Book Blast: Lacewood by Jessica James

Lacewood by Jessica James

Publication Date: June 18, 2019

Patriot Press

eBook; 348 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Sometimes love is just too powerful for one lifetime…

Part love story, part ghost story, Lacewood is a timeless novel about trusting in fate, letting go of the past, and believing in things that can’t be seen.

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN in Virginia is a big change for New York socialite Katie McCain. But when she stumbles across an abandoned 200-year-old mansion, she’s enthralled by the enduring beauty of the neglected estate—and captivated by the haunting portrait of a woman in mourning.

Purchasing the property on a whim, Katie attempts to fit in with the colorful characters in the town of New Hope, while trying to unravel the mystery of the “widow of Lacewood.” As she pieces together the previous owner’s heartrending story, Katie uncovers secrets the house has held for centuries, and discovers the key to coming to terms with her own sense of loss.

The past and present converge when hometown hero Will Durham returns and begins his own healing process by helping the “city girl” restore the place that holds so many memories. As the mystic web of destiny is woven, a love story that might have been lost forever is exposed, and a destiny that has been waiting in the shadows for centuries is fulfilled.

Rich in emotion and poignant in its telling, Lacewood is an unforgettable story about love and loss, roots and belonging…and spirits of the past that refuse to be quieted. 

A haunting story from award-winning author Jessica James that connects the past with the present—and the present with eternity.

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About the Author

Jessica James is an award-winning author of suspense, historical fiction, and military fiction ranging from the Revolutionary War to modern day. Her highly acclaimed Civil War novel Shades of Gray won numerous national literary awards, and is often compared to Gone with the Wind.

By weaving the principles of courage, devotion, duty, and dedication into each book, James attempts to honor the unsung heroes of the American military--past and present--and to convey the magnitude of their sacrifice and service. Her novels appeal to both men and women and are featured in library collections all over the United States including Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy. 

James resides in Gettysburg, Pa., and is a member of the Military Writers Society of America, NINC, Sisters in Crime, and the Romance Writers of America. She is a two-time winner of the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and was featured in the book 50 Authors You Should Be Reading, published in 2010.

Sign up for her free newsletter at www.jessicajamesbooks.com and ask for a free copy of From the Heart: Civil War Love Letters and Stories. You can also find Jessica on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Guest Post: Finding Diamonds in the Dustbin of the 19th Century by Destiny Kinal, Author of Linen Shroud

Please join me in welcoming Destiny Kinal to Let Them Read Books! Destiny is celebrating the release of Linen Shroud, second book in the Textile Trilogy, and I'm pleased to have her here today with a guest post about the themes that form the basis for her trilogy and her hopes for the future.

Following the award-winning Burning Silk, The Textile Trilogy picks up the story of two families, one Native American, the other French Huguenot, with the central novel in the trilogy, Linen Shroud. 

Here, as the changes that brought civil war to the United States gather and then break, a savage transformation challenges our dreams of possibilities on this new continent, transplanting the sensory world we evolved with as agricultural humans.

Pitched battles for the soul of the future are underway, echoing the bloody battle between North and South:

✥ Will the women of European bloodlines win the respect and equity their Native American sisters enjoy in their matrilineal culture?

✥ Will the craft village be able to hold out against the onslaught of the Lowell model, the factory’s assault on the fabric of community?

Finding Diamonds in the Dustbin of the 19th Century

by Destiny Kinal

In Linen Shroud Destiny Kinal beautifully illuminates how our ancestors approached conundrums similar to the ones we are facing in our time now, with vibrantly alive characters expressing both Native and European values. How does flax—a tough and finicky plant fiber with a willowy blue flower—transform into the luminous satiny textile that lasts for generations, growing more soft and supple with time? The formative struggles that Linen Shroud draws on suggest that the conflicts our ancestors succumbed to or mastered in the nineteenth century have shaped us to find solutions today to the insoluble.

The first two novels of the Textile Trilogy, each based on a fiber, are fused style to substance, silk being sensual and electric, linen being difficult to process but long-lasting.

Burning Silk celebrates the sensory world unmitigated by machinery powered by extractive fuels, which set a new pace for the rhythms of life.

Linen Shroud deals with conflict and the losses. The difficulty of creating something durable.

By the end of the18th century, it became clear that a new breed of settlers would not co-exist with mixed blood people. The lands we sought to take, we took by force, not willing to co-exist and learn a new way of life.

Linen Shroud reflects the many wars that were being waged in the middle of the 19th century.

Resistors were still thinking they might succeed. The fast-paced machinery of the extractive fuel age broke apart the traditional craft village, which had defined us as a species, to relocate community in the factory town.

The guilds of this time foresaw modernity's devastation to the environment and to the community. 150 years later, we are now fully witnessing the effects of a virulent capitalism and dislocation.

All of the damage that the nineteenth century wrought, and the twentieth century nailed into place, can be remedied, if we have both will and vision. Earth herself has proven to have strong powers of regeneration. Will we die as a species because we cannot moderate our consumer culture, the glut of which is choking us?

The Petroleum Era can be seen as a 150 year blip, an anomaly in the long span of the evolution of our species, the last 12,000 years being lived in small, agricultural, craft-based communities.

We already have the positive elements of reconstruction in place.

Blog Tour Review: The Innkeeper's Sister by Linda Goodnight

From the Back Cover:

Welcome to Honey Ridge, Tennessee, where Southern hospitality and sweet peach tea beckon, and where long-buried secrets lead to some startling realizations

Grayson Blake always has a purpose and never a moment to lose. He's come home to Honey Ridge to convert a historic gristmill into a restaurant, but his plans crumble like Tennessee clay when the excavation of a skeleton unearths a Civil War mystery and leads him back to a beautiful and familiar stranger.

Once a ballet dancer, now co-owner of the Peach Orchard Inn, Valery Carter harbors pain as deep as the secrets buried beneath the mill. A bright facade can't erase her regrets any more than a glass of bourbon can restore what she's lost. But spending time with Grayson offers Valery a chance to let go of her past and imagine a happier future. And with the discovery of hidden messages in aged sheet music, both their hearts begin to open. Bound by attraction, and compelled to resolve an old crime that links the inn and the mill, Grayson and Valery encounter a song of hurt, truth, and hope. 

