The Yellow Lantern: True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime by Angie Dicken is a enlightening read. Grave diggers and unethical doctors sometimes did everything they could do to collect a body for scientific experiments. In 1824 when Josephine was thought to be dead and then the doctor discovered she was still alive, he wanted to complete the process of death. But she begs to be spared and makes a deal with him. So she moves to another area allowing the people in her town to believe her dead. She searches for newly dead to so the grave diggers can collect them.

Her medical experience comes out in the open when she assists injured workers at the mill she is working at in order to disguise she purpose there. She meets the new manager Braham Taylor and they fall in love. When his loved one is the next grave to be robbed, Josephine has to decide whether to let it happen or to suffer the consequences of refusing to help.

An interesting story that is full of suspense and includes events from the past. A great read.

I received this e-book from NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

When Barbour introduced the True Colors series, I was immediately intrigued. True crime is an interesting genre, and one that I have both read about and watched documentaries about over the years. Having a basis of factual information, this subject tends toward more neutral ground with regard to narrative voice and presentation, and part of what makes True Colors so unique is the Christian aspect. The characters and precise situations are fictional, but the crimes themselves actually happened, and the merging of sordid history and Christian perspective offers a different angle and a novel approach. This has become my favorite Barbour series, with Daughters of the Mayflower a close second.

“Heaven stank of tallow and shone a honey glow.” From that inimitable first line, Angie Dicken’s “The Yellow Lantern” shoots out of the gate and doesn’t relent until the final page. There is no easing into the plot; rather, readers find themselves thrust headlong into a nightmare situation straight from the nineteenth century. Being buried alive was a legitimate concern in the years before modern technology and an increasing understanding of the human body, and in this age of nascent medical knowledge, doctors needed fresh bodies to advance their studies—bodies supplied to them by aptly-named body snatchers. In 1824 Massachusetts, Josephine Clayton unwittingly finds herself a part of this practice after being quite literally taken for dead and buried and ending up on the table of her employer, Dr. Chadwick. In order to save her own life, she must agree to go to work at a factory mill and pose as a mourner to signal a body snatcher to obtain her replacement. However, her circumstances become more convoluted as she finds herself drawn more deeply into a web of deception.

“The Yellow Lantern” sets forth a plausible scenario in which Christian, good-hearted people may become ensnared in conspiracies and duplicitous dealings. Josie experiences remorse and a stinging conscience as events escalate: “No matter if she played the part of a mill girl, she could not ignore the tangled thread of deceit that wrapped around her soul as tightly as the cotton on the bobbins”. Her proficiency as an herbal healer conflicts with the job she is to perform, as does a budding romance. The description of the cotton mill, with motes and dust thick in the air and obscuring the windows, is eye-opening, as is the lack of recourse for those without positions of authority and prestige in society. Not knowing whom to trust adds to the suspense, creating a sinister, murky atmosphere and making this a very difficult book to put down. Fans of true crime, factory life, nineteenth century customs, and romance will not want to miss out on this illuminating book!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and CelebrateLit and was under no obligation to post a review.

Reading a book about grave robbers or resurrection men has never been high on my to do list. However, The Yellow Lantern was about this very topic and I couldn’t put it down. The book begins with an intriguing start about a young woman Josephine who has to convince a doctor that she is very much alive. The story continues as she is dragged down a path she would have never imagined or wanted to journey down.
Josephine, or better known at the mill as Josie, has the choice to try and blend in with others as she battles with the best way to take care of her family. She also has the choice to decide to help her family or to do the right thing. There are times she doesn’t feel as if she even has a choice. Will she do along with the grave robbers or will she find a better way?

Things get complicated when the factory general manager is suspicious and intrigued by her. He has his own battles he is trying to fight as the former indentured servant who know runs the factory to the dismay of his benefactor’s son. Their relationship begins to grow as they connect but how can they continue when Josie must help her father.

I felt as if the characters were realistic and enjoyable to get to know. I enjoyed the turns in the story and learning bits and pieces but not truly knowing how it fit all together until I read some more. I truly had a hard time putting it down until I finished it! Reading the author’s notes at the end were very interesting as well to put what was read in fiction a historical context.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own and I was not required to leave a positive review.

The Yellow Lantern by Angie Dicken is a part of a wonderful True Crime series. It is a fascinating story of body snatching. I really liked the characters and found them interesting. However, I found it really hard to get into this story. There was suspense in the story but it was not enough. Mostly, I found the story dragging. The facts of the story were interesting and the characters had promise, but overall the story was missing a message and the suspense I was looking for. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

This book was quite the interesting tale. Definitely different than any I have read before. Being a true crimes mystery means at least some of this story really happened. At the end, the author explains what part is fact and what part is fiction, but just so you know, grave robbing really did happen.

