Ana’s family has come to America from Portugal looking for asylum, and she is old enough to find a job to help with the family expenses. Her position assisting Mary Lincoln, wife of the up-and-coming Abraham Lincoln, gives her a unique opportunity to witness not only the family relationships but the political world as well. Her black friend, Cal, inadvertently introduces her to the Underground Railroad, something that makes her much more aware of the racial differences in her town, and just how important it is that Mr. Lincoln succeed in his political goals.

I’ve read enough books and watched enough History Channel programs to know a fair bit about Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary, so I was already familiar with much of the family dynamics portrayed in this book. Telling the story through the eyes of a teenager, though, provided a unique perspective into the lives of the Lincolns and the political turmoil of the time, primarily the issue of slavery, but also the impending civil war. The reader also gets to peak behind the curtain around a family of immigrants, which was enlightening.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected or hoped for – I was looking for more of a biography of Abraham Lincoln and his family, and not so much focus on everything else. When I thought about it, though, I realized that it would be hard to tell the story of Lincoln without getting into “everything else,” as so much of what was happening at the time shaped his beliefs and policies. I wasn’t aware of the race riots in Springfield in the early 1900s, but reading the author’s descriptions made it seem eerily like I was reading an article plucked from one of today’s new sources – and it’s scary that we apparently have learned much of anything in a century.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, well researched and offered different perspective on pre and post Civil War - in a northern state.

I love Abe Lincoln and especially retellings that involve him. The mystery about what he could have been involved in is delightful! This story was a delight and structured well. Nancy Horan does a great job of weaving together characters who were real and circumstances that were not. I really enjoyed this and look forward to checking out her other works!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

Ana is 14 when she goes to work for the Lincoln family and this is her story as well as a look at Illinois and Lincoln for the next 50 years. An immigrant from Madeira she finds economic security and a different sort of life. She's very much a lens for a different look at Lincoln but she's an intriguing one. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I almost put this aside because well, there are many novels featuring Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln as well as innumerable biographies (and a really terrific movie) but it's a good read that's both educational and entertaining.

This is a very interesting read. I love this recounting of the life of Abraham Lincoln and the people that surrounded hi. During the last few years of his life. This book is very informative, heartaches and heartwarming. Must read. I was given an advanced reader copy of this very well written book by NetGalley and I am freely leaving my review.

A good read of the Lincolns during the civil war time period. It gives you a lot about Mary Todd’s personality and life style which was interesting. There is a friendship between 2 young girls, Cal and Ana in Springfield IL that lasts over the years after the civil war. The book doesn’t over emphasize civil war details.

The House of Lincoln follows Ana Ferreira, a young Portuguese immigrant who works for the Lincoln’s helping with household duties and the boys. This book is full of history and is a good historical fiction read. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I picked this book up, but overall it was good. The book covers a lot of different episodes in time, focusing mostly around race and freedoms. Starting with slavery and ending with race riots, this book touches on this historical events that helped shape our history and calls out things that I hadn’t known before. I feel like I learned a lot about the different conflicts during these times and saw how slavery was abolished, but quickly switched into a different type of segregation. I enjoyed learning about some of these histories I hadn’t known before.

I also really enjoyed the parts of the book centering around Abraham Lincoln and his family. Lincoln has always fascinated me and I liked getting to learn more about his family while getting to see Ana interact with them, even if that let was fiction. This was a good historical book that was full of information that I hadn’t known before, but am glad I know now. If you are a fan of history and are interested in Lincoln and how slavery transformed into segregation, I think this book does a good job of showing these events. I found this to be an enjoyable read, not my typical go to genre, but good nonetheless.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The House of Lincoln.

I loved Loving Frank, so I was excited to see this ARC was available for request. Also, Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president.

Like some readers, I thought this was going to be about Ana and her relationship/friendship with the Lincolns, but that's only a small part of the narrative.

Told from from Ana's POV, a Portuguese immigrant, and a couple of free Black entrepreneurs about life before, during, and after Lincoln's presidency, we see Ana grow from an intelligent, naive child to a world weary older woman who has seen more than she could ever have imagined in her adopted homeland.

I empathized with Ana's mother's struggles to adapt to a new country, its language, rituals, and customs, and her deep longing for her home country.

That's the life of all immigrant families; our parents and our grandparents', and their sacrifices allow future generations a step up in America, with hopefully better and greater opportunities.