My Thoughts:

The Honey Ridge trilogy revolves around an old Tennessee farmhouse that has been converted into an inn and two families that have inhabited it: the Portlands in the nineteenth century and the Carters in the present day. Each book is presented in dual timeline format. The Portlands are presented during and after the Civil War, when the house was used as a Union hospital, and then as the South tried to put itself back together only to fall on hard times again with the crash of 1873. The Carters are a family still reeling from the disappearance of Julia's son, Mikey, from divorce, and from another dark secret that Valery, Julia's sister, has been holding close for many years. Each family copes with similar events--tragedy, hardship, relationship drama--and while their stories don't mirror each other completely, there are enough similarities and lasting consequences to form a connection. However, the Carters have a little help in dealing with their troubles since the spirits of the Portlands still inhabit the Peach Orchard Inn. They are friendly spirits whose calming influence helps ease heavy hearts and whose little nudges help the Carters piece together the history of the inn and find true love.

This final book focuses on Valery, the youngest Carter sister. Over the years she has earned a reputation as a party girl. She struggles with inner demons that drive her to drink away her pain, though in the process she ends up letting herself and her family down. When a boy from her youth returns to Honey Ridge, all grown up and ready to renovate the old gristmill across the road into a fancy restaurant, Valery discovers that there are still good men in the world, and though Grayson Blake is her polar opposite, she's never wanted to be so worthy of someone. Grayson had a crush on Valery as a teenager, but an illness robbed him of his youthful innocence and put him on the path of strictly regimented projects and timelines, both in business and in his personal life. But Valery turns his carefully constructed world upside down, and he finds himself wanting to live a little, to let go a little, and wonder if the future has something far different in mind for him than he'd imagined--if only Valery would open up to him and let him help her.

When excavation at the mill uncovers a skeleton dating to the Civil War, while at the same time Grayson discovers secret codes in sheet music composed by Patience Portland, one of the inn's earlier inhabitants, a mystery ensues, one that Valery and Grayson enjoy solving together with the help of a mysterious old man who seems to know much more than should be humanly possible. Back in 1875, Ben Portland, the new owner of the inn, is seeking to correct an old injustice, and in the process uncovers a dark family secret, one that could mean the ruination of his beloved aunt--and one that still has repercussions in the present day. As Valery realizes the similarities between her own story and that of Patience, she must come to terms with her own dark secret and find the strength to let it go if she ever wants a chance at happiness.

Blog Tour Q&A with Richard Buxton, Author of Whirligig

Please join me in welcoming Richard Buxton to Let Them Read Books! Richard is touring the blogosphere with his debut historical novel, Whirligig: Keeping the Promise, and I recently had the chance to ask him a few questions about his interest in the American Civil War and the inspiration for his protagonist. Read on and enter to win a copy of Whirligig!

The first novel from multi-award winning short-story writer Richard Buxton, Whirligig is at once an outsider’s odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that will pull him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War and through the bloody battlefields of the West, where he will discover a second home for his loyalty.


Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that comes ever closer.

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Barnes & Noble

Hi Richard! Thanks so much for stopping by today!

What sparked your interest in the American Civil War?

I came at it a little sideways. In my twenties I read Dee Brown’s Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, one of the saddest history books you could ever read about the Indian Wars. It’s mainly set in the decade or so after the Civil War.  I spoke about it to my father-in-law, who then gave me Shelby Foote’s classic historical trilogy The Civil War – A Narrative.  I was swept away by the scale of a conflict I knew so little about and by the incredible personalities involved. As an Englishman who had been to University in America, I was already fascinated by most things American, so primed to want to understand its history and how the Civil War related to modern day America. When I turned to writing a little later in life, setting my stories in that period was a natural fit.

Your main character is an Englishman who becomes involved in the War Between the States. What motivates him to join the fight? Did you have any real-life inspiration for him?

I’ll flip the order on those questions, if you don’t mind. My father worked on the Duke of Bedford’s Estate as a boy, before and during the Second World War. Even as late as that, the farms weren’t fully mechanized and my father worked with the great Shire horses, feeding them and getting them into harness. He wrote his recollections in his later years. I wanted an Englishman for the novel. This was a perfect starting point and I had my father’s detailed notes to boot. I had my character, Shire, work with the horses just as my father had. The names of the horses in the book are even the ones my father worked with. Other than that, there is very little of my father in Shire’s character. I wanted Shire to be a bit useless when he first becomes a soldier; a little wide eyed and naive. My father was far more competent and worldly-wise, although of course I didn’t know him in his youth.

Shire doesn’t join the army out of a wish to join the fight. To him it’s a means to an end. He is penniless and needs to go south, so he’s rather cornered into signing up by circumstance. As his story goes on, he builds strong friendships in his regiment and comes to see it as the only home he has left. He starts to understand the deeper meaning of the war, to believe it’s a cause worth fighting for, though he never loses sight of the fact that, war aside, he has a promise to keep.

Blog Tour Excerpt:The Irish Milliner by Cynthia G. Neale

The Irish Milliner

by Cynthia G. Neale

On Sale June 2, 2017

Fireship Press

eBook; 276 Pages

Genre: Fiction/Historical/Romance

It is New York City and the Civil War is brewing. Norah McCabe, an Irish immigrant who escaped the Famine as a child, is now a young widow with a daughter. She is a milliner, struggling to survive in tumultuous times. Norah meets Abraham Lincoln, befriends the extraordinary African-American woman Elizabeth Jennings, and assists the Underground Railroad. She falls headlong in love with Edward M. Knox, son of the famous hat-maker Charles Knox, but he is lace curtain Irish and she is shanty Irish. Edward joins the 69th regiment and leaves for battle. Can their love endure through class differences and war?

This is a story of survival, intrigue, romance, as well as, exploring the conflict of Irish immigrants thrust into a war that threatened to destroy a nation. It is about an Irish-American woman who could be any immigrant today, any woman today, seeking to create beauty and make sense of her life.

