Jocelyn Green

Dear Readers, 

After having met Jocelyn Green this past fall, I was looking forward to reading her last installment of her Heroines Behind the lines; Civil War.  Spy of Richmond once again proved that to be a strong woman doesn’t mean you have to have a man doing the work for you.  You  can love and do great things. 

Sophie is a Union loyalist living behind the enemy lines.  Her father owns slaves and her suitor is an officer in the confederate army.   So what is this a girl to do?  Become a spy for the Union army, she has the perfect cover, a family deeply embedded in the southern culture, who would suspect her?

With suspicion rising, Sophie knows that she isnow risking everything.  Not only is her espionage putting her in danger, it is also risking her father’s life and their lively hood.   Can she continue helping the North at the risk of her life?

I think that is what is the best thing about Jocelyn’s books.  Her characters have to wrestle with what is the right thing to do.  Sometimes the answers are completely gray not black and white.  Is it right to continue something if it is going to endanger someone else?  Even if what you are doing is the right thing to do?  Spying for the North was something Sophie considered as the morally correct thing to do, but she really struggles with right and wrong.  

A book that doesn’t leave you comfortable with what you have always thought was correct makes for an interesting read.  I know ending slavery was/is the correct thing to do, but at the risk of someone who is innocent of the wrong doing… Does the end justify the means?  Hmm that does make it a more difficult question. 

One other thought, I carried a series a few years ago that had as it main character as spy for the U.S.A in Russia.  One of the things they really wrestled with was as a Christian could they be a spy?  Spying is actually lying for a living, and that is considered a sin.  It sure does make for some lively conversations when talking about the book.

Happy Reading,

Jocelyn Green

Dear Readers,

There seems to be a large number of books about WWII and Civil War this year and I think I have read the majority of them.  J  I know each war has significant anniversaries this year and that always seems to generate more fiction books about them.  Jocelyn Green is one of the authors who have set their books during the Civil war, but she has been writing about that topic for a couple of years now.  She has won herself many fans who enjoy reading about the Civil War, but also readers who just enjoy a good book.  I kind of fall into both categories.   I love historical books, but they need to be good and even written from a unique perspective and Jocelyn seem to have that down.

In Yankee in Atlanta, book #3 in the Heroines behind the Lines – Civil War – Jocelyn writes about Caitlin, a woman who is fighting dressed as a man.  She is fighting on the side of the Union when she is wounded. Through a couple of mistakes she is thought to be southern when she is found.   She is not only suffering from a wound, she has typho- malarial fever.  She is now behind enemy lines, but an enemy that thinks she is one of them.   Will she be able to keep her identity a secret until she can either make her way north again or is rescued by an advancing army?

I think the thing that really got my interest in this book is that Caitlin’s storyline is not the only one going on.  Caitlin talks about a Jack and how she worries about him while he is fighting.  You are left for a bit to wonder who Jack is, but it is an important part of the story so I won’t tell you his story.  You will need to read it. 

Each story line could stand as a complete story on its own and yet Jocelyn weaves them together very well.  It means you travel around the war a bit, north and south, but I had no problem keeping the storylines straight.  I really liked how it all was brought together in the end.

Happy Reading.

 

P.S. She along with 4 other authors will be in our store Oct. 9th at 7:00 p.m.