Huelga House

Rating:
Summary: Stirring, Surprising, Skilled Writing
Review: A wrenching, realistic coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Cezar Chavez farm workers strike, this book is so well done I could smell the grape fields! A rousing mystery,
moving love story, and gripping personal struggle kept me reading all night.
An unusual book.

Rating:
Summary: Stirring, Surprising, Skilled Writing
Review: A wrenching, realistic coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Cezar Chavez farm workers strike, this book is so well done I could smell the grape fields! A rousing mystery,
moving love story, and gripping personal struggle kept me reading all night.
An unusual book.

Rating:
Summary: Top Drawer Literary Achievement!
Review: Bonnie Hearn is an exceptionally talented writer. Her prose will knock your socks off! She spins a great yarn about a time in the Central Valley's history that changed the lives of migrant workers forever. I love fiction woven into historical events. Bonnie's characters live on these pages. You'll take their journey with them, and you'll be totally satisfied at its conclusion. The characters are well developed and the historical facts are accurate. You'll be happy you read this one.

Rating:
Summary: Huelga House
Review: Bonnie Hearn's HUELGA HOUSE is eminently a work of fine-tuning, worthy of every bit of praise it receives.
Two things are really important to me in any story that is in some sense a mystery. I need to care about the characters, and it has to fool me. HUELGA HOUSE was so rich with characters I really cared about. And the red herrings were strewn with wicked precision. The twist at the end was powerful, yet devoid of the cornball pyrotechnics that are all the rage these days, and, moreover, FOOLED me!
In summary, somewhere between my two favorite stories, THE GRAPES OF WRATH and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, lies HUELGA HOUSE.
And it stands tall in that good company.

Rating:
Summary: Central California in Conflict: A Fight for Survival
Review: Hearn has captured the turmoil that affected California farmworkers and owners in 1965. This was a tumultuous time, a time when traditional farmworking practices were challenged, a time that changed farm labor relationships forever.

Hearn's characters take on a life of their own as she leads the reader on a suspenseful journey to solve the murder of the protagonist's sister, a farm labor activist. It is high interest, exciting, historically accurate and just plain good reading. Huelga House is an excellent, well-crafted story. You won't want to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: The Times They Were A-Changing
Review: In his quest to hunt down his sister's suspected killer, college student Coy Lee Tuttle is compelled to come to terms with his beliefs, his friends, his family, and his world -- the volatile world of farmers, migrant workers and union organizers in 1960's California. Bonnie Hearn has written a page-turner that stays focused on the mystery while evoking images and memories of such things as the draft, protests, union organizing rallies, Dylan, and a period when our country itself was coming of age. Huelga House is a well-written, moving and compelling find.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating Story
Review: This coming of age and mystery story transforms us to the San Joaquin Valley in California during the grape strike. I found it very interesting and a captivating read.