Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2012
Pages: 320
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: Brimming with atmosphere and edgy suspense, The Rebel Wife presents a young widow trying to survive in the violent world of Reconstruction Alabama, where the old gentility masks continuing violence fueled by hatred, treachery, and still powerful secrets.
Augusta Branson was born into antebellum Southern nobility during a time of wealth and prosperity, but now she is left standing in the ashes of a broken civilization. When her scalawag husband dies suddenly of a mysterious illness, she must fend for herself and her young son. Slowly she begins to wake to the reality of her new life: her social standing is stained by her marriage; she is alone and unprotected in a community that is being destroyed by racial prejudice and violence; the fortune she thought she would inherit does not exist; and the deadly fever that killed her husband is spreading fast.
Augusta needs someone to trust if she and her son are to escape. As she summons the courage to cross the boundaries of hate, The Rebel Wife presents an unforgettable heroine for our time.
Review: There is so much wrong with this novel - undeveloped characters and at least 100 pages in the middle that could have been (read: should have been) cut out - to start.
For example (this is just one, but there are many instances of this happening), Eli's room was searched about 50 times too many and the reader gets the details of the search each of those 50 times. As an editor / professional writer I wanted to take my red pen to the pages and slash, slash, slash.
Oh, and during reconstruction, servants didn't serve - they hung around eavesdropping and acting in mysterious ways.
I felt like screaming to Augusta, "be you daft woman?" I suspect women were intelligent beings in the 1800s, but you wouldn't know it from the author's portrayal of Augusta. Which, by the way, is a perfectly lovely name but one that the author shorts to "Gus". Why?
I will say that the last 2-3 chapters were fast-moving, action-packed and did end the novel on a high note, but the pain of the prior 22 chapters did not make reading this novel worth it.
The Kirkus Review on B&N.com states, "As for plot, progress is leaden until the final apocalyptic sequence of violence, revenge and just desserts." I absolutely agree.
There was great potential here, but the author failed to deliver.
For example (this is just one, but there are many instances of this happening), Eli's room was searched about 50 times too many and the reader gets the details of the search each of those 50 times. As an editor / professional writer I wanted to take my red pen to the pages and slash, slash, slash.
Oh, and during reconstruction, servants didn't serve - they hung around eavesdropping and acting in mysterious ways.
I felt like screaming to Augusta, "be you daft woman?" I suspect women were intelligent beings in the 1800s, but you wouldn't know it from the author's portrayal of Augusta. Which, by the way, is a perfectly lovely name but one that the author shorts to "Gus". Why?
I will say that the last 2-3 chapters were fast-moving, action-packed and did end the novel on a high note, but the pain of the prior 22 chapters did not make reading this novel worth it.
The Kirkus Review on B&N.com states, "As for plot, progress is leaden until the final apocalyptic sequence of violence, revenge and just desserts." I absolutely agree.
There was great potential here, but the author failed to deliver.
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