The first line in this book immediately drew me in. “I had seen plenty of dead people before.” A great debut historical fiction that depicts a girl, Rosaleen, who has lost her parents and knows she has to flee Ireland during the potato famish. Rosaleen has tons of resiliency as she finds ways to thrive while immigrating to America.
A must read if you love historical fiction and interested in knowing more history of Ireland during the 1800s.

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4.5!
Another fantastic read about the Irish and what it was like for them coming here to America. Rosaleen has found her way to America after her family perished during the potato famine, and she is one of the lucky ones finding work quickly and obtaining boarding and no worry of food or sickness anymore. She befriends the cook, an African American woman and is quickly learning that America is not such a "Land of the Free and Opportunity" as there is a lot of racism and inequality she is learning as she ventures out and asks Marie questions about her life and her family. She cannot believe that slavery is very much real and alive here in the south, and remember that Ireland went through something very similar, so she sets out to try and do as much as she can to change things here in America meanwhile she is struggling with not being around her own people and has to make a tough decision that may set her back from what she currently has but she needs to do what she feels is right in her heart and after some hardship with settling in and trying to become part of abolitionists, she finally finds what she was meant to do. This was such a great read! I flew through this in a day and already started to read the second one. Thank you to the author for sending me a free autographed copy! ( )

This Irish famine lasted from 1845 - 1852. During this time, over one million people died and another million people emigrated - 70% of them to the United States. Signed, A Paddy begins in 1848. Fourteen year old Rosaleen promised her mother on her death bed that she would do whatever it took to survive. With no food, no money and no family left she traveled to Cork and went to work at a work house. It was crowded and dirty but at least there was food available. The healthiest people were told that they were being sent to Australia to start new lives. After hearing about how they would be treated in Australia, she managed to get on a ship to the United States. The ship was dirty and many people died during the voyage. Rosaleen met Emmett on the ship and he helped her survive the trip and they became friends and eventually more than friends. They knew that they both needed to get jobs before they could plan a life together so he moved to another town where he had a job promised and she stayed in Boston and worked at a restaurant/hotel where she makes several good friends. Her new friend, Marie, is black and explains to Roseleen about the prejudice against black people in America. Rosaleen is feeling considerable prejudice because the Irish were not liked in America during this time. She eventually moved to Lowell and went to work in a cotton mill. While there, she gets involved in suffrage groups and labor groups that were working for fair pay and benefits for their jobs in the mills. Roseleen is young but determined to work for the fair treatment of women, Irish, black and working people.

I've always been interested in this time period because many of my ancestors emigrated from Ireland to America during this time period. This book showed how the Irish were treated in America and how hard they worked to acclimate themselves into this county. Rosaleen was a well written main character. She showed bravery, resilience and a firm belief against exploitation of her friends and fellow workers. Her character embodies the struggles that many immigrants faced in America during this time.

This was a great book and it was full of information about America during this time period. It was apparent that the author had done considerable research to make this book historically correct as well as fun to read. There is a second book in the series releasing in 2022 called Dear Inmate that continues Rosaleen's story in America. ( )