sjj169's review
4.0
Interesting book on Civil War time. I loved the quilting. I usually don't really go for the books written in letter form but this one is done very well.
cosmicbookworm's review
3.0
A one-sided epistolary novel set during the Civil War. A rather simple minded, vain and selfish 20 year old newlywed, Alice, whose husband has left to fight for the Union writes to her older sister about her experiences living with her mother in law on their subsistence level farm.
We watch Alice mature with time as she deals with life’s circumstances. A Sandra Dallas trend I have seen so far, that I appreciate, is to highlight the challenges of women as second class citizens. This is my third Sandra Dallas book and my least favorite of the three.
We watch Alice mature with time as she deals with life’s circumstances. A Sandra Dallas trend I have seen so far, that I appreciate, is to highlight the challenges of women as second class citizens. This is my third Sandra Dallas book and my least favorite of the three.
kdferrin's review
4.0
I love epistolary novels and I love a flawed heroine that you can’t help but be endeared to by her cluelessness and lack of self awareness
msjoanna's review
3.0
When I first started the book, I was afraid I was going to hate it -- the narrative voice seemed contrived. But as I became involved in the story, the voice sounded more true and less hokey and I became entranced by the story and the historical detail. I also loved the little bits of quilt facts that led off each chapter.
krisis86's review
4.0
Loved this one. Sandra Dallas is just awesome. I love her writing. I love that this one has a reference or two to "The Diary of Mattie Spenser."
mmz's review
4.0
Midway through the Civil War, Alice has been living for a year with her new husband and his mother on their small farm in Iowa, when her husband hears the call of patriotism and joins the Union Army. Alice left the more genteel circumstances she grew up in to marry Charlie, and it does appear to be true love, as they're quite happy together. He leaves Alice with his mother, a woman of very strong opinions, and the hired man to do the heavy lifting on the farm. This seems somewhat problematic at first, as Alice's only apparent talents are quilting and flirting (which puts her one up on Scarlett O'Hara).
As the circumstances get tougher, Alice soon finds that she has more skills than she thought she did, including loyalty and the ability to work hard. In this book, Sandra Dallas has mastered the art of showing the reader how a character develops, rather than simply saying so. Told in the form of letters Alice writes to her sister, the reader can almost feel Alice developing both muscles and a backbone as she faces both day-to-day and rather more extraordinary challenges.
As the circumstances get tougher, Alice soon finds that she has more skills than she thought she did, including loyalty and the ability to work hard. In this book, Sandra Dallas has mastered the art of showing the reader how a character develops, rather than simply saying so. Told in the form of letters Alice writes to her sister, the reader can almost feel Alice developing both muscles and a backbone as she faces both day-to-day and rather more extraordinary challenges.
mslaura's review
4.0
I really liked this book. It's a nice, quiet little read with likable characters for whom you hope against hope things will turn out well. I liked that it was composed entirely of letters written from Alice to her sister. Alice's voice was enjoyable and she interjected subtle humor into much of her writing. She reminded me somewhat of Scarlet O'Hara in the way that she matured over the course of the book. Having read [b:The Diary of Mattie Spenser|360992|The Diary of Mattie Spenser|Sandra Dallas|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312001903s/360992.jpg|6988913], I appreciated the references to characters from that story and look forward to reading more from Sandra Dallas, as I suspect some references were to characters from other of her books. The information on quilting at the start of each chapter was a nice little bonus to this book and helped to provide context. I definitely recommend this book.
brookepalmer796's review
2.0
This story is told in letters from Alice to her sister, Lizzie and for that reason is very one dimensional. It takes a long time to get to what the story is really about, so it was a little boring.