"Homegoing meets The Mothers where three women are tied together by blood, love, and family secrets in this searing novel by New York Times bestseller Denene Millner. Raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her Maw Maw. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie-a woman who firmly left behind her "undesirable" Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Thrust into the world ofthe Black and socially ambitious, Grace finds herself trapped in a society of stifling respectability, fancy teas, and coveted debutante balls. Feeling like a fish out of water, Grace's only place of sweet comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society's grand dames. However, when Dale gets caught up in a racial police killing and Grace ends up pregnant, she is quickly hidden away and he is promptly shipped off to college. Then in the ultimate act of betrayal, Grace is deceived by Hattie, and her brand new baby girl is given up for adoption. Beautiful, intelligent and fierce, Delores a.k.a. Lolo has never had it easy. Her life has been riddled with pain and loss. Once she makes it up north, she puts aside her dream of being a model to do what she has to do to survive as a woman with little money and no mooring: get married and have a family of her own. And she will tell lies and keep secrets to obtain it. Then Lolo does have it all: a doting husband, a beautiful son and daughter, and a lovely home. When secrets start to spill out and she and her family slowly begin to unravel, Lolo is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her dream intact and those she loves together. When Lolo's headstrong daughter, Rae discovers that she is adopted, itis just one secret among others that her family is keeping. Not out of a desire to deceive, but out of a determination to survive and protect. When Rae finds out that she is about to become a mother herself, she knows that there is an important reckoningthat must be faced about herself and her two mothers. Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women's equality in early 2000s, Denene Millner's beautifully wrought novel explores three women's intimate struggle with generational trauma and healing"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

Discovering she’s adopted, Rae, about to become a mother herself, knows there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers, in a novel spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women’s equality in the early 2000s. - (Baker & Taylor)

A People Magazine Pick.

“In delicious, decadent prose, Denene Millner does what few authors can–compose a sprawling multigenerational tale that is necessary American reading. One Blood sings the song of the South in a voice that is heartbreaking, hopeful, and resilient. A masterpiece.”
–Tara M. Stringfellow, National Bestselling author of Memphis

Join New York Times bestselling author Denene Millner as she explores the lives of three generations of women tied together by love, hope, dreams, ambition...and family secrets in this epic novel.

Meet Grace: raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her grandmother. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie?a woman who firmly left behind her Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Feeling like a fish out of water in the high society world filled with fancy teas and coveted debutante balls, Grace’s only place of comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society’s grand dames.

Meet Delores: beautiful, intelligent and fierce, Delores a.k.a. Lolo has never had it easy. Once she makes it north, she puts aside her dream of being a model to do what she has to do to survive as a woman with little money and no mooring: get married and have a family of her own. When secrets start to spill out and she and her family slowly begin to unravel, Lolo is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her dream intact and those she loves together.

Meet Rae: when Lolo’s headstrong daughter, Rae discovers that she is adopted, it’s just one secret among others that her family is keeping. When Rae finds out that she’s about to become a mother herself, she knows that there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers.

Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women’s equality in early 2000s, Denene Millner’s beautifully wrought novel explores three women’s intimate, and often complicated, struggle with what it truly means to be family.

DENENE MILLLNER is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, Emmy Award–nominated TV show host and award-winning journalist who has written thirty-one books, among them Taraji P. Henson’s Around the Way Girl and the picture book Early Sunday Morning. Millner is also the editorial director of Denene Millner Books, an award-winning imprint that has published two Caldecott Honor books, a Newbery Honor Book, the Kirkus Prize for Children’s Literature and a Southern Book Award. A MacDowell Fellow, Millner has written essays for the New York Times, Glamour and NPR, which hosted her critically-acclaimed podcast, “Speakeasy with Denene.” Millner is a graduate of Hofstra University. She lives in Atlanta with her two daughters and their goldendoodle, Franklin.


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Library Journal Reviews

In the New York Times best-selling Millner's One Blood, a Black girl named Grace is separated from her beloved grandmother and sent north from 1960s Virginia to live with her high-aspiring aunt, then separated from the boy with whom she falls in love. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Library Journal Reviews

Director of the eponymous Caldecott- and Newberry-honored imprint and a New York Times best-selling author of mostly YA titles, Millner beautifully limns the experiences of a woman who must give up her child, a mother who has adopted, and Black women everywhere who must negotiate the roles of wife and mother while entertaining their own dreams, all circumscribed by racism. Raised in Virginia by a midwife grandmother who still embraces the old ways, Grace is sent north to New York City after tragedy to live with a snippy aunt who denies her roots and has insinuated herself into the city's Black royalty. After bonding with a neighborhood boy who introduces her to the civil rights movement, Grace gets pregnant. Meanwhile, Lolo has fled her own tragedy for New York and has her own reasons to adopt. Thrumming with near-biblical cadence and enfolding a history of Black struggle, the narrative moves through Lolo's own struggles with marriage and motherhood (and her realization that "a simple loving act connected her not only to this little girl but also to her own mother"), finally bringing the novel to her adult daughter, Rae. VERDICT A bracing and important read with insights into adoption and motherhood, ending with the heartening words, "She wasn't afraid. She was doing her best. She was free."—Barbara Hoffert