The Culper Ring: The History and Legacy of the Revolutionary War’s Most Famous Spy Ring by Charles River Editors
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
We’ve started watching the TV series “Turn” and I wanted to bone up on the history. It was a good book for that. It gives an overview of the Culper Ring without wading into the details. If you just want that level of understanding, it’s very good. If you want deeper details and more meat on the bone, this book can still be a place to start your research.
The Golden Vial by Thomas Locke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the third in a series. The first two are Emissary and Merchant of Alyss, both of which I enjoyed very much. The Golden Vial doesn’t quite reach their level. If you’ve read the first two, it’s worth reading this one to follow the progress of the characters, but it lacks the depth and complexity of the first two books. We’re left with the feeling that there will be more books in this series, so I hope they are more in keeping with the first two, and I will keep reading to find out.
A Refuge Assured by Jocelyn Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
That moment when you’ve finished a wonderful book and you don’t want to let it go … so you read the author’s notes … and you find YOUR NAME in them. What!? Wow. I’d forgotten that Jocelyn Green had asked a horse question on Facebook probably a year ago. She was looking for a good breed of horse to use in a Colonial-era story. I suggested the Narragansett Pacer, and sure enough, she used it. She even remembered me. How sweet is that?!
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Jocelyn Green fan, so you won’t think it odd that I gave this book five stars, but honestly, it’s that good. Well-researched, engaging characters, unique setting, and all wrapped around a very interesting period in history, when the French were fighting for their freedom and the U.S. was struggling to hold on to theirs. Beautiful story. Read it. Soak it up.
Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Jennifer Lamont Leo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a great way to experience the Roarin’ Twenties! Leo does a bang-up job of setting the reader into the thick of gangster-ridden Chicago at a very volatile time in U.S. history. It’s a roller coaster of ups and downs that will keep the reader turning the pages.
Dot Rodgers hasn’t been a poster girl for propriety since she fled her family and moved to Chicago, but she’s not apologizing for it … exactly. Charlie Corrigan may have been scarred by the Great War, but he’s still got ambitions. Recapturing the interest of the flapper who holds his heart is chief among them. So he opens a new business near Chicago … and then things get really interesting.
A Most Noble Heir by Susan Anne Mason
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another wonderful story from Susan Anne Mason.
This one is set in England and involves a young man who was raised as a servant – but becomes one of the aristocracy. It paints a good picture of the differences between those two positions at this time in history. The bigotry and power-grasping of the upper class, the poverty and powerlessness of the lower classes. But there were sorrows and trials no matter which class one was born to … or raised to.
Stablehand Nolan Price had always wanted to know who his father was … until he did. Kitchen maid Hannah Burnham’s world came crashing down when Nolan was discovered to be the Earl of Stainsby’s heir. Together they decide to take matters into their own hands, but things don’t turn out at all as they’d hoped. While Nolan gets to know his father, Hannah reconnects with her family, some of whom she never knew. Getting the two of them back together will require a lot of hearts to shift in an era where that wasn’t common.
A story well worth reading.
Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America’s Destiny by Brian Kilmeade
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story of Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans will always be remembered by Johnny Horton’s song. If you’ve never heard it, check it out on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL7XS…
Brian Kilmeade does a nice job of filling out the background to the song, what it took to get Old Hickory in the right place at the right time. And then the details for what was, by all measurements, an impossible victory. Well worth reading.
Pegg Thomas