very hard to get used to. Most of this language was used in the first half of the book. It got alot better in the second half. With all of these issues in my mind I am still thinking to myself about my feelings about the novel. There are many questions that the Author's Note does not answer. ( )