Friday, March 7, 2014

Review: I Shall Be Near To You

I Shall Be Near To You
By Erin Lindsay McCabe
Crown January 2014
304 pages
From the library

I Shall be Near to You


Rosetta and Jeremiah adore each other. They have great dreams of living a long happy life on a farm that they tend together. Jeremiah thinks that the only way to buy their farm is to enlist. The Civil War isn't supposed to last for very long, anyway. But Rosetta finds life without him unbearable. She is away from her family and her new in-laws don't like her at all. The only way to be with her beloved is to disguise herself as a boy and enlist alongside him. 

This book is a hidden gem and I can't figure out why it's not getting more attention. I'm not sure where I first heard of it, but I am so glad I read it. Rosetta and Jeremiah will steal your heart from the first few pages. Their love is very deep, but so realistic. They bicker all the time, but only because they truly care for each other. They are perhaps the only people in their lives who truly understand the other. After reading partway through the book, I actually set it aside for a few days. Jeremiah and Rosetta were about to march into battle and I cared for the characters so much that I didn't want to read if anything happened to either one of them. 

As in any good historical novel, the research is important. Ms. McCabe perfectly brings the time period to life, but without stopping the story to teach a history lesson. She drew from the letters and accounts of the 200 women that we know of who enlisted during the Civil War. I also appreciated that this author didn't fall into the trap of a lot of historical writers. Rosetta is headstrong and stubborn, but she is also a woman of the 1800s, not a modern woman set into another time. Rosetta understands her limits as a woman in her time and place, but she also is willing to fight anyone and anything to be with her husband.

The Civil War is a time period that is not covered too frequently in historical fiction. But this is a book you don't want to miss. You will be immersed in both the everyday life of a small town and the noise and violence of the battlefield. Best of all, this is a really perfect love story - a love that is committed even in the hardest of times, a love that is strengthened by time spent together and hardships overcome, and a love that is put to the test both by the horrors of war and by the strong personalities of Rosetta and Jeremiah. 

6 comments:

  1. I hate when authors have a good historical setting and weak characters, or they have great characters but are weak on the historical details. When an author gets both right it's magic. This sounds like a great read!

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    1. Magic is a great way to describe it. I hope you get the chance to read this one!

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  2. You're right, I haven't read too much fiction set in the Civil War (aside from Gone With the Wind). I like the idea of this one, especially that she disguised herself as a man and went to war too.

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    1. It's fascinating to me that we hear so little about these women. According to the author, we know of 200 women who went to war which must mean that there are many we don't know about!

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  3. I have this on my Goodreads wishlist. Hope to get it and read it soon, now that I read your review. I have only seen it on one other blog and that was awhile ago, so yes, it deserves more recognition. Thanks for reminding me to pick it up soon :)

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    1. Yay! I'm not usually a sucker for love stories, but this one pulls at your heartstrings in all of the right ways.

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