The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins

On a bright May day, Anne Peabody receives an unexpected kiss from a stranger. Bringing news of the repeal of the Stamp Act, Jack Hampton, a member of the Sons of Liberty, abruptly sweeps Anne into his arms, kisses her-and then leaves her to her fate of an arranged marriage...

New York City, 1775

Anne, now the Widow Merrick, is struggling to survive in a city on the brink of war. In a time when Loyalists are tarred and feathered, Anne continues her late husband's business, printing Tory propaganda, not because she believes in the cause, but because she needs the money to survive. When her shop is ransacked by the Sons of Liberty, Anne once again comes face to face with Jack Hampton. But he is no longer the optimistic youth she remembers. Despite her better judgment, Anne finds herself drawn to both the ardent patriot and his rebel cause.

As shots ring out at Lexington and war erupts, Anne is faced with a life-altering decision: sit back and watch her world torn apart, or take a stand and fight for both her country's independence and her own.

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed The Turning of Anne Merrick which is the second book by author Christine Blevins to feature Anne Merrick and Jack Hampton. Because that review was for a blog tour, and I hate to read out of order, I had to read this book before I could even think about starting Turning. Unfortunately I ran out of time to review this one first, so now I am reviewing out of order! Oh well.

The book opens on the wedding day of young Anne Merrick. She is marrying a much older man in a marriage that has been arranged to benefit both Anne's father and her new husband. The only person not obviously happy with the arrangement is Anne herself.

It so happens that on the same day the hated Stamp Act has been repealed and the Sons of Liberty are celebrating. One of the Sons, Jack Hampton, brings the news and in the excitement of the moment grabs Anne and kisses her!

Fast forward to 1775, and Anne is now not only a widow, but she has also lost her child. Now she is running the printing press that she took over from her husband, assisted by his former slave Titus, and her servant and friend Sally. Her most important priority is keeping the business running, and in order to do so she has been printing Tory propaganda - a very risky business in these days of tar and feathering.

When her property is searched by the Sons of Liberty, she once again comes face to face with Jack Hampton, but just like Anne, he has matured in the intervening years and is now a much more jaded and sceptical man.

Anne knows that she needs to find another way to protect her income and so opens a coffeehouse as a front which, once the city is taken over by the Redcoats, gives her the perfect way to spy for the opposition.

Anne and Jack circle around each other warily. They are both attracted to each other, but he isn't sure of her loyalty to the cause, and she most definitely doesn't trust him - with good reason. In the early parts of the relationship, Jack is something of a jack-the-lad, drinking too much, spending time with whores and more.  To be honest, I think that Anne is a little too easily forgiving of this, but I guess the book wouldn't have moved forward if we had to wait too long for the relationship between the two main characters.

Anne walks a dangerous tight-rope between the two sides of the conflict, and if she falls the consequences could be terrible. The author does a great job of showing life in New York during a time of great uncertainty for everyone, as the city changes hands, as areas of the city become dangerous even when just running simple errands, and as you don't know who you can trust from one day to the next.

Even without the added incentive of having a blog tour post coming up, I would have picked up the sequel to see what happened next. Now I guess, I just have wait even longer to see exactly how Anne and Jack's story concludes.

Rating 4/5

Click here to read a quote from the book.

Review originally posted at www.theintrepidreader.com

The Turning of Anne Merrick by Christine Blevins

A tale of love and espionage from the author of Midwife of the Blue Ridge...


She spies for General Washington, betrays the Redcoats and battles for America's independence...


It's 1777, and a fledgling country wages an almost hopeless struggle against the might of the British Empire. Brought together by a fateful kiss, Anne Merrick and Jack Hampton are devoted to each other and to their Patriot cause. As part of Washington's daring network of spies, they are ready and willing to pay even the ultimate price for freedom.


From battlefields raging along the Hudson, to the desperate winter encampment at Valley Forge and through the dangerous intrigue of British-occupied Philadelphia, Anne and Jack brave the trials of separation, the ravages of war and an unyielding enemy growing ever more ruthless.


For love and for country, all is put at risk-and together the pair must call upon their every ounce of courage and cunning in order to survive.

