In many ways, Mary Alice Monroe’s “Where the Rivers Merge” is an ode to the ACE Basin, a place in South Carolina where three rivers join. The main character, Eliza Rivers, shows us the beauty of this place as we learn about her life growing up at Mayfield, a large property that belonged to her father’s family.

Because the setting is the South, Monroe regales us about family names and the importance of family connections. Eliza’s father was Charleston royalty, from a long line of Charleston elite. They had land but not much money. Her mother, on the other hand, came from a wealthy family who were not members of Charleston’s high society. Sloan was thrilled to marry “up,” and have an entree into society.

Eliza grew up loving Mayfield, and she and her older brother Heyward cherished the land and the flora and fauna within its boundaries. When Eliza met Covey, the daughter of the plantation’s manager, they became fast friends, joined over their mutual love of nature. But Covey was Black, and that caused problems with their friendship. Eliza, in her naive, unprejudiced manner, couldn’t understand why society would look askance on their relationship.

We first meet Eliza, however, not as a child but as the head of a huge family corporation. She’s eighty-eight years old and her son is past ready to take on the reins of the company, especially because Eliza has put thousands of acres of the family property into a conservation easement, and he is determined that the last thousand acres, including the home, not be placed under the restraints of conservation. It’s the yearly family board meeting and as CEO, Eliza presides. But her son has other ideas.

Instead of attending the luncheon to celebrate her birthday, Eliza escapes Charleston to go to her home, her safe place, Mayfield. With her are one of her granddaughters, someone she hasn’t really gotten to know well, and Norah, another relative whom Eliza hadn’t previously met. It’s when they are at Mayfield that Eliza shares the story of her life and how she ended up as the powerful woman she is presently.

The narrative flows effectively as it switches from past to present, each chapter clearly delineated with the year. There is also, at the start of each chapter, a paragraph about an animal that resides in the ACE Basin. We grow to admire Eliza as we see her character, and even when she unflinchingly shares with the two younger women an event that portrays her in very poor light, she takes full responsibility for that fault. The writing is lovely, and Eliza’s voice in her first person narrative helps us understand her as a girl and then a young woman who was denied her heart’s desire.

Monroe writes about resilience, and says, “It is defined by an individual’s ability to be knocked down by fate, be tossed by uncertainty, and have one’s fortunes taken away. Then pick oneself up from the dirt and try again.” And while those sentences were Eliza describing her father, we see that it really was a much more apt description of Eliza herself as she tries to find her place in a time when women were not allowed to be all that they strived for. This was a time when women were not valued, and even though Eliza’s own father knew her worth, his prejudice and unwillingness to give her what she deserved demonstrated his own weakness. And from that weakness rose Eliza’s strength.

As we turn the pages, we see the struggle that anyone managing a plantation dealt with especially on the coast with hurricanes that destroyed all within their reach. We see the battles that Eliza’s father fought with his wife to keep her money funding the plantation in the poor years, and how it was inconceivable to him and to Eliza and her brother Heyward that they let the farm go.

There’s romance, love, heartache, war, death, friendships made and friendships destroyed, disappointments galore, and through it all, we see Eliza grow and mature and make the best of the cards that fate has dealt her.

I must admit that when the book ended a bit abruptly, I was disappointed. But only because by that time I was completely invested in Eliza’s story, as invested as the two fictional young women who accompanied her to Mayfield. This first book provides us with the background, what made Eliza strong and capable. We can look forward to learning how she accomplished all that she did in the sequel. And we can be assured that Monroe will continue to demonstrate the importance of conservation and protecting our wild places in that second novel.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.