Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Read 20 in 2020 category: published in 2000 (or history)
Review: Midway through the Civil War, Alice has been living for a year with her new husband and his mother on their small farm in Iowa, when her husband hears the call of patriotism and joins the Union Army. Alice left the more genteel circumstances she grew up in to marry Charlie, and it does appear to be true love, as they're quite happy together. He leaves Alice with his mother, a woman of very strong opinions, and the hired man to do the heavy lifting on the farm. This seems somewhat problematic at first, as Alice's only apparent talents are quilting and flirting (which puts her one up on Scarlett O'Hara).
As the circumstances get tougher, Alice soon finds that she has more skills than she thought she did, including loyalty and the ability to work hard. In this book, Sandra Dallas has mastered the art of showing the reader how a character develops, rather than simply saying so. Told in the form of letters Alice writes to her sister, the reader can almost feel Alice developing both muscles and a backbone as she faces both day-to-day and rather more extraordinary challenges.
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