Memory's Edge
Bette McNicholasHistorical romance
Available from The Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 1-60154-602-5
February 2010
| Victoria Garrett, a young woman living in Maryland during the Civil War, takes on a task at eighteen that is both difficult and dangerous. She and her parents smuggle two slaves to the Underground Railroad in Delaware. While resting at the Brandywine River, munitions smugglers attack, her parents are killed and Captain Luke Cassidy, a secret agent for the Union, rescues her just in time. He brings her to his grandmother's home north of Philadelphia where she slowly recovers, but remains an amnesiac with no memory of her life or her parents. Amidst the danger, Luke and Victoria fall in love and marry. He leaves for an undercover assignment at the Point Lookout prison, but one of the smugglers is still targeting Victoria. Between the tension and danger they face individually and together, neither knows whether they'll ever be together again, or even if he'll return from the war.
What a wonderful story. The author has a good grasp of the conditions and situations during the Civil War, and paints a vivid picture. The reader easily sees the devastation, the danger, and the horrors of the war. The characters are finely drawn and the reader grows to love both Victoria and Luke, as well as his wonderful family. The settings are well done and we not only get a good picture of the area, but of the homes and buildings were the action takes place. The author also does an excellent job of building to an emotional climax, as well as slowly revealing Victoria's past to her. This is done in such as way that we feel her pain, her sorrow, and her tears, as well as her joy. The secondary characters are realistic and fill out the cast in a wonderful way. At times, this is a nail biter, and I worried right along with the characters. This author goes on the top of my list. There is no question that I would read another by Bette McNicholas.
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Reviewer: Jaye Leyel |