Before I start my review proper there are a couple of things I wanted to mention. Firstly, Christine Blevins wrote an awesome blog post for us about Women at War. We are also giving away an 18th century style stationery pack to one lucky winner. (We are also currently giving away a copy of By the King's Design by Christine Trent so check that out too! Click on the links for more details).

Secondly, the events in this book, take up pretty much where those of The Tory Widow left off, so please be aware there may be potential spoilers for The Tory Widow in the following review.

Anne Merrick has left the dangerous world of New York behind and now has joined her lover Jack Hampton  on the road, but it isn't long before she is called upon to once again spy for the rebels by infiltrating the British camp, leaving the protection of Jack and Titus behind (Titus is the freed slave who initially worked with her husband but who had been her employee and friend ever since her husband's death) and once more having to rely on her own wits and guile to both provide the information that the Americans so desperately need about the British and to ensure that she isn't caught.

She isn't completely alone though. As always, she is accompanied by her friend Sally, who also is in love with Anne's brother David, who is an officer in the American army, and along they way the tight knit group picks up a few more members that become important in their own right throughout the story.

Anne's guise as a stationer and letter writer for the British soldiers, her willingness to work with injured soldiers, as well as her beauty and charm as a gentlewoman allow her to get close to officers who can then introduce her to the edges of the upper echelon of army society. She befriends the wives and mistresses of the various generals and so is able to glean information that is then transferred to the American generals and used to great benefit in their fight against the British. I do have to wonder if anyone in the British Army had ever heard the saying "Loose lips sink ships" because seriously there were lots of loose lips and that ship was definitely listing dangerously to one side!

Whilst Anne is working as a spy at the British camp, Jack is once again at work as a scout, as a rifleman and as spy - anywhere he is needed really. The Jack in this book is much less of Jack the lad who was in the early pages of The Tory Widow, and is much more serious. I guess that some of the things he had done and seen have caused that change, and in my view was a realistic character development for Jack. He knows that Anne is working for the cause, just as much as he is, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he can bring himself to like some of the things that she has to do in the course of that role. Where the last book was really about bringing Anne and Jack together, in this book they are definitely a couple and so there is less of a romantic feeling.

Once Anne leaves the British camp because it is getting too dangerous, she and Sally come into the American camp, where things are just as dire for the men there as they were on the other side. Blevins does a great job of showing just how bad camp life was - hunger, theft, disease and more were rife.   I also thought that the author did a great job of showing the battles happening, without having them overwhelm the whole of the storyline.

Given another risky assignment, Anne spends also spends time in Philadelphia. What Anne doesn't know is that the dangerous world of New York has not left her behind, and that there is someone from her past who would love to see nothing more than Anne Merrick swinging from the noose as a traitor.

There were lots of names of real life historical figures mentioned throughout the narrative, and I have a feeling that if I was an American I would have recognised a lot more of them. For example, at one stage Benedict Arnold makes a cameo appearance and I sat there thinking that I knew that name. It took me ages to think of what exactly I recognised about it. One name that did have me sitting up and taking notice is when General Simon Fraser took the stage - I instantly thought of the Outlander books!

Whilst I enjoyed this book a lot, there were a few episodes of info-dumping (how Jack makes his bullets, how to load a rifle etc) that weren't quite successfully integrated into the body of the story for my liking, and I never did quite work out how the armies were basically starving and yet Sally seemed to always have enough flour on hand to make scones. These are however small nit-pickings on my part and didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book.

Now that I have read both of these books I will have to wait patiently to find out what happens next in Anne and Jack's story. I am looking forward to it, even if it is a while away yet!

Rating 4/5

 Tour Schedule
Christine Blevins' Website: http://christineblevins.com/
Christine Blevins Facebook
Christine Blevins on Twitter: @Author_CBlevins
Tour Event Twitter Hashtag: #TurningofAnneMerrickVirtualTour

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in order to participate on this tour.

Special thanks also to Christine Blevins who sent a lovely package of goodies related to her books - Bohea tea, candles and soap. I will add the photo of it tomorrow morning.

Guest Post: Women at War by Christine Blevins (includes giveaway)

We are very pleased to welcome Christine Blevins to Historical Tapestry as she kicks off her virtual book tour

Christine Blevins’ latest novel The Turning of Anne Merrick is the second in a 3-book series set during the American Revolution and War of Independence.