“Suddenly the Civil War seems very relevant and Cynthia Neale does a great job of focusing on the role of the Irish in the conflict. And it's great fun to be in touch with her wonderful character, Norah McCabe, again!” ~Mary Pat Kelly, author of Galway Bay and Of Irish Blood

“This timely novel spans centuries to bring to our attention to a topic as old as yesterday, as expedient as tomorrow⎯emigration. Neale's work, written with love and insight, reminds us that our neighbor is all mankind.” ~Tim Pat Coogan, Irish broadcaster, journalist, writer and author of 1916 The Easter Rising, Michael Collins and The Famine Plot

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo

EXCERPT:

This is an excerpt taken from the scene when Norah goes with her black friend, Elizabeth Jennings, to visit some of the runaway slaves in the basement of the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, NY. She has been making hats for the Underground Railroad women fleeing to Canada from the south:

Norah is silent and fearful of taking such a powerful charm from this woman. She has never intended to become this entwined with the Negro just because she is friends with Elizabeth Jennings. She wants to leave. She can't get enough air in her lungs and her heart is pacing in her chest like a frightened animal. She doesn't know how to tell Sarah she can't accept this lucky box. Sarah needs it more than she does and Norah doesn't believe in any luck that can double. The woman's own beaten husband made it for her. Why would she give it to her, she wonders. She wants to get back to Katie and Sean and go home for a strong cup of tea.

"Where are the hats that Norah made?" Elizabeth asks, interrupting the interchange between Sarah and Norah.

Sarah rushes to the corner of the room and pulls the bonnets out of a burlap bag. When the women put them on their heads, Norah sees them transformed into free, dignified women in the candlelight. They smile at her and then she carefully places the four-leaf clover charm inside her bodice and near her heart.

Spotlight: Abbey's Tale by Katherine McDermott

Abbey's Tale

by Katherine McDermott

November 30, 2016

The Wild Rose Press

Historical Romance

ebook; 161 pages

ASIN: B01LX0ARZR

An immigrant from Ireland, Jeremy McKetcheon took the place of a wealthy New Englander drafted into the Union Army during the Civil War. Jeremy, terribly scarred by a shell that set fire to his tent, is now a reclusive lighthouse keeper on an island off the coast of Maine. He is haunted by flashbacks of the war, and never expects to find love, understanding, or acceptance.

 Beautiful but blind from birth, Abigail Morrison sees the world through the intricate carvings her father brings back from Lighthouse Island when he takes supplies there. She wonders about the artistic carver and why he hides from the world. But when the opportunity arises for her to visit the island, she and her father are tossed overboard in a raging storm. Having seen their distress from the lighthouse, Jeremy attempts a rescue in the frigid waters, and all their lives are changed forever.

Excerpt:

Abigail gasped and sucked cold salt water into her nose and sinuses. It stung and made her eyes tear as she choked it back up. She flailed at the water, trying to remember what her father had taught her about swimming as a child, but the lessons had taken place in a calm inlet not a tempest.

“Papa!” she screamed. “Papa!”

Could he hear her above the roar of the sea and the pouring rain? She felt something churning the surface of the water.

My God, a shark?!

Thunder cracked overhead. Teeth closed around her upper right arm. She screamed and reached out with her left hand, but the head she touched had hair, short hair, and she felt a long, floppy ear—a dog.

The heavy wool cape dragged her down. She tried to clutch the dog, but it let go its grip. I’m pulling it under too. She untied the cape at her throat and let it disappear into the surf. Her teeth chattered in her head, and she felt cold, as cold as death. So this is how it feels to die.

No longer able to struggle, she slipped beneath the surface.

Spotlight: Scarred by Michael Kenneth Smith

SCARRED: A CIVIL WAR NOVEL OF REDEMPTION
By Michael Kenneth Smith
Publication date: August 30, 2016
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN (13) 978-1-5303-7974-3; $12.95
Paperback; 182 pages; Historical Fiction

After fatally wounding the Confederate sharpshooter who killed his best friend, Zach Harkin’s sense of revenge shifts to deep remorse when he views the dead man’s diary and finds a treasured family photo in his pocket. Haunted by what he’s seen and unable to continue to fight, he is mustered out of service and begins an epic journey in search of the dead man’s family. Captured, imprisoned, tortured and thoroughly tested as a human being, Zach is keenly aware escape is his only hope—but he never expects love to be his redemption.

SCARRED is a touching, gripping sequel certain to satisfy fans of HOME AGAIN and an equally confident stand-alone sure to create new fans for the writing of Michael Kenneth Smith.

Praise:

“Michael Kenneth Smith’s absorbing historical novel explores the violence and moral
dilemmas endured by civilians, prisoners, and soldiers alike during the bloody Civil War….Harkin is a vibrant protagonist who grows increasingly sympathetic throughout. Meanwhile, Scarred’s pace is nearly cinematic… This, however, isn’t a war novel; it’s the story of Harkin’s quest for redemption and closure. Historical fiction and Civil War buffs will wish Scarred were closer to the epic length of Gone with the Wind, simply because the subject never grows tiresome….an engrossing, moving read.”--BLUEINK REVIEW

“This lean Civil War sequel packs in more history and raw emotion than a 600-page epic….Smith writes wonderfully and realistically, and one can hear the pacing and menace:… Smith knows the Civil War in his bones, and his novel will leave readers emotionally drained but grateful.”--Kirkus Reviews

“SCARRED is an eloquent tale told through vividly fleshed-out characters…and is enjoyable historical fiction with a romantic twist.”—Foreword Clarion Reviews

“This is a novel not just about the Civil War - or even war itself – but rather an examination of the layered scars of trauma laid down by months and years spent in the battlefield. Ultimately it is a story about the human heart and how love and friendship heals and maybe even redeems.”
—Rafael Lima, Professor, University of Miami, School of Communication

“Smith is a master of description and dialogue. . . . In a long weekend, one could read Scarred all the way through and feel rewarded by the familiarity of characters, enhanced knowledge of the Civil War and excellent writing.”—Jill Zima Borski, Board chair, Florida Outdoor Writers Association, and author of Know That I Have Lived, a memoir in essays

“ . . . a haunting love story . . . . keeps the reader turning pages, rooting for this man who finds himself trapped between the North and South and only wanting peace.”—Susannah Carlson, author of Picnic Point

Spotlight: The Other Side of Life by Andy Kutler

The Other Side of Life

by Andy Kutler

Publication Date: August 11, 2015

Neverland Publishing Company LLC

Formats: Trade Paperback and Kindle

Pages: 360

Genre: Historical Fiction

December 1941, Pearl Harbor. A peaceful Sunday morning turns into a devastating attack on American soil. Naval officer Malcolm “Mac” Kelsey is severely wounded while defending his ship. A flawed man abandoned long ago by his alcoholic wife, Kelsey has been mired in despair and hopelessness following the accidental death of Lucy, the young daughter he considers the only redemptive aspect of his life. Near the point of death, Kelsey is brought to what he believes to be an afterlife where he is offered an opportunity to shed his past memories and embark upon an alternate path in another place and time. Eager to escape his torment and begin a more tranquil existence, Kelsey accepts, only to feel quickly betrayed as he soon finds himself back in the midst of battle, this time as a Union soldier at the dawn of the Civil War.