I also liked how the author shines a spotlight on Mary Lincoln; how she was poorly treated by her only living son and society; how her grief and sorrow over her husband and three sons led her spiraling into a deep depression that may have been the reason her life ended as soon as it did.

The writing was great, but the prose sometimes sounded dry, the author just recounting events and facts. It lacked the warm and emotional urgency the chaotic and frenetic energy during those frightening times.

The premise is misleading.

This isn't a story between Ana and the Lincolns; yes, there is brief interaction, but The House of Lincoln is about the people in Lincoln's social circle; not the politicians or the wealthy, the everyday people who struggle to make a living and to live, during a period of great social and civil unrest (not unlike what we're experiencing now).

I appreciated the author's intensive research and the knowledge I gained from reading this, but I wish I had liked The House of Lincoln more.

THÉ HOUSE OF LINCOLN is a mash up of several stories in one with relatively short chapters devoted to each story. For me, this meant that each time I was falling for one thread, I had to pick up another thread. This works for romance novels but for a work with house and Lincoln in it’s name, it left me a little disgruntled, though there was magic in each thread. There are some intricate, deeply felt chapters of the Lincolns, but then much is glossed over, I suppose to make room for all the, vastly different, thinly connected stories. I did learn things, feel things, but in the end my view of what this story was truly about is as patchwork as it’s offering. And the sad thing is that there was no need for that. Any of the stories would have stood on its own, but with the skill of this author, why not just write of the Lincolns?

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book has a lot of interesting historical material to work with and yet lacked the narrative focus to keep me hooked. There were too many points of view incorporated into this and sometimes the point of view would change from paragraph to paragraph. Then there were whole side plots that didn’t really appear to pay off. I felt like the time span was also too large for the story the author was trying to tell. I liked the focus on the riot of 1908 but felt like it got tacked on at the end. Then in the middle, the time jumps got significantly longer and we were skipping four or five years at a time. Overall, I enjoyed the history but struggled with the structure of this book.

It’s not the book. It’s me. I am a fan of this author, Nancy Horan. I enjoyed Loving Frank years ago, and her more recent book about Robert Louis Stevenson. But, I think, I’ve lost interest in this sort of historical fiction, at least for now. From what I did read, Horan is in fine form, and has chosen a unique angle to tell a fresh(er) story about the sixteenth POTUS. The Portuguese immigrant, Ana, is not a voice we’ve heard before, as far as I know. I’m sure I’ll come back to this one day, but for now I’m moving in.

Unique covering of the U.S. civil war history using several points of view, one being a Portuguese immigrant girl and another from free black men in Illinois. We are introduced to the struggles in Illinois as they try to put many black laws in place. Ana, the Portuguese immigrant shows us the Lincolns as she is a house worker for them before he becomes president. The story then continues with her concern for her husband fighting in the war as she remains in Springfield, Illinois. Perhaps the author has tried to cover too many aspects of those 4-5 years. I found it slow starting and wasn't taken in until three-fourths through. The characters were well developed but the story seemed to skip around too much, perhaps because as I said, she tried to cover so much time.

Exceptional read. The House of Lincoln taught me much more than I previously knew about Abraham Lincoln, the man, his family and his assent to the White House. The story, told through the eyes of Ana, who is a fictional character, represents one of the many Portuguese immigrants, who settled in Springfield, Illinois. The parallels in history between now and two hundred years ago, are not lost on the reader. It’s a daunting feeling. Nancy Horan is a gifted writer. I loved Loving Frank and look forward to reading more of her works. Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. #Netgalley, #TheHouseofLincoln.

The House of Lincoln is a wonderful historical fiction which shines a light on the culture of the time period of Abraham Lincoln's place in politics. I will admit that my knowledge of Abraham Lincoln came primarily from what I learned in school. Reading this story has brought both him and what he stood into focus. The story is told primarily from the eyes of Ana Ferreira a young Portuguese girl who has immigrated and found her self working the the Lincoln household as well as becoming a companion to Mrs. Lincoln. We experience though Ana and her friend Cal, a young free black girl, the upheaval of the time. Touching on topics of slavery, immigration, class differences, and women's rights the story is compelling.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

This book is an example of why I love historical fiction. A young girl, Ana, an immigrant from Madeira, sees firsthand the workings of the Underground Railroad. She becomes a helper in the household of Abraham Lincoln. She experiences the world during the Civil War, the assassination of Lincoln, and the heartbreaking aftermath of the war. It brought to mind the horrors of racism today. Will it ever end?

