Child Bride - by Jennifer Smith Turner (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the segregated South of the mid-1900s, fourteen-year-old Nell bears witness to a world that embraces the oppression of women. Married off when she turns sixteen, she journeys from the South to the city of Boston, where she must quickly learn first how to be a wife to a controlling and emotionally abusive husband, and then a mother. After giving birth to three children, Nell's body begins to fail her. Her husband, concerned for her health, pulls away from her physically. But this void of intimacy drives Nell into the arms of another man, Charles-- an encounter that leads to another pregnancy, and another unanticipated adventure for Nell."--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

The coming-of-age journey of a young girl from the South who joins the African American great migration to the North-and finds her way through challenges and unforeseen obstacles to womanhood.

Review Quotes

2020 Self-Publishing EBook Award Winner in Fiction

2020 Foreword Indies Book Awards Finalist in Historical Fiction

2020 Sarton Awards Winner in Historical Fiction

2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Winner in Historical Fiction

2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in African American (Fiction)

"A captivating story of a strong African American woman who pursues her dreams."

-Kirkus Reviews

"This historical drama about surviving racism and abuse will move any
reader interested in African-American lives in the early 20th century."

--Booklife Review

"Jennifer Smith Turner's Child Bride offers a rich and immersive
evocation of life for a young black American woman in the mid-twentieth
century. Her portrayals of both rural, segregated Louisiana and Boston,
Massachusetts, are vivid, powerful, and striking in their historical
accuracy. But it is protagonist Nell's journey as a woman seeking
independence that makes this book stand out: her evolution from a child
bride into a forceful and self-assured adult testifies to the
incalculable value of a warm heart and an inquiring mind."

--Ursula DeYoung, Editor, Embark Literary Journal

". . . Readers will be transfixed by the racial and personal challenges
the heroine, Nell Jones, encounters and transcends in the segregated
'Deep South' and the 'progressive' North . . . "

--The Bouléeacute; Journal, The Official Publication of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity

"Child Bride, a first novel by Jennifer Smith Turner . . . takes
us on a long, treacherous journey from the deepest reaches of the
segregated South to . . . Boston, sometime in the middle of the last
century . . . A self-described workaholic, she (Jennifer) also clearly
qualifies as a renaissance woman . . . We're lucky to have her here."

--Martha's Vineyard Times

"Nell, the narrator and heroine of Jennifer Smith Turner's new novel Child Bride,
is a survivor in more ways than one . . . Nell's love of literature,
which begins in her one-room Louisiana school, shines through in her
narration and dialogue . . ."

--Martha's Vineyard Gazette

"A well-woven story rich in culture, family bonds and the uniquely powerful will of women."

--Darryl Ford Williams, Vice President for Content, WQED Multimedia

"I love the ending! It made me so happy to picture Nell reading on the beaches of MV."

--Alexandra Pratt, Librarian, West Tisbury Library, Martha's Vineyard

"What an engaging and powerful story. Turner's first-person approach,
wonderful writing, and very real story combined to yield a readable
story that showed the challenges and dreams of growing up Nell."

--Daryl Brewster, CEO, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP)

"Child Bride was a riveting read that captured my attention from
beginning to the end. I loved the strong family connections and lessons.
I cringed at the women getting married at such a young age. But I
celebrated in the sisterhood that was highlighted when Nell arrived in
Boston . . . the beauty shop and church . . . two places where women
find refuge even today. I also appreciated the authenticity of how the
church could shun you but ultimately rebound with forgiveness. This was
truly a great novel, and I would eagerly read another book written by
this author."

--Elicia Spearman, General Counsel, Quinnipiac U

About the Author

Jennifer Smith Turner is a New England-born writer. She is the author of two poetry books, Lost and Found: Rhyming Verse Honoring African American Heroes and Perennial Secrets: Poetry & Prose. She is the retired CEO of Girl Scouts of Connecticut. During her professional career, she served as an appointed government official with the State of Connecticut and the City of Hartford as a corporate and nonprofit executive, and as a member of many academic and nonprofit boards of directors. She retired to Martha's Vineyard with her husband, Eric Turner, in 2012.