Through Antietam, Gettysburg and four years of relentless fighting, Kelsey attempts to cast aside his painful past while trying to survive the horrors of combat. He crosses paths with compelling figures on both sides of the conflict determined to persevere and return to those they left behind. Idealistic Ethan Royston, promoted from the enlisted ranks, believes in preserving the Union but is plagued by insecurity and self-doubt. His closest friend, West Point-trained Cal Garrity, remains loyal to his home state of Virginia despite his misgivings about the virtue of the Southern cause. The war will divide these friends, just as it will divide Garrity from his adoring wife, Emily, the charismatic and headstrong daughter of a prominent Norfolk shipbuilder, forced to face the onset of war alone.

Each will endure unimaginable hardship and brutality that will forever reshape their core beliefs and values. Each will find their strength and resolve tested as they search for self-purpose, humanity, and reconciliation. Most of all, Mac Kelsey will discover the very essence of life and death, and whether the new beginning he has long coveted will bring him the inner peace he has so desperately sought.

Read an Excerpt     ~     Amazon     ~     Barnes & Noble

Praise for The Other Side of Life

“Employing some new twists on the novelist’s technique of time travel, Andy Kutler sends a naval officer bombed at Pearl Harbor back to the Civil War. Among his comrades in a Union cavalry regiment he absorbs the enduring values of trust, loyalty, love, and selflessness during the chaos and tragedy of a war that took place a half century before he was born. Readers will find themselves immersed in this story and captivated by its principal characters.” — James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winner author of Battle Cry of Freedom and The War That Forged a Nation

“Profound, smart, and entertaining – the path through The Other Side of Life is an amazing journey through history.” — Joe Weisberg, Creator and Executive Producer of FX’s The Americans and author of An Ordinary Spy

Spotlight: The Crescent Spy by Michael Wallace

The Crescent Spy

by Michael Wallace

Lake Union Publishing

November 10, 2015

ISBN: 9781503945586

Paperback, ebook: 336 pages

Historical Fiction

Writing under a man’s name, Josephine Breaux is the finest reporter at Washington’s Morning Clarion. Using her wit and charm, she never fails to get the scoop on the latest Union and Confederate activities. But when a rival paper reveals her true identity, accusations of treason fly. Despite her claims of loyalty to the Union, she is arrested as a spy and traitor.

To Josephine’s surprise, she’s whisked away to the White House, where she learns that President Lincoln himself wishes to use her cunning and skill for a secret mission in New Orleans that could hasten the end of the war. For Josephine, though, this mission threatens to open old wounds and expose dangerous secrets. In the middle of the most violent conflict the country has ever seen, can one woman overcome the treacherous secrets of her past in order to secure her nation’s future?

Amazon  ~  Goodreads  ~  Author website

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Blog Tour Excerpt: Steering to Freedom by Patrick Gabridge

Steering to Freedom

by Patrick Gabridge

Publication Date: May 11, 2015

Publisher: Penmore Press

Formats: eBook, Paperback

Pages: 352

Genre: Historical Fiction

A troubled country, a courageous heart, and the struggle for freedom. In May 1862, Robert Smalls, a slave and ship’s pilot in Charleston, South Carolina, crafts a daring plan to steal the steamship Planter and deliver it, along with, the crew and their families to the Union blockade. After risking his life to escape slavery, Robert faces an even more difficult challenge: convincing Abraham Lincoln to enlist black troops. Based on a true story, Steering to Freedom tells the powerful and inspirational story of a young man who becomes the first black captain of a US military ship, while struggling to navigate a path to freedom for himself, his family, and his people.

Chapter One

April 30, 1862

     Robert kept a tight grip on the wheel of the Planter. With the tide rising, she wanted to
wriggle and twist in the current sweeping through Hog Island Channel. General Ripley was
standing on the deck of the Confederate steamer, and the last thing Robert wanted was to
nudge the Planter into the sand bar off Shutes Folly Island and fling the general into
Charleston Harbor. Slaves didn’t get second chances after mistakes like that, even those
with precious navigation skills like Robert.
     Officers and various hangers on lined the deck of the transport, all grateful to have been
permitted aboard the general’s flagship. With her tight teak decks, polished brass fittings,
and double paddle wheels, Robert thought she was the finest ship in all of Charleston. Even
though she was a hundred and fifty feet long, she was almost as fast as a racehorse. Robert
had heard one lieutenant complain that it was a shame to see the General floated about the
harbor in a converted cotton boat. Maybe the lieutenant didn’t understand the importance
of a ship that could haul a thousand bales of cotton, or a hundred men and guns, and still
not get caught up in the muck of the twisting channels in these parts.
     Captain Relyea stood down on the deck beside General Ripley, and from his inflated
chest and proud lift to his chin, it was clear that he was plenty proud of his vessel. Every
once in a while, Robert would see him run a slow eye back around the ship, checking on
each of the black crew members, making sure nothing was even slightly out of order. But
Chisholm and Turno knew better than to risk the captain’s wrath, which he would be happy
to unleash upon them in the person of First Officer Smith, a man for whom the whip seemed
made to fit in his hand. Even Johnny, slow and hulking as he was, knew he needed to be his
most perfect self whenever the general was on board.
     Right now, Smith stood a few steps behind Captain Relyea, balanced on the rail, hanging
onto a guy wire to the signal mast, looking out with the rest of the crowd at the flotilla of
skiffs, longboats, and small steamers arranged across the width of the channel, all trying to
keep steady in the turbulent water. A fresh spring breeze out of the south broke the surface
into chop, bringing in the scent of the marshes on Morris Island. The palmetto trees lining
the shore of Hog Island swayed in the morning sun like gentle dancers. It would have been
moment of grand serenity, if they weren’t loading so much destructive force into the water.
     For the past week, they’d been pounding piles and logs down into the shallow seabed
around the channel. Now the sailors on the longboats were stringing floating torpedoes
across the deepest part of the channel. A munitions sergeant directed a crew of black slave
laborers as they carefully slid a string of barrels into the water. Each was so heavy with
gunpowder that it took two men to handle it. Pointed cones on each end kept them from
rolling in the water, and contact switches stuck out of the side of the barrels. Once an
invading ship pressed against the switch: kaboom!

