This is the story of sixteen year old Josie Summers. She lives with her mother and step-father in upcountry Carolina in 1780. The War of Independence still goes on and the British steal what little they have on their way through. Her mother is ill. Life is hard.
After killing the stepfather who raped her, Josie dresses in his clothes to disguise herself as a man and runs away. Lost, hungry and afraid, she comes across a young Methodist minister, John Trethman and begins assisting him with his traveling ministry.
As you would expect, John finds her out and, yes they fall in love, but it is not to be an easy thing. He is riddled with guilt for living with her when he thought she was a boy, she is now pregnant with her step-fathers child, and the British kidnap John. Alone again.
Later, when Josie finds herself enlisted in the North Carolina Militia, the detail of the soldiers life during the Revolutionary War is wonderfully told and terrible to realise. Robert Morgan is expert at putting the reader right there, feeling it all.
I did get my happy ending, but after much grief, pain and the Battle of Cowpens.
Excellent historical fiction.
After killing the stepfather who raped her, Josie dresses in his clothes to disguise herself as a man and runs away. Lost, hungry and afraid, she comes across a young Methodist minister, John Trethman and begins assisting him with his traveling ministry.
As you would expect, John finds her out and, yes they fall in love, but it is not to be an easy thing. He is riddled with guilt for living with her when he thought she was a boy, she is now pregnant with her step-fathers child, and the British kidnap John. Alone again.
Later, when Josie finds herself enlisted in the North Carolina Militia, the detail of the soldiers life during the Revolutionary War is wonderfully told and terrible to realise. Robert Morgan is expert at putting the reader right there, feeling it all.
I did get my happy ending, but after much grief, pain and the Battle of Cowpens.
Excellent historical fiction.
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