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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: — Twenty Cents
Chapter 3: — Rejection Letters and Backgammon Kings
Chapter 4: — The Wrong Kind of Kiss
Chapter 5: — The Dance Floor Crown
Chapter 6: — Promises, Proposals, and the Gold Coast
Chapter 7: — Houses That Hide Women
Chapter 8: — Babies as Property
Chapter 9: — The Lie That Builds a Family
Chapter 10: — What It Costs to Forget
Description
The House of Eve follows two intertwined lives in late-1940s America: Ruby Pearsall, a brilliant Philadelphia teen chasing a scholarship as her only way out, and Eleanor Quarles, an ambitious Howard University student aching to belong. Ruby’s world is shaped by poverty, harassment, and an unstable mother; Eleanor’s by elite Black society, sorority politics, and the pressure of respectability.
When romance and desire collide with racial boundaries and social power, both women are funneled toward the same terrifying answer to “unwed pregnancy”: secrecy. A so-called rescue becomes a trap—maternity homes, coerced surrender, and carefully curated lies—where babies are treated like assets and mothers are expected to disappear. As choices harden into consequences, each woman must decide what survival costs—and what parts of herself she can live without.
Who Should Listen
- Listeners who enjoy emotionally intense historical fiction about women’s autonomy, class, and hidden social systems.
- Fans of dual-timeline/dual-protagonist narratives centered on motherhood, secrecy, and moral tradeoffs.
- Readers interested in Black elite culture, colorism, and the mid-century “baby scoop era” through a fictional lens.