Q&A with K. Willow, Author of The Hidden Hills Saga

Please join me in welcoming author K. Willow to Let Them Read Books! K is celebrating the release of her debut historical fiction novel, Ice Whispers: Book One in the Hidden Hills Saga. I was honored to work with K on a copyedit of this dark and twisty tale of the Antebellum South, and I designed the book's cover! I am so thrilled to be able to share this book with you and feature K here today talking about the inspiration for her characters and the portrayal of slavery in fiction. Read on and then grab yourself a copy. The ebook edition is only $3.99!

Slavery of a different kind, beyond physical chains, leads to a different type of escape . . .

Marissa Kristofferson can taste freedom. Her long years of suffering at the hands of her sadistic husband, Lance, are coming to an end as he lies dying. But she is stunned when he reveals the contents of his will and what she must do to keep Kristofferson Plantation, and how he plans to keep her bound to him even beyond the grave.

The beautiful slave Lolley has always envied Marissa’s life, and after learning that the master has also ordered her freed after his death, she is determined to reach for the life she wants by becoming the mistress of Marissa’s son, Shane, though she does not realize the lengths Marissa will go to to prevent the match, or the far-reaching consequences that will follow.

And Shelby, the plain and dutiful slave of free blacks, is unwittingly caught in the shocking drama that unfolds as a family is torn apart. Used as a pawn in a game of rivalry, deception, and betrayal, hers is a fight for survival while attempting to remain true to herself.

Three women—so very different but each carrying dark secrets that are closely intertwined, caught in a world between slave and free, a world which is becoming more fragile and precarious as war threatens and alliances shift, and each harboring seemingly impossible dreams of a better future.

In this first book of a dark historical saga, K. Willow paints a lush, emotional portrait of scandal, murder, injustice, and the ties that bind in the antebellum South.

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Goodreads ~ K. Willow's website

Hi K! Welcome to Let Them Read Books!

Thank you so much for inviting me as a guest author on your blog, Jenny! I'm excited to share the story behind The Hidden Hills saga.

Where did the inspiration for your Hidden Hills saga come from?

I love stories, whether they are found in books, on TV, in movie theatres, or on stage! But I am often tired of seeing the same stories told over and over again. As a result, throughout my career as a writer, I have always been interested in telling different stories, especially from characters whose experiences and perspectives are rarely told. I love historical dramas and am an avid lover of shows like Downton Abbey, House of Eliott, etc. And I am a huge Jane Austen fan.

However, every time that I've seen stories about slavery in the American South, I feel as though I see the same story. Yes, I love Gone with the Wind, and the harsh realities that are depicted in Roots and most recently 12 Years a Slave are necessary as part of American history. But there were other stories, those that are often unheard. And don't those types of characters have the right to also be heard? Aren't their stories worth telling?

Blog Tour Guest Post: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

Please join me in welcoming bestselling author Karen Abbott to Let Them Read Books! Karen is touring the blogosphere to celebrate the paperback release of her critically acclaimed smash hit, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, and I am thrilled to have her here today with a guest post on one of my favorite subjects: fascinating historical research discoveries!

New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything during the Civil War.

Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines. The beautiful widow Rose O'Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring—even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House—right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives.

With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoléon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring—and, until now, unsung—heroines.

HarperCollins | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble

Favorite Research Discoveries

by Karen Abbott

Research is my favorite part of the writing process, partly because it’s easier (there’s no such struggle as “research block”) but mostly because it lets me time-travel back into my characters’ lives. The women’s intimate histories—published and unpublished diaries, documents, and letters—yield the details and key moments of their stories and give me a peek inside their minds. I become a detective, and each archival box is another potential treasure trove of clues. Below are some of my favorite research discoveries from Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy:

Blog Tour Review: Sisters of Shiloh by Kathy & Becky Hepinstall

From the Back Cover:

A best-selling novelist enlists her own sister to bring us the story of two Southern sisters, disguised as men, who join the Confederate Army—one seeking vengeance on the battlefield, the other finding love.

In a war that pitted brother against brother, two sisters choose their own battle. Joseph and Thomas are fresh recruits for the Confederate Army, daring to join the wild fray that has become the seemingly endless Civil War, sharing everything with their fellow soldiers—except the secret that would mean their undoing: they are sisters.

Before the war, Joseph and Thomas were Josephine and Libby. But that bloodiest battle, Antietam, leaves Libby to find her husband, Arden, dead. She vows vengeance, dons Arden’s clothes, and sneaks off to enlist with the Stonewall Brigade, swearing to kill one Yankee for every year of his too-short life. Desperate to protect her grief-crazed sister, Josephine insists on joining her. Surrounded by flying bullets, deprivation, and illness, the sisters are found by other dangers: Libby is hurtling toward madness, haunted and urged on by her husband’s ghost; Josephine is falling in love with a fellow soldier. She lives in fear both of revealing their disguise and of losing her first love before she can make her heart known to him.

In her trademark “vibrant” (Washington Post Book World) and “luscious” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) prose, Kathy Hepinstall joins with her sister Becky to show us the hopes of love and war, the impossible-to-sever bonds of sisterhood, and how what matters most can both hurt us and heal us.

My Thoughts:

     Arden, I remember a summer day when we were young and you were lying on your back in the grass, and all I can think of now is that nothing in the meadow told you that in five years you'd be dead. No clues at all. Not from the daisies or the clover or the birds or the wind. Not from the clouds or the dog whose ears you scratched. Not from God.
     There were Yankee boys, then, in the North. Lying in meadows. Scratching dogs' ears. Time would pass and one day they would put on their shoes and come find you.
     Now I've come to find them.

Sisters of Shiloh is the story of Libby Beale, a young woman maddened by grief who disguises herself as a man so she can funnel her anger into vengeance by joining the Confederate army and killing one Yankee for every year of her husband's too-short life. But she's not going alone. Her older sister, Josephine, is going too, to ensure that Libby comes back home, for Josephine can't imagine a life where she is not the plain and dutiful sister to the beautiful and willful Libby.

