Finishing this book was a bit of a Noble Cause.... It was really long, and I honestly didn't know if I should push through or just let it go. But I decided to push through because I hate to leave a book unfinished.
I have a degree in History, with the Civil War being my main area of study. I love reading about the Civil War in every context--fiction or non-fiction--and I was very happy to see this book offered for free, especially since it has so many five star reviews, though after reading it, I'm really not sure why.
The book started off really great. Andrea, the main character, was immediately likeable as a Northern spy. How strong must this woman be that she is willing to dress up as a man and fight for the cause she believes in. Although, I didn't think it was really believable that this beautiful woman is passing herself off as a man, I still liked her gumption. However, her character seems to constantly live in a state of contradiction. She hates the South but saves a Southern officer. Throughout the story, this seems to be a common theme--Andrea thinks and says one thing but acts in a completely different way, especially at the end. I don't want to give too much away, but the actions she takes in the last few chapters of the story seem very out of line with the over-the-to Union zealot we are supposed to believe in all throughout the rest of the book.
It was very hard to even get to the end. About 25% into the book, the story gets bogged down, and the plot doesn't move along for quite some time. Scene after scene is virtually the same. Two characters sitting on a porch talking about why one's believes are more noble than the other. Chapter after chapter and the book doesn't move forward. As a writer, I believe it is imparative to make sure that every scene adds something to the story. In this case, I think there were multiple scenes that could have either been combined into one or eradicated. Likewise, there are characters that add little to nothing. And many of the soldiers were so interchangeable, I couldn't remember which was which--and I guess I didn't really care either.
The author's decision to skip certain important events--such as four months Andrea spent in prison--and dwell on conversation after conversation that add little or noting to the story is confusing to me as a reader. Why not let us live through her eyes a bit in that Northern prison and live a little less through her conversations with Hunter, the character who eventually gets around to revealing that he is the hero of the story, at Hawthorn (his plantation house where he takes Andrea against her will after she has been reclaimed from the prison he accidentally put her in) that go nowhere?
In fact, the way that Andrea comes to be at Hawthorne and stay at Hawthorne are both unbelievable to me. And then Hunter--who is commanding a brigade of Confederate soldiers by this time--gets to come home from the war almost every day. I don't see how this is possible. In all of my studies, I don't recall reading about many commanders who just worked the Civil War as a day job. Late in the war, this plantation that is so close to Northern territory has still not fallen into Union hands despite the fact that Andrea has to save it once earlier on. (Why she would do that is another contradiction I cannot answer.) How is this possible? How is it that no Union soldiers ever decided to claim this giant plantation as a headquarters??
I asked myself that same question over many events in the story--how is this possible? Andrea has a broken leg but still manages to use make-shift crutches to make it down a flight of stairs. Take it to someone who currently has a torn ACL--this could not happen! She has to have her leg re-broken and re-set because of her shenanigans.Umm, I don't think she would have been doing it to begin with. Hunter hears that Lee has surrendered from the safety of his own home, no Union officers showing up to arrest him, despite the fact that they are close enough to hear Union gunfire celebrating victory and church bells? It all seems a bit unlikely to say the least.
There are some things that the author does really well. The way she describes the setting is awe inspiring, especially when it comes to the beauty of Hawthorne. She also obviously cares deeply about her characters, which were fairly well-developed, if often illogical. She seemed to have done some research on the war itself, though the lack of historical data (actual battles, for example) was a little annoying to someone such as myself who has studied the war so thoroughly. She does mention one well-known soldier by name, and that's about it. It's almost as if she wasn't sure what battles were actually happening in that theater, or who the real leaders were, so she avoided it altogether.
There are also some punctuation mistakes, missing quotation marks, that sort of thing that while they didn't distract from the story were a bit annoying. Another thing that was confusing and often stopped my reading was when a character had been sitting but then was suddenly doing something he or she had to be standing in order to do, or when the characters were suddenly in what seemed to be a different location or position. In one instance, the author talks about Hunter pulling Andrea inside when she hasn't even mentioned that they are at a cabin. I was very confused and re-read that section several times before I gave up and went with it.It was as if we were supposed to be able to see some picture in the author's head that here words didn't always make clear.
Parts of this read were really enjoyable, but make sure you have several hours to invest in something that may or may not be worth it before you decide to give this one a shot. You can find my three star Amazon review here. If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can purchase it here. The current price is a whopping $7.99.
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