Olivia Mourning (Olivia Series Book 1) by Yael Politis

Fatherless Olivia Killion was born in 1841. Tradition dictates that Olivia’s father give his meagre fortune to his oldest son, leaving Olivia and her brother to the whims of their older brother and his domineering intended. This leaves Olivia and her brother with their father’s Pennsylvania house and business. Olivia doesn’t want to live under her brother’s wife’s control until they can sell her to the first suitor who expresses interest. Ivy has a strategy.

Someone who travels to Michigan and tries to produce crops will receive the plot of land mentioned in her father’s bequest. The son of runaway slaves, Mourning Free, is crucial to her strategy. Olivia knows that she can’t possibly pull this off alone, but can she convince Mourning, a man who feels safest where he is, to take the risk and come with her?

Olivia, Mourning: Part One of the Series would be a more appropriate name for Book One of the Olivia Series (Volume 1). As there are some loose ends resolved during the book but many left unresolved by the time we leave Olivia’s realm, this book cannot be read independently.

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This is the beginning of an epic narrative, and readers who haven’t read the second book will likely find it disappointing and even annoying. Politis takes great care in crafting characters in which the reader may involve themselves and then places them in precarious situations with a cliffhanger that forces the invested reader to continue reading.

As Olivia Killion’s former existence draws to an end, we first meet her. She enters her father’s room to perform the dreaded task of cleaning. She is constantly at odds with him, yet she persists because it is her responsibility. She discovers him dead. Although Politis makes it clear from away that we are aware of how difficult Olivia’s life has been, she and her brother have a conversation about how relieved they are. She cherished her father, but she had a duty to fulfil, and she wants to stay free. No matter how reckless it is for her to journey to the wilds of Michigan in 1841, nothing will stop her when she creates her plan.

After arriving in town in the middle of the night and passing away soon after, Mourning Free’s parents left him in the care of the community. The family of the town’s black jack-of-all-trades is given custody of him by the community. Mourning is initially made to go with them and flees as that man wishes to travel to the West.

Mourning believes that in order to be free, he must remain in the town. He believes that if he does, slave hunters will find him and his protectors won’t be able to help him escape. Mourning accepts to go with her despite the fact that he views departing as the end of his independence while Olivia views it as freedom. They always had a strange bond, so do not expect a romance novel.

While anything might happen in this historical story, Olivia, Mourning, Book 1 of the Olivia Series (Volume 1), there are no happily-ever-afters. Politis doesn’t handle her characters with any care. Not everything in this time period is sunshine and happiness. Life is currently precarious and brief.

The fictional Michigan town of Fae’s Landing is located 40 miles from Detroit. The author is a Dearborn native (considerably closer to Detroit than 40 miles). Although the author tells us the path to Fae’s Landing from Detroit, I missed it even though my hometown is 30 miles from Detroit.

For this reader, there is a sense of familiarity and a sense that the author has done a lot of research before writing about this particular setting. I laughed at Mourning’s concern about snakes that might climb up waggons (revealed as a playful jab at Olivia) and wished them luck if Michigan were to become their reality. In this book, there is something I don’t like. I have a lot of reviews to write and requests to fill, so I have to buy the next book in the series only to find out what happens to Olivia, Mourning, and the other people they encounter.

About The Book

Olivia wants the 80 acres in far off Michigan that her father left to whichever of his offspring stakes a claim. As Olivia says, “I’m sprung off him just as much as Avis or Tobey.” The problem: she’s seventeen, female, and it’s 1841. Her childhood friend Mourning Free knows how to work a farm and Olivia has complete trust in him.The problem: he’s the orphaned son of runaway slaves and reluctant to travel and work with a white girl.

He especially fears the slave catchers who patrol the free states, hunting fugitive slaves. Not without qualms, they set off together. All goes well, despite the drudgery of survival in an isolated log cabin. Incapable of acknowledging her feelings for Mourning, Olivia thinks her biggest problem is her unrequited romantic interest in their young, single neighbor. Then her world falls apart. Strong-willed, vulnerable, and compassionate, Olivia is a compelling protagonist on a journey to find a way to do the right thing in a world in which so much is wrong.

The Olivia series consists of:
Book 1 – Olivia, Mourning (Historical – 1840s)
Book 2 – The Way the World Is (Historical – 1840s)
Book 3 – Whatever Happened to Mourning Free? (Vintage Contemporary -1967 and Historical – 1840s)
Book 4 – The Summer of 1848 (Historical – 1840s)
Book 5 – Money and Good Things (Historical – 1850s)

Other books by this author:
The Lonely Tree (Historical – 1930s-1960s, Israel)
The Summer of 1974 (Vintage Contemporary, Israel)