Blog Tour Character Interview with Mary Catherine, Star of Confederado do Norte by Linda Bennett Pennell

Please join me in welcoming author Linda Bennett Pennell to Let Them Read Books! Linda is here today with an interview with Mary Catherine, the heroine of her new historical fiction novel, Confederado do Norte. Read on to learn more about this fascinating woman and enter to win a paperback copy of Confederado do Norte!

After surviving war, young Mary Catherine is torn from her home and thrust into a strange new life when her family decamps for Brazil rather than live with the terms of Reconstruction. Shortly after arrival in Brazil, she is orphaned, leaving only maternal uncle Nathan to care for her. He hates Mary Catherine, blaming her for his beloved sister’s death following a childish mistake. He is also a man with an incredible secret that he will go to great lengths to protect. When the opportunity for Nathan to be rid of her arises, Mary Catherine faces either forced marriage to an unsuitable man or flight into the wilderness containing jaguars and enclaves of people with much to hide. Mary Catherine chooses escape.

Finding refuge among strangers who become her surrogate parents, she matures into a beauty who marries the scion of a wealthy Portuguese family. At last, Mary Catherine has happiness and security until civil unrest brings armed intruders with whom she has an inexplicable connection. When the thugs murder her husband for failing to meet their demands, she directs them to her uncle and his secret in order to save herself and her in-laws. With the danger passed, however, her husband’s family demands that she is arrested for complicity in her husband’s murder. Innocent and betrayed by family for a second time, Mary Catherine must now fight for survival.

Mary Catherine is rescued from the gallows by friends, but cannot remain in Brazil. She boards a ship bound for New York with little money and without a home to return to, a family to welcome her, or a nation from which to claim citizenship. Her father never took the loyalty oath required of all former Confederates in order to have their citizenship restored. Once again, she must recreate herself in order to survive.

In old age, Mary Catherine is still haunted by the long ago events for which she feels responsible. After a lifetime trying to forget, she seeks peace, understanding, and the ability to forgive through writing her story, Confederado do Norte.

Character Interview with Mary Catherine
of Confederado do Norte

LBP: Would you introduce yourself and tell us where you were born?

MC: My name is Mary Catherine MacDonald Dias Oliveira Atwell and I was born January 1, 1857 in Washington County, Georgia on a farm overlooking the Oconee River.

LBP: We know that you left Georgia in 1866 because your father didn’t want to live under Reconstruction. You must have been quite small when the Civil War began. Do you have any memories of life before the war?

MC: It’s sometimes difficult to recall that there was ever a time before the war or that  anything existed prior to our world’s being reduced to ashes. That period for me is really only impressions and shadows because they are my very earliest memories, those of a child of less than five years.

LBP: Would you mind sharing what you do remember?

MC: I suspect my memories are, as is the custom with very young children’s recollections, somewhat mixed up and jumbled together. Nevertheless, I will do my best to explain how it once was and then how it became.

Blog Tour Q&A with Jerome Charyn, Author of I Am Abraham

Please join me in welcoming author Jerome Charyn to Let Them Read Books! I was honored to have the chance to ask this distinguished author, who has been called “one of the most important writers in American literature,” a few questions about his newest novel, I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War. Read on for Jerome's thoughts on inspiration, influence, and writing from Lincoln's point of view, and enter to win a paperback copy!

Narrated in Lincoln’s own voice, the tragicomic I Am Abraham promises to be the masterwork of Jerome Charyn’s remarkable career.

Since publishing his first novel in 1964, Jerome Charyn has established himself as one of the most inventive and prolific literary chroniclers of the American landscape. Here in I Am Abraham, Charyn returns with an unforgettable portrait of Lincoln and the Civil War. Narrated boldly in the first person, I Am Abraham effortlessly mixes humor with Shakespearean-like tragedy, in the process creating an achingly human portrait of our sixteenth President.

Tracing the historic arc of Lincoln’s life from his picaresque days as a gangly young lawyer in Sangamon County, Illinois, through his improbable marriage to Kentucky belle Mary Todd, to his 1865 visit to war-shattered Richmond only days before his assassination, I Am Abraham hews closely to the familiar Lincoln saga. Charyn seamlessly braids historical figures such as Mrs. Keckley—the former slave, who became the First Lady’s dressmaker and confidante—and the swaggering and almost treasonous General McClellan with a parade of fictional extras: wise-cracking knaves, conniving hangers-on, speculators, scheming Senators, and even patriotic whores.

We encounter the renegade Rebel soldiers who flanked the District in tattered uniforms and cardboard shoes, living in a no-man’s-land between North and South; as well as the Northern deserters, young men all, with sunken, hollowed faces, sitting in the punishing sun, waiting for their rendezvous with the firing squad; and the black recruits, whom Lincoln’s own generals wanted to discard, but who play a pivotal role in winning the Civil War. At the center of this grand pageant is always Lincoln himself, clad in a green shawl, pacing the White House halls in the darkest hours of America’s bloodiest war.

Using biblically cadenced prose, cornpone nineteenth-century humor, and Lincoln’s own letters and speeches, Charyn concocts a profoundly moral but troubled commander in chief, whose relationship with his Ophelia-like wife and sons—Robert, Willie, and Tad—is explored with penetrating psychological insight and the utmost compassion. Seized by melancholy and imbued with an unfaltering sense of human worth, Charyn’s President Lincoln comes to vibrant, three-dimensional life in a haunting portrait we have rarely seen in historical fiction.

Hello, Jerome! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for Let Them Read Books.

So many books have been written about Abraham Lincoln. What inspired you to write your own?

History’s a kind of frame and a straightjacket at the same time. You know, you have to deal with the Civil War, you have to deal with the family, the love for Mary, and the Emancipation Proclamation, which for me is the most important American document ever written. So you have to stretch that straightjacket and push the fiction inside it. Then you have a kind of explosion, and that’s what I wanted to do.

What do you think sets your novel apart from others?

Very few historians have been willing to see the Lincolns as sexual creatures, and that’s one of the things that was important to me, to really try to explore what was the attraction between this very tall man and this very short woman. Well, you know, Mary Todd was a kind of a foxy lady. She was quite attractive, and she fell in love with him, and he jilted her, and she waited, and she waited, and she waited, and he came back. That’s a great love story.

It must have been challenging crafting a novel from Lincoln's point of view. How did you get inside his head to create his "voice"?

