The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart

My family does names out of a hat for adults for Christmas.  We each get one person to buy for, and we choose a theme.  We've done flat gifts only, A Blue Christmas, picnic baskets, socks and jammies, hoodies, surprise interest-based, and this year: Want, Need, Wear, Read.  We each had to list 4 items, 1 per category, and the giver chose any combo up to $50.  This was my Read choice from my cousin-in-law Juliet. 

This was recommended to me by Amazon.  I'm guessing since your phone tracks basically everything, and there is a lot of NASCAR between North Carolina and Georgia...

This was a fairly easy read with nothing major happening.  I know that sounds strange.  It was NOT boring, but there was no OMG plot twist.  There were a couple of tough scenes--Black workers face much harsher treatment, women are treated as property, all as one would expect in the early days of the Depression in these locations.   

Rae Lynn is a turpentine farmer in NC, married to a bumbling idiot who falls off a ladder.  She shoots him in the head to end his pain, but doesn't know his friend sees it.  She goes on the run, ending up in Swallow Hill, a labor camp.  Del, a womanizing farmhand, gets caught being naughty with his wife's boss.  After the boss tries to kill him in revenge, he leaves and ends up at Swallow Hill.  Rae, disguised as Ray, and Del work together until Rae's is found out.  The camp owner's wife Nellie falls in love with Rae, and the 3 escape to Del's sister's home.  Del and Rae marry and have children, helping out Del's family and Aunt Nellie.  

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