Honor & Glory
The book opens in the aftermath of the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. Widowed Amanda used to smuggle medical supplies to the Confederacy, but now that she is marrying a Union officer, she refuses to continue. Her sister Alice McGuire volunteers to help. Confederate Colonel Wil Jackson, who had served with Amanda’s first husband in the Mexican War, becomes Alice’s contact. Wil has a troubled past: he blames himself for the death of his Native American wife and son, which complicates a budding romance with Alice.
This is a sequel to Promise & Honor, part of a projected trilogy. With one exception, the author provides enough backstory so that the reader will be able to follow the action when beginning with the second volume. Wil and Alice become well-drawn characters by the end, but I had trouble in the first couple of chapters trying to remember which sister sympathized with which side of the conflict. They seemed interchangeable early in the story. The book could have used a bit more editing, which would have caught sentences like “Once on the porch, a rickety wagon entered the farmyard, leading a flea-bitten red horse.” To this non-expert, the period detail seemed fine. I liked the book overall, but didn’t find it memorable enough to read multiple times.
