Miss Love challenges the deferential behavior expected of the hired "colored" help, Will reacts with anger at her lack of understanding of Georgian customs.

Social injustice in Cold Sassy extends beyond racial issues. A cotton mill located on the town's outskirts employs impoverished mountain residents who live in a nearby area known as Mill Town. These workers, often called "lintheads" due to their appearance after working at the mill, are thin and weary-looking, with tangled, unkempt white-blond hair. Their unsanitary living conditions frequently lead to problems like "the cooties and the itch." The children's school attendance is irregular, with most completing no more than two years of education. Will feels uncomfortable around them, partly because of their dirty appearance and partly due to his increasing awareness of the class disparities. The "lintheads" bear a harsher social stigma than other poor white individuals in the story. In Cold Sassy, prejudice correlates with the degree of visible difference between groups. Their blue eyes and towheaded hair set them apart from the town's mainstream residents, creating a barrier similar to racial or ethnic divides. The novel offers insight into class distinctions and social mobility in rural white Georgia during this era.

Critics often compare Will Tweedy to Mark Twain's Huck Finn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1854) and Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye (1951). Through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Tweedy, we get an honest yet playful depiction of life. As the eventful year of 1906 progresses, Will Tweedy faces complex issues like death, prejudice, and love. The journey remains lively and captivating, largely due to Tweedy's charm and youthful energy. Much like a character from Twain, Will effortlessly navigates from one mischief to another social dilemma without losing his stride.

The unexpected success of the novel led to a surge of letters to Olive Ann Burns, all asking for a follow-up to Cold Sassy Tree. In 1987, she faced a second round of chemotherapy, which resulted in congestive heart failure and required her to rest in bed for over a year. By February 1988, with the help of a Dictaphone and her neighbor and secretary, Norma Duncan, she began working on the sequel, which she planned to title Time, Dirt, and Money. Her father, William Arnold Burns, served as the inspiration for Will Tweedy in Cold Sassy Tree, and Time, Dirt, and Money was intended to chronicle her parents' life and marriage during the Depression era. Unfortunately, the book remained incomplete when she passed away on July 4, 1990.

Her committed editor at Ticknor & Fields, Katrina Kenison, gathered the initial chapters Olive Burns had finished and added her notes. Kenison also penned a reflection on Olive Ann Burns, and together with the material for Time, Dirt, and Money, this collection formed Leaving Cold Sassy, the unfinished sequel to Cold Sassy Tree, which was published in 1992 by Ticknor & Fields.

In Leaving Cold Sassy, Burns aimed to explore what one critic described as the "interior limbo of a marriage . . . the adult experience of disappointment and despair." The tone, theme, and structure differ significantly from Cold Sassy Tree, but the abrupt ending makes it difficult to critique too closely. It is evident that Burns did not intend to create another Cold Sassy Tree but rather to delve into the complexities of a marriage under strain.

In 1986, Faye Dunaway acquired the film rights to Cold Sassy Tree. The Turner Network Television adaptation premiered in October 1989 and was subsequently made available on home video. The movie features Faye Dunaway, Richard Widmark, and Neil Patrick Harris. The screenplay remains relatively true to the original, maintaining much of the dialogue and storyline, although it does take some creative liberties with structural and minor aspects. Burns was disheartened to find that the film's portrayal of her meticulously crafted "down home" dialect was filled with the accents and grammar typical of educated Northerners.

The film suffers significantly from its condensed format, primarily due to weak character development. To emphasize the romantic elements, this version reduces Will Tweedy's role to that of a passive observer, lingering in the background. As a result, the story loses much of its vibrancy. Rucker also shares this problem of lackluster portrayal alongside Will Tweedy. In certain scenes, like Camp Williams' funeral, Rucker captures some of the intensity that defined his character in the book. However, the movie's Rucker Blakeslee lacks the humor and vitality of the original character. Rucker's daughter, Loma Blakeslee Williams, portrayed as a beautiful, arrogant, and self-centered "little she-devil" in the novel, appears on screen as just another rude and catty woman with a pompadour. The only character to truly reflect the novel in both essence and style is Faye Dunaway's Love Simpson. Since a film adaptation must selectively reveal the plot, the storyline is inevitably weaker than in the novel. Therefore, strong, well-developed characterization is crucial for capturing the essence of the book. Without the depth of the other main characters and a dynamic Will Tweedy, the film's sweet romance comes across as overly sentimental and easily forgettable.