1) Come to the Oaks is a story set in a time when two men from opposite worlds couldn't be friends, much less lovers. Yet, in this deep and heartfelt story, these men are determined to escape to be free to love and live the lives they were meant to live. Mr. Clark paints a vivid world of strife and delivers a wonderful historical tale of two men who will stop at nothing to be together. A highly recommended read.
2) The author tackled a very difficult subject in a very respectful and informative way. I learned so much that I didn't know before - all the while believing in the developing romance of Ben and Tobias.
3) Come to the Oaks successfully transports the reader back to an era that none of us experienced first-hand--and that is only one of its many achievements. I was enthralled in not only the love story, but the story of Tobias and Ben's effort to escape. It was refreshing to see each story take a back-seat when necessary, but still remain important to the overall plot. The supporting characters were all essential, the setting was impressively described and Bryan's ability to effectively portray a time frame from hundreds of years ago is a feat that couldn't have been easy. This book could've easily been something that lacked depth or historical authenticity. But, it had both. Each character's journey was distinctly unique--and provided the necessary spark to keep me reading and anticipating each scene.
4) This was a fantastic story, well written and well researched. It captures the deceit and cruelty of the slave era where people in Africa were taken from their homeland betrayed, tortured and enslaved by white men, then sold to the highest bidder. It shows how not all white men believed nor agreed in what was done to these families, where women were raped, families were separated and the weak and sick were killed because they found no use for them. It is heartbreaking reading these events although, in the book we know it was written as fiction, one has to wonder how much of this actually happened in real life. This is the first story I've read from this author and would like to read more. Well done!
Gay - Historical
Paperback: 274 pages
Publisher: Cornbread Publishing; 1 edition (March 6, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0997056231
ISBN-13: 978-0997056235
Amazon: Come to the Oaks: The Story of Ben and Tobias Bryan T. Clark
In 1845, as America is drowning in its own racial conflict, in a time when forbidden love has to remain a secret, can two young men find love when one has everything to lose, and the other has nothing? For Tobias, a young African man, life has ended before it began. Snatched abruptly from his homeland and enslaved into the Antebellum South, grand homes and majestic oak trees meant little to him. Now he is considered the property of other men, but his spirit would not be broken. The awkward Benjamin Nathanael Lee lives a privileged life. His father owns the largest tobacco plantation south of the Mason Dixon line. Ben wants little to do with the harsh realities of running a plantation—that is, until he meets Tobias, the one person that changes everything for him. Wealth, greed, and power brought them together. The same now threatens to separate them forever. The two men are on the verge of losing the one thing that matters: their love for one another. Against the odds, they steal off and embark on a journey to find freedom: the freedom to love one another and to live a life without the chains of slavery. Come to the Oaks is the tale of a forbidden romance—a love forged by two young men as they journey through a land that is tearing itself apart.
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