Written by: Caroline Ashton
Submitted By: Graeme K Talboys
This book is the perfect blend of well-researched story telling, engaging characters, and a plot that holds you to the very end, leaving you wanting more.
The research for the historical setting is thorough and convincing. The author moves her characters through real events is a plausible way, evokes the times and individual scenes with vivid and economical language, and draws the reader in without ever once breaking the flow of the story. Some authors, having done a lot of research, are tempted to dump large amounts of information into their book. Caroline Ashton has resisted this temptation, yet the book still manages to leave its reader feeling as if they have had a thorough and subliminal grounding in the period.
I knew nothing of the background when I started this book, yet reading since has confirmed just how well the author has managed to convey the events and the day to day life of combatants and civilians alike.
Sarah, the central character, is beautifully drawn. Her spirit shines through despite the trials she endures, blown this way and that in her attempts to survive the privations of war and abandonment. It is a dangerous path she walks, and her strength guides her through the perils. As a woman following an army in the early nineteenth century in a foreign, you can imagine (without me giving away any details) that these are many.
I would urge people to read this. I wouldn’t normally think of picking up a book like this. It’s all too easy to dismiss something that gets classified as historical romance as being a certain kind of book. This isn’t. It is an engrossing study of the human condition, one that despite its historical setting, is all too sadly relevant today. There are many Sarahs alive in the world today and the better we understand their story, the more likely we are to do what little we can to bring them all safely home.
And all this is to be found in a book that is well written. A perfect read for yourself; a perfect gift for someone else. Let’s hope we see more novels from the author.