Women at War

The history we learn in school and what is most often portrayed in popular media is almost always focused on the courage and dedication of men. Women’s stories are often lost or overlooked, and in this regard, the history of the American Revolution is no exception.

Some will say, “Aw come on, Christine… what about Betsy Ross, or Martha Washington… or Abigail Adams…” and then the argument usually peters off right there. Most of us can name too few examples of women who played any role in the event considered to be one of the biggest turning points in world history.

Betsy Ross

Because women’s roles very often occur backstage to the political arena or battleground, they are seldom recorded, and hence become lost to us. Researching and writing a continuing story set during the American Revolution has offered me the opportunity to explore the many and diverse ways women were involved in the conflict.

Apathetic, Patriotic or Loyalist, women could not help but be touched by the events that occurred once “the shot heard round the world” was fired in 1775. Though 18th century society might dictate that a women’s role and viewpoint be either unimportant, or based on that of her husband or father, the events leading up to revolution and the resultant war inspired many women to act upon their own political choices.

Hearth and Home

Revolutionary America could be a very unsafe place for women. American women became eyewitnesses to war when their towns, cities and farms were engulfed in battle. With men gone off to fight, the women left behind were often called upon to manage the family and farm or business on their own. Many of these women were responsible for defending hearth and home from military foragers (both Continental and British), British Indian allies, and desperate deserters. Those unlucky enough to find themselves in either army’s path were often forced out onto the road as refugees. On her way to marry a Redcoat officer, Jane MacCrae was brutally murdered and scalped by Indian raiders employed by the British. News of her death helped to turn sentiment away from the Loyalist cause.

Jane McCrea

Out of loyalty, or sometimes due to economic constraints, many women followed their men from garrison, to camp, to battlefield, carrying children (and often bearing children) along the way. Officer wives, like the Baroness Frederika Von Riedesel, crossed oceans and braved the wilds to support their husband’s career. Other women followed their common soldier-husbands and served as cooks or laundresses for the army. No matter their social strata, these camp following women suffered victory and defeat with their armies, and bore witness to the brutality of army life and the horror of battle by nursing the sick and wounded. Though it is debated whether the story of Molly Pitcher – the wife of a Continental gunner who took his place at the cannon when he was killed in action – is fact or fiction, I would be willing to wager the act of a camp follower taking up arms against the enemy was not an uncommon one.

Molly Pitcher

Some women tried to engage in a more active role than those permitted. Deborah Samson was exposed – and is thus remembered in the record – as a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to enlist and fight as a soldier in the Continental Army.

Both Loyalist and Patriot women risked having their necks stretched for treason by gathering intelligence on the enemy. The mysterious agent known only as “355” was a female member of Washington’s Culpur Ring of spies who goes down in history with her name and fate never revealed. Anne Bates was one of the Britain’s most successful she-spies, infiltrating the Continental Army as a peddler woman she gave accurate report on rebel troop numbers, movements, and munitions. Lydia Darragh was a Quaker housewife who eavesdropped on the British Command quartered in her home and smuggled the information thus gathered to General Washington at Valley Forge.

These are but a few examples. Patriot or Loyalist, free or slave, black, white, or Native American, women were there. As a writer of historical fiction, I am always compelled to try and ferret out their lost stories. In my digging, I can’t help but wonder about all the unnamed women whose world was turned upside down by Revolution and War – whose stories we can only imagine.

For more information check out the following links:

HFVBT Tour Schedule
Christine Blevins' website
Christine Blevins on Facebook
Christine Blevins on Twitter: @Author_CBlevins
Tour Event Twitter Hashtag: #TurningofAnneMerrickVirtualTour


Giveaway Details

We are very pleased to offer an International giveaway as part of the blog tour.

"18th Century Stationery – just the sort of sundry Anne Merrick peddled to those bloodyback scoundrels in Burgoyne’s camp. Supplied with a quill pen and wrapped for convenient stowing amidst your gear, these sheets and envelopes are perfect for scrieving all manner of secret messages – invisible ink not included."

