Elaine Hussey

Holiday Greetings! This season always reminds me of my mother, and how much she loved to prepare the family dinner. We could count on her cornbread dressing and her famous peach cobbler. I'm sharing that recipe with readers on my website. To celebrate my mother and mothers everywhere, I'm giving away a digital copy of THE SWEETEST HALLELUJAH, the story of two women who cross color boundaries and break all the rules in the burning caldron of 1955 Mississippi to save a child.

THE SWEETEST HALLELUJAH

Betty Jewel Hughes was once the hottest black jazz singer in Memphis. But when she finds herself pregnant and alone, she gives up her dream of being a star to raise her beautiful daughter, Billie, in Shakerag, Mississippi. Now, ten years later, in 1955, Betty Jewel is dying of cancer and looking for someone to care for Billie when she's gone. With no one she can count on, Betty Jewel does the unthinkable: she takes out a want ad seeking a loving mother for her daughter.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, recently widowed Cassie Malone is an outspoken housewife insulated by her wealth and privileged white society. Working part-time at a newspaper, she is drawn to Betty Jewel through her mysterious ad. With racial tension in the South brewing, the women forge a bond as deep as it is forbidden. But neither woman could have imagined the gifts they would find in each other, and in the sweet young girl they both love with all their hearts. Deeply moving and richly evocative, The Sweetest Hallelujah is a remarkable tale about finding hope in a time of turmoil, and about the transcendent and transformative power of friendship.

Contest ends: December 16, 2013