Kentucky Bride Book Review and GIVEAWAY!

 

About the Book

Book: Kentucky Bride

Author: Caryl McAdoo

Genre: Historical Christian Romance

Release Date: June 9, 2020

A Country Divided…And so is her heart.

Some might say you can’t be too fussy when almost every unattached young man is off fighting for Southern freedom, but that shouldn’t mean a rebel’s daughter has any business with a Union soldier. Forbidden love never created greater battles than Gigi’s unexpected love for a Union soldier.

A dashing Rebel Soldier. The daughter of a Federal Soldier. How will they overcome the odds and a war to be together? Find out in this twist on Romeo and Juliet.

 

 

Click HERE to get your copy!

 

 

 

About the Author

Award-winning author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and her best-selling stories—over fifty published—delight Christian readers around the world. The prolific writer also enjoys singing the new songs the Lord gives her; you may listen at YouTube. Sharing four children and eighteen grandsugars with Ron, her high-school-sweetheart-husband of over fifty years, she lives in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas. The McAdoos wait expectantly for God to open the next door.

 

 

 

 

More from Caryl

It thrilled me to be a part of the North and South Collection series, a thirty-seven titles by seventeen authors project headed up by Christine Sterling Bortner. One reason is that my husband and co-writer has always been a Civil War buff, and the other because it’s such a huge undertaking. I’m actually writing two titles, Kentucky in 1861 and Nevada in 1865.

The stories are broken up by the years (1861-1865) and then the years divided into the states or territories (37 in all) as to when its most major event happened. So, if a reader stays with the series, one releases every other week, they will enjoy a chronological overview of the Civil War.

This story, Kentucky Bride is set near Bowling Green where the Confederates first set up their area headquarters. Twenty-thousand men descended on the city of seven hundred. Nearby, General Hindman with fifteen hundred men that included the 8^th Calvary Regiment from Texas, a group of Texas Rangers who’d joined the effort. Of course, I had to have a Texan as a hero! 😊

My heroine is eighteen-year-old Gardenia Gladiola Garland who helps her grandfather in the family business as her papa, brother, and uncle were gone. They’d joined the Union Army several weeks before. She hates the flowery name her mother pinned on her almost as much as the war and insists on being called Gigi.

 

My Texas Ranger hero, Ephraim Edward Kerns is sent to meet a supply wagon and it surprises to find such a lovely young woman muleskinning. He ties his horse to the back of the wagon and takes over for her, falling in love with her intelligence, beauty, and determination practically at first sight.

 

This Texas author hopes readers will love these two young ones, and I’m always “Praying my story gives God glory!”

 

My Review

“Had the Almighty placed her there? On that day, at that time? Thrown her together with the man for His purpose?”

Book number 8 in the North and South series, Kentucky Bride by Caryl McAdoo is a sweet romance that can be read as a standalone. It is a quick read, but despite its brevity, McAdoo infuses her story with heart and humor. Because Kentucky was a neutral state in 1861, when this story takes place, there is more latitude for a diverse range of characters, and they are the driving force of the novel. The name of the eponymous heroine is Gardenia Gladiola Garland, or Gigi, and she finds the Civil War most inconvenient, especially since her family is fighting for the Union and her beau is a Confederate Texas Ranger.

While touching on serious subject matter, Kentucky Bride takes a lighthearted approach, focusing on the good and including more harsh realities with only brief mention. As such, this book is quite suitable for older adolescent and teen readers; this is something that I would not have had trouble reading in grades 5 or 6, but it is also of course appropriate for adult readers as well. Moreover, it is a clean romance and a definitively Christian story, which I am always so glad to see. McAdoo’s use of different third-person narrative voices, split between the four focal characters, adds depth and offers perspectives from unique figures, both slave and free. The story puts me somewhat in mind of the sentimental novel with its idealism, but honestly, it is refreshing to read something in which the majority of the relationships are good and they treat each other with respect, working side by side. As one of the characters sagely notes, “It sure would be hard to stay on the straight and narrow if all you saw and heard went against what the good book taught.” McAdoo makes it clear at the end of the book that no one escapes trials and hard times here on earth, but thanks to Jesus, our future in eternity is secure.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Celebrate Lit and was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.

My Rating: 4 stars ♥♥♥♥

 

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, July 10

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, July 10

Inklings and notions, July 11

For Him and My Family, July 12

Novels Corner, July 12

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, July 13

For the Love of Literature, July 14

Pause for Tales, July 14

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, July 15

Older & Smarter?, July 16

She Lives To Read, July 17

deb’s Book Review, July 18

Bizwings Blog, July 18

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, July 19

Betti Mace, July 20

Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses, July 20

KarenSueHadley, July 21

Artistic Nobody, July 22 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)

Connie’s History Classroom, July 23

 

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Caryl is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/fe19/kentucky-bride-celebration-tour-giveaway