Emily’s Vow (A More Perfect Union Book 1)

Written by Betty Bolte
Review by Mary O'Donnell

The first two volumes in Bolte’s well-researched and professionally-produced A More Perfect Union series are stand-alone novels set against the backdrop of Colonial Era America during the American Revolution. In the first volume, a young woman named Emily Sullivan in Charles Town, South Carolina is abruptly arrested by the British and only freed through the heroic actions of patriot spy, Frank Thompson, whose duty comes before the feelings both are developing for each other.

In the second volume, Amy’s Choice, also centring around Charles Town, when young Amy Abernathy is captured by a band of renegade soldiers, her childhood sweetheart, Benjamin Hanson, is torn between his urge to save her and his duty to the American cause. In both books, Bolte infuses fairly standard (if well-done) romance novel plot outlines with a good deal of spirited dialogue and some pleasingly complex emotional insights, bringing alive the nuances of colonial life both under British rule and in a state of war.