Teaser Tuesday + Review ~ HerStory: Fiction Honoring Women's History Month

This week I'm sharing two teasers from a short story collection I recently enjoyed featuring tales of strong women through various historical eras in honor of Women's History Month, edited by my book blogging buddy and author Tara Chevrestt.

From "Riverboat Queen":

     "What can I do for you officers this evening?" A man's voice spoke with a northern accent.
     "We're looking for a woman," replied another.
     "Aren't we all? I have a nice selection of ladies looking to please men of discerning tastes," said the smooth-talking Yankee.
     "We're looking for a murderess and we think she stowed away on your vessel, Captain."

From "In the Company of Spirits":

     People do come into one another's lives for various reasons, often unknown. Sometimes it is love that draws two together. Sometimes it is simply that one idea needs the vessel of another. Does that mean we were merely necessities to one another, to that glorious ideal?
     Perhaps.

Blog Tour Review: The Lincoln Conspiracy by Timothy L. O'Brien

From the Back Cover:

A nation shattered by its president’s murder.

Two diaries that reveal the true scope of an American conspiracy.

A detective determined to bring the truth to light, no matter what it costs him.

From award-winning journalist Timothy L. O’Brien comes a gripping historical thriller that poses a provocative question: What if the plot to assassinate President Lincoln was wider and more sinister than we ever imagined?

In late spring of 1865, as America mourns the death of its leader, Washington, D.C., police detective Temple McFadden makes a startling discovery. Strapped to the body of a dead man at the B&O Railroad station are two diaries, two documents that together reveal the true depth of the Lincoln conspiracy. Securing the diaries will put Temple’s life in jeopardy—and will endanger the fragile peace of a nation still torn by war.

Temple’s quest to bring the conspirators to justice takes him on a perilous journey through the gaslit streets of the Civil War–era capital, into bawdy houses and back alleys where ruthless enemies await him in every shadowed corner. Aided by an underground network of friends—and by his wife, Fiona, a nurse who possesses a formidable arsenal of medicinal potions—Temple must stay one step ahead of Lafayette Baker, head of the Union Army’s spy service. Along the way, he’ll run from or rely on Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s fearsome secretary of war; the legendary Scottish spymaster Allan Pinkerton; abolitionist Sojourner Truth; the photographer Alexander Gardner; and many others.

Bristling with twists and building to a climax that will leave readers gasping, The Lincoln Conspiracy offers a riveting new account of what truly motivated the assassination of one of America’s most beloved presidents—and who participated in the plot to derail the train of liberty that Lincoln set in motion.

Romance Reading Wrap-Up

Brief reviews of the romance novels I've read in the past month:

A well-written Regency romance. Inspired by her much younger sister's engagement, eccentric spinster Callie Hartwell vows to start living her life and begins by kissing the man she's secretly loved for years, notorious rake Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston. But that's just the first item on her list. Intrigued by Callie's unconventional ways and needing someone to sponsor his sister for her debut into society, Gabriel strikes a bargain with Callie: in exchange for her help with his sister, he'll help her cross off the items on her list, and of course he ends up falling for her in the process. I'm always on the lookout for well-written romances and I enjoyed this one, but not enough to gush over it. However I do think Sarah MacLean will have a successful career and I will read future novels from her. My Rating:  3.5 Stars.


Free download from NetGalley. I commend the author on giving her hero, Jack Campbell, an unconventional occupation, that of a hangman, and making it work. The story begins with a tragic incident from Jack's childhood that shapes the rest of his life and when he meets our heroine, Claudia, he is a somber man, living a lonely life under self-imposed celibacy. Then hot-blooded and sexy thief Claudia comes along and awakens his passions, though Claudia has some serious secrets and she may soon find herself on the wrong side of Jack's profession. I liked this story but I was jarred by the occurrence of way too many similarities to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. Not plotwise, of course, but in other ways the influence was obvious, from the characters' names (Jack & Claudia/Jamie & Claire) to lines that read straight out of scenes from Outlander. I had a hard time getting past that and overall found the story to be a little too sweet and tame. My Rating:  3 Stars


One thing I've learned about Nora Roberts is that you can't go wrong with one of her books. Sure some are better than others, but all of them are good. Her Three Sisters trilogy came highly recommended to me. This story revolves around Nell  Channing, who has started a new life for herself after escaping an abusive marriage. She ends up on the charming New England island of Three Sisters where she meets two women with whom she shares an instant and strange connection and she comes to learn that she, along with the other two, is part of an ancient prophecy and that her arrival on the island was anything but a coincidence. She also meets hunky sheriff Zack Todd and forms an instant connection with him, too. (Yum!) But Nell's newfound happiness is jeopardized when her past catches up with her and it will take the combined efforts of the Three Sisters (and Zack) to protect her. I enjoyed this first book of the series, but not enough to read the rest. I loved the setting, as always I think it's one of Nora Roberts' best talents: she has the ability to completely immerse and transport the reader into her novels' settings. But I wasn't drawn enough to the two other sisters to feel like I have to read their stories. My Rating:  3 Stars.

The best one of the bunch! This novel of the Civil War is the first in a trilogy about the Camerons, a wealthy Virginia plantation family who find their loyalties divided when the Civil War breaks out. Most of this novel is told from the point of view of Kiernan Mackay, the spirited and beautiful neighbor of the Camerons who has loved the oldest Cameron brother, Jesse, for most of her life. Time and circumstances finally collaborate to get this couple together, but their bliss is short-lived when their beloved Virginia secedes from the Union and the lovers find themselves on opposite sides of the divide and neither is willing to compromise on their convictions. Jesse, an army surgeon, rides off to the North, leaving Kiernan behind in the little town of Harper's Ferry, which is about to find itself in the middle of a tug-of-war between the Union and the Confederacy. But war has a way of tearing people apart and throwing them back together in dramatic fashion, and as the bloody conflict rages on, Kiernan and Jesse begin to question their ideals, their loyalities, and their feelings for each other. This novel borderlines on being a bodice-ripper and it is a bit on the melodramatic side, but it's delicious and well-researched and I couldn't put it down. I've already put the next book in the trilogy on my wishlist. My Rating:  4 Stars.

On a side note, another reason I enjoyed this novel so much is that I've visited Harper's Ferry in my travels and really liked the little town and I thought the author did a great job of recreating it in her novel. If you're interested, check out the post I wrote on Harper's Ferry as part of my Time Travelers feature.

