Laila Ibrahim’s new novel Scarlet Carnation is the fourth book in her Yellow Crocus series. In this one, we continue the family’s journey. The story started with Mattie, an enslaved wet nurse and nanny, who once cared for Lisbeth, the daughter of a rich plantation owner. But over the years, abolition has come, the world has changed, and their own lives have changed. Now, there are two connected families living in San Francisco, one Black and one white. The story picks up with their descendants, May and Naomi, but there are familiar characters from the previous books.

When Scarlet Carnation opens, both women are close to achieving their dreams. May is walking out with an ideal young man, who will propose when he graduates. Naomi is about to buy a house for her family, and give them all the security they want. There’s a clear sense that they have choices and opportunities their ancestors didn’t, and there’s a lot of optimism.

The first mention of a scarlet carnation is mother’s day, and mother’s love connects a lot of the events in this story. White carnations represent the wearer’s love for a lost mothers, and red carnations represent the love for a living mother.  Throughout the book, mother love powers a lot of of the story. We have the two matriarchs of the two families, familiar characters from the previous books.

Later in the story, we see young May struggle with an accidental pregnancy, while the young man she considered her future husband just takes off, without any consequences. Single motherhood will be difficult, she know she’s essentially closing off any other path, but she eventually decides to do this for her daughter’s sake.

Naomi always tries to do the best for her children and whole her family, but the house she buys is in a neighborhood that becomes whites-only,  and she may lose all the years of savings put into her home. Her children are much older than May’s, so her sons are old enough to join the military… Again, a mother’s love power the story.

It’s hard to review this book, because I spent most of it disappointed that I wasn’t reading another book by this author, Paper Wife, again. Scarlet Carnation is a perfectly good next installation in the Yellow Crocus series, and I enjoyed reading it. But, I couldn’t stop thinking, yeah, this is an interesting story, but it’s not as good as Paper Wife.

Overall, this is an engaging story, with a historical setting and timely messages about equality.