To win, leave a comment telling us which historical figure you would write to if you could! Also, please leave an email address so that we can contact you if you win!

Giveaway closes on 12 February 2012.

Don't forget to stop by on Friday when I will be posting my review of The Turning of Anne Merrick.

Why I love Revolution! (including a giveaway!)

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

This sentence from Common Sense, by Thomas Paine (one of my favorite revolutionaries) sums it all up for me. It is perhaps ridiculously simplistic, but it is there – the idea that when things are bad, we always have the ability to change – to begin anew.

Spanning time and culture, and for reasons religious, political, or economic, it happens – and often. Revolution. People rising up to say enough is enough. Some lead, others follow, but together they muster the strength to sacrifice and struggle in an effort make their world into a better place.

One of the few books I owned as a kid was a worn textbook on world history that I purchased at a school book sale. A big, heavy volume, the chapters covered many eras and events up to World War II. The thick glossy pages were chock-full of illustrations, timelines and photographs. I would pour over it, reading about my own country’s history, and the histories of countries and peoples far away, and of civilizations and empires long gone. I think because of this early, broad exposure, I now can’t point to a favorite historical time period or place – but I can say I was always particularly drawn to the events involving insurrection, rebellion and revolution. Large or small, joyfully successful or dismally inept, these political cataclysms have all the stuff I look for in a great story.

Of course, rebellions don’t always end well. Spartacus’s slave uprising was eventually squashed, and he was crucified together with 6,600 of his followers on the Appian Way, the bodies left to hang for years as a warning to future rebels. The Jacobite Rising in 1745 did not restore Bonnie Prince Charlie to the throne. The confederacy of Native American tribes who banded together in Pontiac’s Rebellion did not drive the British from their lands, or put a stop to colonial expansion. History is rife with examples of failed efforts.

Revolution can also create strange dichotomies. The French Revolution propelled by cries of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” devolved into the Reign of Terror. Iconic Che Guevera is vilified as “the butcher of La Cabaña” by some, and also prayed to as “Saint Ernesto” by others.

And the revolutions that are deemed successful don’t ever seem to end in perfect solutions. The American Revolution created a radical form of self-governance based on a constitution that left women without a voice in representation, and the slavery issue unresolved.

For these reasons and more, revolutions in both the distant and recent past persist as the basis for novels, movies, and even Broadway musicals. Within rebellion there lies a classic David and Goliath quality – the weak making a courageous stand against the mighty. Revolts inherently abound in conflicts where courageous heroes and martyrs face brutal, tyrannical oppressors – creating the veritable petri dishes in which stories filled with daring, adventure and romance develop. Who can resist?

So I say “Up the Rebels!!”

Author Christine Blevins writes what she loves to read – historical adventure stories. Her debut novel Midwife of the Blue Ridge (August 2008) takes the reader to the wilds of 18th century colonial America, and was inspired by information unearthed while researching family history. Her second novel, The Tory Widow (April 2009) begins in New York City at the eve of rebellion, and is the result of a lifelong fascination with the foundations of American history and the revolutionary spirit. A native Chicagoan, Christine lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, along with her husband Brian, the younger two of their four children, and The Dude, a very silly golden-doodle. She is presently at work on the second novel in her Revolutionary War trilogy titled Hearts of Oak, which is due to be published in June, 2010, by Penguin/Berkley.

http://www.christineblevins.com

And now the giveaway details:


HUZZAH! Enter to win a signed copy of The Tory Widow, plus an Revolutionary America survival kit (lavender water and a hankie) by leaving a comment noting your favorite revolution. Entries will close on 15 May. Please note that entry is open to everyone! Good luck!

HT News

One of the books that I saw quite a few reviews for on HF and book blogs was Midwife of the Blue Ridge. It is still on my TBR list, but I will get to it eventually hopefully!

I was interested to see that Christine posted the cover to her next book or as she put it, the almost cover art because there will be a couple of minor changes, over at Historical Fiction Online. The Tory Widow is the first in a planned trilogy, with Christine recently signing the deal to to write a pair of sequels that will take the story from the onset of the American Revolution though to the end of the war.

With a lot of talk about how much harder it is to be published these days, it is good to celebrate good news!