Time Travelers: Antietam

In my Time Travelers Series, I share some of my favorite historical sites from my travels with my fellow history adventurer, my husband Erin.







Destination: Antietam


I recently finished My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira, and as the story reached its conclusion amidst the carnage at Antietam, I was able to recall the images from my last visit as I read, really helping to enrich the "movie in my mind". I thought I'd share some of its history and the pictures I took last time I was there.

After a victory at the Second Manassas, Lee was eager to keep on the offensive, to invade the Union and move the war out of Virginia. After crossing the Potomac Lee divided his army and sent Jackson to capture the strategic Union garrison at Harper's Ferry. Lee took his division and headed for South Mountain where they were repulsed by a hastily prepared Union advance. After learning of Jackson's success in Harper's Ferry, Lee decided not to retreat back into Virginia, but to make a stand at Sharpsburg. Lee's men held the high ground west of Antietam Creek with Jackson and Longstreet flanking either side of him, and watched as the Union army, under George McClellan, gathered on the east side of Antietam Creek.

September 17, 1862. The battle begins before dawn. 100,000 men are engaged. By sunset 23,000 of them are dead, wounded or captured. This day remains the bloodiest day in American history. Although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, and thanks to the unexpected though most welcome appearance of A.P. Hill's Light Division, the Confederates were able to fight the Federals to a standstill. The fighting ended, both armies tended to their dead and wounded, and Lee withdrew back to Virginia. McClellan, despite having a sizeable reserve force that did not fight at Antietam, did not pursue him and the war dragged on for three more horrific years.

Antietam is one of the prettiest battlefields I've visited. It has a beautiful glass-walled visitor's center overlooking rolling farmland and hedgerows against the misty backdrop of the Blue Ridge mountains. There's a public observation tower near the center of the park that offers even better views. We purchased a driving tour from Travel Brains that was excellent. It included a CD that guides you through the battlefield, stopping and explaining the significant sites along with a book of visual aids to follow along with. We've taken several of these tours and I only wish they made more of them.

Of course we walked a good deal as well. Antietam is so quiet and peaceful - the only sounds are those of the birds in the trees and the wind in the tall grasses. It was almost surreal to stand in the very spot Lee did and imagine what he must have felt seeing Hill's troops appear in the distance, riding to his rescue; to stand on Burnside's Bridge and imagine artillery blasts and sharpshooter bullets flying during the struggle to control it; to walk Miller's Cornfield and the Bloody Lane, to sit inside the whitewashed coolness of Dunker Church, all now so calm and beautiful, bearing silent, eternal tribute to those who fought that day in 1862.

 

NPS Trivia Tidbit:  Did you know?

The Maryland State Monument is the only monument at Antietam dedicated to both sides. Marylanders fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. 20,000 people attended the dedication on May 30, 1900. President William McKinley, a veteran of the Battle of Antietam, was the keynote speaker.

Review: My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

From the Inside Flap:

On the eve of the Civil War, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, headstrong midwife from Albany, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine - and eager to run away from recent heartbreak - Mary travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded.


Determined to study medicine and unable to find a surgeon in New York willing to take her as a pupil, Mary Sutter, "taller and wider than was generally considered handsome", packs a bag and boards a train to answer Dorothea Dix's call for nurses in Washington at the outset of the Civil War.

What follows is a wonderful novel detailing Mary's struggle to realize her dream and reconcile her heart and her desires with those of her family, and the government's woefully inadequate struggle to treat the neverending stream of wounded men that starts pouring into Washington and the surrounding area as the war commences, along with the rampant sickness that accompanies them.

This one can't breathe.
  Give him whiskey.
This one can't walk.
  Give him whiskey.
That one can't stop itching.
  Give him whiskey.
This one has diarrhea.
  Haven't they all?
We've run out of quinine.
  Give oil of turpentine.
We've run out of turpentine.
  Then boil some willow bark and put it in whiskey and give it to him.
We've run out of whiskey.

The magnitude of the Civil War is so huge that I always feel like there's such a large element of anonymity - there were so many soldiers, so many casualties, so many lives effected - and what I love about this novel is that the author manages to bring people together again and again despite the enormity of it, interweaving motivations and circumstances to give the story and the war a much more personal, intimate feeling.

As Mary navigates army red tape and the reluctance of men to let her help, she forms relationships with two overwhelmed surgeons and as the war deepens she crosses paths with the aforementioned Mrs. Dix, Clara Barton, John Hays, and Abraham Lincoln himself. The author does a fabulous job of depicting Lincoln, combining a sense of hopelessness with a determination to persevere. My only complaint would be that at times I felt like these forays into his inner world and into the worlds of some of the other historical figures, while there to provide historical context and insight into the bigger picture, detracted from Mary's story.

This is an impressive, impeccably written story of not only Mary's determination and perseverance, but of that of everyone who attempted to make a difference and find some shred of hope and meaning in a bloody and oppressive war.

I marked many passages as I was reading and I'll end with one that comes near the end of the book at the Battle of Antietam, a passage that I think illustrates the beauty of how simple words can create such visceral images and have such a profound effect:

     In the night, while they had been sleeping, the Union general Joseph Hooker and his division had tramped past them toward a cornfield, where now the stalks were rustling like silk, giving the Union soldiers the misimpression of safety, which allowed them to fling themselves into the corn and disappear by the hundreds, their muskets upright against their chests, a parade of bobbing bayonets glinting above the stalks in the feeble morning sun. For one moment, the hills and woods around held their collective breath. For one last, beautiful second, the silvery light on the slender leaves made everyone believe that despite the roar of artillery falling nearby, restraint was still possible...

     By the time that last beautiful second had passed, the field enveloped both armies, the Federals and the Rebels alike, the silky corn thread brushing their weathered cheeks, the light shifting between the stalks, the cool, wet dirt cushioning their bare feet...

     But in each row of corn, the enemy appeared as if from nowhere. Face to face, at intimate range, each man was alone with his opponent. Each knelt, fired, charged with his bayonet, stabbed with his knife, and wielded the butt of his musket. Each stepped over and on the fallen, friend or enemy, wounded or dead, groaning or silent, to get to the next man and the next, until few were left alive.
    
     There was nothing beautiful about it.



Rating:  4.5 Stars out of 5