Customer Reviews

Sisters of the Confederacy (A Secret Refuge Series #2) (Book 2)

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WOW! What an awesome story! Since I did not read the first book, I was a little confused the first two chapters. After that I couldnot put the book down. I read it in one day. When it ended I was so let down because it has gone into so much detail, then boom, it's over, without a really true ending. A love story cannot just end there! Please tell me there is another book to end this sequel!?

Jesselynn and Louisa continue their quest to survive the indignaties of the Civil War...Jesselynn decides to head towards Oregon in an effort to save the last few horses from her Kentucky home in the hopes of returning after the war is done to rebuild her family's horse farm. Louisa forges ahead with opening her home to wounded soldiers.

Jesse joins a wagon train headed west guided by Wolf Torgestad, half Norwegian and half Sioux. To gather enough supplies to be allowed to join the wagon train, Jesse had to race Ahab, hoping to win the purse of gold, but if she lost, she forfeited Ahab.

Louisa struggles to find her place in helping with the war effort...knitting socks and rolling bandages just doesn't seem enough....but finding the medicines to ease their suffering is...but it means going North and smuggling them back at the risk of her life.

I have read all three books in this series, this was my favorite...that being said, there are some big flaws in these books, the continuity is uneven and rough at times. One page Meshach is riding Ahab, the next paragraph has Jesse riding him with no switch possible...often Ms. Snelling uses the same exact phrases over and over...as Lousia writes her letters, she invariably must blot a tear before it runs the ink, and finally after pages of minute detail you hurtle through big life changing events in two pages...maybe some more editing was needed? But the stories are good enough to brush aside these rough spots. I've read other books by Ms. Snelling and will look for future works...

This is a continuation of a romance during the Civil War. Both books are really good and I highly recommend them. They are filled with lots of emotion - romance, happiness and tragedy.

Honesty is the best policy. This is one volume of a series by Snelling about this particular family from Kentucky. This one has two sisters doing their thing many miles apart. Sometimes there was safety in not knowing what the other is doing. Mainly, it's about Jesse, a girl in boy's clothing. And she pulls it together until the last stretch, and we are left hanging. Lettie had worked for the family and died before the war got to Virginia and the homestead was burned.

They named their animals, especially the horses. Kentucky is full of ridges and hollows, the Ozark Mountains without peaks. Nathan's horse was called Roderick, a young horse they called Sunshine and the mule wass Roman. The bluegrass state bred thoroughbred horses; Jesse took seven (which they had kept in a cave for safekeeping)with the wagon train to Oregon. Keeping family alive was more important than deceit.

In January, 1863, the group left Springfield, Missouri, through Independence to the Oregon Trail. There were many adventures along the way and three deaths. On March 15, the group began the move with Wolf in charge of getting them to their destination safely.

You are too valuable for the Southern cause right where you are, Louisa was told. Good breeding showed no matter where you are. She and Zachary visited the sister who married a politician in Washington, DC, to obtain morphine. She worked in an army hospital in Richmond, the Confederate capitol. With Zach gone, Louisa quit thinking about the past. The knowing and the doing were two different things. Both young sisteres feigned nonchalance, and both received an answer to a prayer. Jesse talked to God as I do -- directly.

We helped each other, and that is the way life is to be lived, war or no war. Song without end, they appeared to go back to life as usual. They wished for a straight answer. Uncertainty of the trip west poisoned her spirit. Pain struck, not only her heart but her entire being. There were troubles along the way but with the correct amount of arrogance, Jesse used her strong will with an image of all sweetness and acquiescence. By May they were almost there to their new home. Other sequels lend more credibility to how the War affected everyone. She also wrote 'Letting Go,' 'Blessing in Disguise,' and 'Kentucky Dreamer' (I know one of those, calls himself Mark.)

Lauraine Snelling is a great writer. The first book was great. I haven't read the second one yet, but I am going to buy it soon. I'm sure that it's just as good as the first one.