WHEN THE JESSAMINE GROWS by Donna Everhart 

Book Signing and Talk at the Clement Museum

(100 Frank Clement Place, Dickson, TN 37055)

Wednesday, February 07, 2024 - 5:30 PM

"When the Jessamine Growns" is a new, evocative, morally complex novel set in rural North Carolina during the Civil War, as one woman fights to keep her family united and neutral during the most devastating and divisive period in American history. Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on a small subsistence farm in rural North Carolina, growing what they need to feed their family and livestock. She has no desire to support the Southern cause or for her family to take sides in a war they do not believe in. This opinion is not favored by many in their Confederate state – including Joetta’s own father-in-law. As the country becomes further entangled in the ramifications of war, Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with the townspeople, her friends, and even her family, until finally, one reckless choice proves to impact the McBrides in ways unforeseen to all. Struggling to endure hardships as well as being shunned by many, Joetta remains committed to her principles, her sheer willpower, and the belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come, for a fractured nation, for Joetta, and for those she loves… 

The author, Donna Everhart, is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking the complexities of the heart and a gritty fascination of the American South in her acclaimed novels. She is the recipient of the prestigious SELA Outstanding Southeastern Author Award from the Southeastern Library Association and her novels have received a SIBA Okra Pick, an Indie Next Pick, and two Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selections. Born and raised in Raleigh, she has stayed close to her hometown for much of her life and now lives just an hour away in Dunn, North Carolina.  

The program is FREE and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase.