Review: Widow of Gettysburg by Jocelyn Green

October 29, 2013


Title: Widow of Gettysburg
Author: Jocelyn Green
Publisher: River North
Pages: 384
ISBN: 978-0-8024-0577-7
Publication Date: April 12th, 2013

Synopsis:
For all who have suffered great loss of heart, home, health or family; true home and genuine lasting love can be found.

When a horrific battle rips through Gettysburg, the farm of Union widow Liberty Holloway is disfigured into a Confederate field hospital, bringing her face to face with unspeakable suffering-and a Confederate scout who awakens her long dormant heart.
But when the scout doesn't die she discovers he isn't who he claims to be .

While Liberty's future crumbles as her home is destroyed, the past comes rushing back to Bella, a former slave and Liberty's hired help, when she finds herself surrounded by Southern soldiers, one of whom knows the secret that would place Liberty in danger if revealed.

In the wake of shattered homes and bodies, Liberty and Bella struggle to pick up the pieces the battle has left behind. Will Liberty be defined by the tragedy in her life, or will she find a way to triumph over it?
Inspired by first-person accounts from women who lived in Gettysburg during the battle and its aftermath, Widow of Gettysburg is the Book 2 in the Heroines Behind the Lines series. These books do not need to be read in succession.  For more information & resources about the Heroines Behind the Lines series, visit www.heroinesbehindthelines.com.
Review:
Widow of Gettysburg introduced me to something I haven't ever thought about, the people who lived in Gettysburg during the battle and what happened to them afterwards. Everything I know about Gettysburg is of the battle and the event that led up to it. Bear with me, it's about to turn into a history lesson recap.

The South had just lost one of it's best generals, Stonewall Jackson. Stepping into Jackson's place as second in command is General Longstreet. The South has been winning every major battle to this point. Lee by this time is firmly established as the military leader of the South. The North has been going through generals like water through a strainer. Lee believed this next battle could seal the fate of the war, most people did in fact and it was true. However, instead of staying on the defensive, Lee pushed into the offensive roll which put him and his army in unfamiliar territory. The battle started with a skirmish between two small units and it just erupted. Lee didn't want it here, but the fight had started. We know of the battle of Little Round Top and Big Round Top. The victory of Colonel Chamberlain. We know that Pickett lost every last man in his battalion. Lee then retreated back south with his decimated army. And Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil. Wiping out a good portion of the population at the time.

From there, the armies left...or so I thought. That wasn't the case. The Widow of Gettysburg follows Liberty Holloway, a young widow. She married at seventeen and shortly thereafter, her husband was killed in the first battle of Bull Run. Two years have passed since his death and Liberty is trying to move on with her life, but the war has come to her and her neighbors in Gettysburg. The bridges have been burned out, telegraph wires have been cut. No news has come in or gone out. Rumors have been spreading that the Yankees and the Rebels would be fighting soon and close by. The rumors prove true, for on July 1st, the war begins and Liberty's life as she knows it is thrown into the wind. Her house is taken out from under her by the Confederacy as a field hospital. Not knowing what else to do, Liberty helps take care of the army that killed her husband.

Even though the battle only lasted for three days, the wounded remained much longer. As each army leaves quickly,  the wounded remain with their field surgeons. The people of the town are now either forced into service as nurses or they are to remain hidden, out of the way, so that the wounded can be treated in their homes.

The town of Gettysburg is ripped to shreds. The scent of death hangs heavy in the air, along with that of waste, and rot. Liberty faces many challenges from the battle, to the wounded, even of that of the heart, both romantically and spiritually. If it wasn't for the battle of Gettysburg, a reporter in search of a story, never would have come to town in search of a story, which would then end of changing Liberty's idea of who her family was and is. Liberty faces so much personal change in this story, it fascinating to watch her learn and grow.

Jocelyn Green has a wonderful way of telling a story that can transport you back in time. Heroines Behind the Line series is a wonderful experience and just brings these women to life. It is amazing the detail that has been found of the women who have lived through this dark time and are brought back and in to the knowledge of today through this book.

Can't miss!
Too Read!
5 out of 5

About the Author:
Award-winning author Jocelyn Green inspires faith and courage in her readers through both fiction and nonfiction. A former military wife herself, she offers encouragement and hope to military wives worldwide through her Faith Deployed ministry. Her novels, inspired by real heroines on America’s home front, are marked by their historical integrity and gritty inspiration.

Jocelyn graduated from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, with a B.A. in English, concentration in writing. She is an active member of the Evangelical Press Association, Christian Authors Network, the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Military Writers Society of America.

She loves Mexican food, Broadway musicals, Toblerone chocolate bars, the color red, and reading on her patio. Jocelyn lives with her husband Rob and two small children in Cedar Falls, Iowa.



Thank you to Moody/River North Publishers, I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.


2 comments

  1. Love the cover, sound like a good book :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elin, The cover fits the story well. :-) It was a great book and based on actual accounts! I recommend it.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. Leave a word, leave a line, I would love to hear what you have to say.

Latest Instagrams

© The Shelf Life. Design by FCD.