This Here Is Love

One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Historical Fiction Books of 2025 “A luscious storyteller, Princess Joy L. Perry brings to light the profound moral and emotional dilemmas her characters face, making the reader feel the weight of their impossible choices and everyday courage. A fierce and luminous debut.” ―Sheri Reynolds, author of The Rapture of Canaan and The Tender Grave Three people―two enslaved, one indentured―living beside each other, struggling against their circumstances, trying to bend destiny. As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom. Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother’s only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love. David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials.