Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bohjalian (The Princess of Las Vegas) unspools a tense tale about a Confederate soldier's wife who treats a wounded Union captain in 1864 Virginia. Libby Steadman, 24, operates a mill in the Shenandoah Valley with Joseph, who was formerly enslaved by the family of her husband, Peter, a Confederate soldier held captive in a Union prison. When an armed marauder tries to rape Libby, Joseph kills him with a shovel. A parallel narrative follows Union Cpt. Jonathan Weybridge, a college professor from Vermont, who is charging a hillside near Libby's home with his regiment when he's struck by cannon fire. He's taken to a hospital tent, where his leg is partially amputated and his mangled hand is bandaged. Later, he awakes to find he's been left behind. While Joseph's wife is out foraging, she hears Jonathan's yells and reports him to Libby, who's furious the Union Army has left him to die and secretly takes him in. Though Jonathan is severely weak, Libby tries to heal him, and eventually bribes a doctor to treat him with medicine that she and Joseph plan to get from the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry some 20 miles north. Bohjalian skillfully rachets up the tension as rumors spread of a Union officer on the loose and Libby and the captain grow close. Readers will be glued to the page. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In 1864 Virginia, Libby Steadman's prayers for her husband (a Confederate soldier) to return home from a Union prison camp have gone unanswered for so long that she has finally given up thinking that he's still alive. However, if she hopes to survive the war, she cannot give up running her mill, along with freedman Joseph and his wife Sally. Then Sally encounters an injured Union officer in an abandoned home, having heard his cries of distress. Libby cannot leave the man to die, even if he is a Northerner, so she and Joseph bring severely wounded Captain Jonathan Weybridge back to the Steadman home, and then Libby, Joseph, Sally, and Libby's niece Jubilee work to save his life. With the covert help of a local doctor who is competent and can be bribed with whiskey, they get Weybridge past the point of death. When it becomes apparent that members of a local guerilla organization have suspicions they're harboring an enemy soldier, the group realizes that it's not just Weybridge who is in danger. VERDICT This page-turner from bestselling Bohjalian (The Princess of Las Vegas) will not disappoint fans of American Civil War narratives. The vividly drawn characters and historical details make for a compelling read.--Lucinda Ward
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A gravely wounded Union soldier heals with the ministrations of a Southern woman. It's 1864 in Virginia, and Union Captain Jonathan Weybridge loses his right leg and several fingers on the battlefield at Gilbert's Ford. A fellow soldier stanches the bleeding by applying a tourniquet, but otherwise leaves him to die. Then, a formerly enslaved woman named Sally discovers him and brings him to the home of 24-year-old Libby Steadman. She is a white woman whose husband, Peter, had freed the people enslaved at the gristmill he inherited and is now in a Yankee prison, if he's even still alive. Sally and her husband, Joseph, now work at the gristmill, but the other freed slaves have long since skedaddled. Libby has a 12-year-old niece, Jubilee, who refers to Weybridge as a jackal, a not uncommon insult hurled at Union soldiers. Weybridge's health slowly returns while he frets about his wife in Vermont. Libby and her family come to recognize his human decency, that he's more than simply a jackal or a "bluebelly." Meanwhile, rumors circulate that Libby is harboring a wounded Yankee, and she and her family go to great lengths to hide him. She and the captain will quickly hang if discovered. She secretly enlists the help of a local doctor and part-time drunk whom she isn't convinced she can trust, but she has no choice. Will Libby and the captain ever hear from their beloved spouses again? She refers to him as "someone…I kept alive at a price I could not afford." Bohjalian's inspiration for the novel comes from documented historical events--a Virginia woman really did save a Union soldier who'd hailed from Vermont--and the set-up has led to a masterful yarn. No one knows how close to each other the real people became, and there's no evidence that the real Libby ever shot two Confederate soldiers dead with a Colt pistol or that a freedman (Joseph, in the story) killed a man who'd tried to rape her. Those and other details are a credit to the author's imagination. If there is a nit to pick, it's with a title that might misdirect readers' expectations. It's not wrong, but don't expect anything steamy or licentious. A compelling story about two people who long for their spouses in a time of war. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
