I would give this book a perfect 10. It is an awesome, heart-wrenching story of Joanna, a young runaway, pregnant slave who has managed to make it to Elm Creek, Pennsylvania, where some sympathetic abolitionist women take her in and hide her until her baby is born. The story takes place in 1859, just prior to the beginning of the Civil War. It is a vivid, heart-breaking story of the abuse Joanna suffered before she ran away, and what happened to her after she was found and returned to her master (without her infant son).

The Lost Quilter continues the story of Joanna which began in Book #4, The Runaway Quilt, of Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilts series. The story of Dorothea, also begun in Book #4, The Runaway Quilt, continues in Book #7, The Sugar Camp Quilt. The final book in this series is Book #17, The Union Quilters: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel. I plan to read Book #7 next, and then Book #17.

These are wonderful stories. I highly recommend them to everyone