WINFIELD

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

by Book Blog

Posted on February 4, 2020

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee.

I really enjoyed this book.  It’s cute historical fiction, but historical fiction as told through today's lens. The characters are believable, featuring a family that you wouldn’t typically see many books over, especially historical fiction set in the south.  Jo is living with her increasingly ill father, under a house because they have no money and can’t find proper jobs because they are Chinese immigrants in a segregated society.  Lots of family secrets find their way to the light of day when Jo, in one of a series of desperate acts, starts writing an advice column for a local newspaper which is about to go out of business. That advice column, logically, leads to a horse race...how you do.