This was a moving read that is sure to touch its reader’s heart. Grace Winslow’s story is powerful and rings with truth. How many countless women in Africa knew the same, or worse, horrors. As I read about Cabeto’s story, I couldn’t help cringing and gapping in horror. It is so sad to see how some humans can treat others with such depravity—and so cold heartedly! Indeed, the slave trade was a nightmare for those Africans taken from their homes by force. I can’t imagine surviving on one of those slave ships. When Cabeto described how packed they were, my skin began to crawl—I would be so claustrophobic in there, I’d go crazy!
As I read about Grace’s adventures in the first book and neared the ending of this book, I had the feeling that book 2 didn’t have as much action/adventure as book 1 had, and as book 3 seems bound to have. I still enjoyed the story and found it easy to be drawn into its pages. Kay writes with such blatant truth—never pulling any punching in regards to the slave trade and how slaves were treated—you are sure to learn something new through The Voyage of Promise. Though she doesn’t hide the horrors of the slave trade, there wasn’t anything inappropriate in this book. Besides the mention of one sailor trying to get frisky with Grace, nothing else even caught my attention as something that readers need be warned about.
The story often changed to another character’s point of view (POV) throughout the book, without so much as a sentence break. While this didn’t ruin the story or confuse me, it took me a while to get used to it. There were many characters in this story that, I felt, had been in the first book. While I did learn a little bit about them, I had the feeling that they were spoken of more in depth in the first book.
Reading about Grace’s little baby was very sad. After the scene ended, I stared at the page for a little while, thinking “No way. That did not just happen!” But it did. One of the sad truths of the slave trade. I felt that her baby’s story was told a bit hurriedly and briefly. I didn’t feel remorse along with Grace about her baby because, after her initiate mourning, it is many chapters until she thinks of him again. While this was a fact I noticed, it did not ruin the story for me in any way.
Reaching the last page, I am now left hanging. Taking advantage of the first two chapters of the next book (which I found at the back of Voyage of Promise) I find myself left with a cliffhanger. I cant wait until the next book comes out. Grace wants nothing more than to go to America to search for her beloved Cabeto…but how can she do that from prison? Wow! Yes, as I said, a cliffhanger! You won’t regret the time spent reading this wonderful, eye-opener book.