This book reminded me of Lonesome Dove, but set during the Civil War period. You will love and hate the characters of this book. Mary, makes the decision to help a run away slave. A decision that will have a lasting impact on her family. Her brother Leander, the most popular boy in town, leads his friends to war. A decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Each chapter switches between a handful of characters, and reader's see the story from many different view points. This is a story of love, regret, coming of age, and overcoming our pasts.

”’How did he become president when so few people voted for him? Did he cheat? Did he steal the election? I don’t know, but the question must be asked.’ He stood in front of a farmer missing his front teeth. ‘What do you think, Klaus?’ The farmer looked around, surprised to be addressed. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘We might never know,’ the preacher said. ‘I do not believe he is our real president. He is not my president. Is he yours?’”

This story begins around the time of the hanging of abolitionist John Brown, who led a raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in order to liberate the slaves there. Tensions escalated, leading to John Brown being hanged in Charles Town, Virginia, 02 Dec 1859. Later on, 20 June, 1863, West Virginia began the Secessionist Convention that eventually resulted in its breaking away from the Confederate state of Virginia, but at this point in time, there was no “West” Virginia, only Virginia.

The year is 1861, and the voting citizens of Town Line, New York have informally gathered, 125 white men, to discuss a resolution to secede from the United States. A resolution to secede is passed by a vote of 85 to 40. This unincorporated community, a hamlet, in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metro area is close to Canada, so some fled to live in Canada, five joined the Conferacy on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line in Northern Virginia, and 20 men left to fight for the Union.

Legally, this resolution to secede had no effect, and was never recognized by either the Union or the Confederacy in any formal sense.

All of this is recognized historically as accurate despite there being no written records, but the town lived with this status until 24 January 1946, when they voted to rejoin the Union. The vote was 90 to 23 to rescind the previous vote, although they had a vote not long before that that failed to reach this conclusion. But 1946 was a different year, when pride was high in the returning warriors from WWII, and those who had fought wanted their recognition for having fought for the country they at least thought they were a part of until they were informed otherwise.

Mary Willis is a young, unmarried woman, by our more modern definitions, but was considered a “spinster” in those days, having reached the nearly ancient age of 23 without landing a husband, not that she saw herself that way. She was, after all, educated, well read and opinionated. In her effort to pursue a more fulfilling life, she receives an advanced education on the ways of the secret routes and safe houses of the Underground Railroad.

Joe Bell was a slave, although technically freed by his owner, the owner’s son is dedicated to hunting him down and making him pay – one way or another. Mary, of course, is more dedicated to protecting him at all costs.

Yates Bell, the son of Joe Bell’s former owner, is out to retrieve Joe and haul him back to Harper’s Ferry, despite his father, to prevent his own ruination.

Leander Willis, brother to Mary, has only one goal: pleasure. He is lazy, but even when he can manage to motivate himself to perform some grand gesture; its sole purpose is to garner praise for him.

Charles Webster, neighbor and family friend, who quietly pines after the woman he loves from afar.
Friends will betray friends, loyalties are questioned over and over, while grand, noble ideals are met with the glaring truth of the way things are, a country and a people divided over what is right and what is wrong.

Maybe my hopes or expectations were too high, but I didn’t connect to this as much as I’d hoped, although the writing is often lovely and the premise of this debut novel interesting and unique. However, the characters of Joe Bell and Mary Willis did stand out above the rest and were wonderful, complex, characters, I felt their passion in their beliefs, their hopes for a better future, someday.

”To wake to that perfect white blanket covering the fields, the whole world made new overnight. It’s then that you know God forgives, that there’s mercy in this world.”

Daren Wang, the author, is the Executive Director of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival, has some obvious experience with our favourite topic – books! I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

”None have freedom until all do”


Pub Date: 29 Aug 2017

Many thanks for the ARC provided by St. Martin's Press!

This book was so good! If you like to read stories about the Civil War, you will enjoy this one because it is a little different. It involves all the issues of the Civil War, but it is based on the only secessionist town north of the Mason Dixon Line. It involves several characters and lets the reader know how the Civil War affected each one of them. Even though this story is told from several view points, the author does a brilliant job of weaving them all together. I highly recommend this book to everyone who likes to read Civil War stories! The author has written a fascinating book about this little town!

As the story begins, a lot of paragraphs start with He or Joe, later it’s She or Mary, and so on. The story is not engaging. The style of writing is not to my liking.

An interesting take on a civil war story. Lots of characters with vastly differing personalities. I had a little trouble getting into it at first but after maybe 10% the story flowed well and was an easy read. I would recommend this to someone interested in reading a civil war story with lots of different perspectives and storylines, with a lot of gray areas in choices and behaviors.

I enjoyed the heroine and the setting. Very good historical novel.

In Town Line New York in 1861, Mary Willis longs for adventure after graduating from college, but her father expects her to take up the reins and help on the family farm. With her abolitionist beliefs, she has few friends in her town and finds happiness with her brother, Leander. When Mary has the chance to do something real for what she believes in, she seizes the chance, and begins helping runaway slaves escape across the border to Canada. When she finds runaway Joe Bell in the family barn, he’s near death from an infected dog bite, starvation and exposure. She will need to nurse him back to health before he’s able to continue his journey to freedom, but Bell’s owners, the Yates family of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, are not about to let their valuable property disappear. With her life and the lives of her family in danger, Mary must fight off not only the Yates clan, but members of her own town. This incredible story is based on the life of Wang’s own family, from journals found in their old home. Not to be missed