I would like to thank Net Galley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to review this book as an ARC. This is the story of Ana, a young Portuguese immigrant who comes to Springfield Illinois with her family in the 1840's. Ana takes a job as a "Saturday girl"to help out Mary Todd Lincoln with her house and family. The book tells the story of Ana, the Lincolns, and the people of Springfield from this time through the Civil War and into the early 1900's. It is a well researched book, and gives a lot of information on the conditions of the Black people in Illinois prior to and after the Civil War. It is not a book about Lincoln, so if you are looking for more in depth information on the President and his family, you may be disappointed. It is also very slow paced. The plot seems to plod rather than move along. There are 3 distinct stories- Ana's story as an immigrant, Lincoln's story in his quest to be President, and the story of the Black People of Springfield.To me, they did not intertwine as smoothly as I would have liked. At times it was disjointed and characters came and went without a plot line to tether them to the story. As I said, it was well researched and some of the characters were well written and engaging. Thank you again for the chance to read it.

Kudos to the research that Nancy Horan undertook.

The setting: "...Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. President to Great Emancipator and presents Lincoln’s Midwestern home as a complex third home front of the Civil War" told through the voice of Ana Ferreira, an immigrant from Madeira. The account starts with Ana as a 14-year old, but ends with her in her late 60s.

Ana "...is offered a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hosting duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana ... [witnesses] the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary. Yet, alongside her dearest friend in the Black community [Cal], Ana confronts the racial prejudice her friend encounters daily as she watches the inner workings of the Underground Railroad, and directly experiences how slavery contradicts the promise of freedom in her adopted country."

I learned a lot about the Lincolns and politics in Illinois--especially Springfield.

The book covered many years--from 1851-1909 [much of it in the 1860s and the aftermath of the Civil War]--but the narrative sped up by leaps and bounds the last 1/4 of the book.

I found many parallels with the present day--notably the issues of immigration, racism, and racial injustice. And--Lincoln won the electoral vote, but not the popular vote!

The writing was fine, Several phrases struck my fancy:
"...man, whose hair hung like pale corn tassels"
"...wore muttonchops that wrapped around his big head like shrubbery""
"...felt positively upholstered in its heavy cotton folds" [dress]

I learned much about the Civil War, Lincoln, politics {North vs South/slavery], secession, and politicians at the time {Stephen Douglas, Frederick Douglass, President Andrew Johnson], and even articles of clothing in the 1860s: pelisses, Bertha collar, Havelock caps. Add in Catholics vs. Presbyterians, interracial marriage, and much more--there's alot [maybe too much].The 1908 Springfield Race Riot, which was the impetus for the formation of the NAACP was also new to me.

I loved Ana's character, but found the book somewhat flat, slow, and disjointed.

3.25, commendable, but...

I really liked this book. The author gives insight to what was happening in Springfield, Illinois, before Lincoln became President. Told thru the eyes of a young Portuguese girl, who became a maid in the Lincoln household. She also is able to continue the story after the assassination of Lincoln. I never heard of the riots in Springfield until I read this book. She also explains in great detail the plight of slaves, and how the underground railroad worked in Springfield. The civil war really didn't help the blacks, they were still abused, treated worse then any human should've been treated. They wanted the same things as their white counterparts. Sadly, not much has changed in today's world. The only negative thing I wished the author would have completed Ana's story, you are left hanging in the ending. Other than that, if you love stories about Lincoln, and Mary, this is a good book to start with their story!

Before reading The House of Lincoln, I knew nearly nothing about Springfield, Illinois before, during, and after the Civil War, and I knew nothing about the Springfield Riot of 1908. There's actually quite a bit less Lincoln in the book than I expected from the description, but that wasn't an issue. The House of Lincoln follows the stories of a few different citizens of Springfield, Illinois from a young Portuguese immigrant to a pair of brothers working the Underground Railroad, to Mary Todd Lincoln. It's an engaging historical fiction that culminates in the chaos that was the Springfield race riot of 1908.

I continue to be impressed with the writing of Nancy Horan. She delivers another look at history in this book. There is more to the story of the devastating effects of slavery in our country than we have been taught. Nancy Horan gives us a peek into a moment in our history of which I was not aware. A worthy effort on her part.