I found Josie to be an interesting character. She was extremely loyal to her father in-spite of his wrong dealings, even to the point of doing wrong herself. It was interesting that the medical community were the ones who encouraged grave robbing for the sake of science. Josie biggest struggle is between her loyalty to helping her father and doing the right thing. She seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place with no where to turn.
I also liked Braham, another one of the main characters. He was honest, hard working, and always looking out for the good of others. The only thing about him I disliked was that he seemed way too trusting of people. Maybe he just wanted to believe the best about them. There were things going on right under his nose, he just seemed to miss.
And, of course, as in every story, there are some characters you just love to hate. You'll figure them out as you read!

Overall, I would recommend this book. It wasn't too hard to figure out the who-done-it, but the story kept me interested and reading.
I was provided a copy of this book courtesy of Celebrate Lit. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

I had vaguely heard of grave robbing previously but this novel put a different spin on it. The opening chapter gave me chills as I learned the main character, Josephine Clayton, had been thought dead then buried. But she was dug up by grave robbers and brought to Dr. Chadwick. She awoke just as he was about to cut her open!
Relentless for the money they made, the grave diggers or resurrectionists as they were sometimes called, even went so far as to help an ailing person on to their “reward”.
It took a network of people to carry it off. The doctor wanted bodies to dissect and learn from and paid or blackmailed others to do the literally “dirty” work. Josephine eventually healed from her illness but was blackmailed by the doctor to replace her body with another. Her father got involved and she was afraid he would be murdered if she didn’t do as she was told. But it went against every moral fiber of her being.
I felt for Josie as she was soon to be called. She faced lots of stress as did her boss, Braham, at the mill factory where she was placed to work and wait for injuries or death from various fellow workers. There was lots of intrigue and suspense as each page was turned. It’s a work that was not easy to put down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next and would Josie make it out of her “grave” predicament. It’s a part of the True Colors, historical stories of American crime. All based on actual crimes with bits of truth woven among the fiction. A great read!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through Celebrate Lit but was not required to write a review positive or otherwise.

It is often said that Hamlet by William Shakespeare is the thinking man’s play. I believe wholeheartedly that The Yellow Lantern by Angie Dicken is the thinking woman’s novel. Without a doubt this well-written story had me contemplating some seriously unique topics. I enjoyed the plot and relatable characters, but I especially appreciate that The Yellow Lantern had me considering so many distinctive themes.

Of the many characters in this story, I very much disliked Josie’s father. I actually disliked him more than the bad guys! What bothered me about Josie’s dad is that he plays the victim and he uses his daughter as a fixer. Instead of being the father and the man, he foists his problems onto Josie and forces her to do his dirty work. I hate when parents do this to their kids. It’s wrong and manipulative. There’s a moment well into the story where Josie convinces herself to work even harder for her father because good daughters help their fathers no matter what. This sentiment got me thinking. Is this true? Is Josie correct? Do good children do whatever it takes to help a parent even when the parent causes 98% of his problems? I’m not so sure this is correct.

Don’t get me wrong. We absolutely must obey God’s command to honor our mothers and fathers. But Josie’s father upset me because he behaves like an addict: he’s manipulative, he purposely pulls Josie’s heartstrings, he plays the “poor me” card, and he expects that Josie will succeed and give him what he needs — major financial help. This got me thinking even more. What would God expect of a child in Josie’s situation? God would no doubt want Josie to respect and honor her father, but He would never be OK with a father asking a child to sin for him. The ugliest part of it all is that Josie’s father knows what he is asking her to do is shameful and wrong. He feels awful and guilty. He knows it is wrong to ask his child to commit heinous sins on his behalf in order to fix the problems he has made. That’s just wrong no matter how you slice it! A parent should never purposely force his child into a sinning situation.

See what I mean?! The Yellow Lantern is a thinking woman’s (and man’s) novel for sure!!! And, there’s so much more. Things like grace, and what does it look like when you extend grace to someone? Or, why does it feel like the earth grows a little dimmer when a loved one dies? Or this big question, how did we expect doctors to learn about the body if they were never allowed to dissect an actual body? These questions are just the tip of the iceberg. If you are a fan of historical suspense, I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s definitely a story that takes the reader on a strange and unusual ride!

I received a review copy of this novel in eBook form from the author via Celebrate Lit and NetGalley. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

For some unknown reason, I expected The Yellow Lantern to be a book about the underground railroad. Imagine my surprise when I began reading to find Josie waking up just as she is about to become the next specimen for a doctor’s illegal research. From that point on Josie’s life is not her own as she attempts to fulfill the agreement with the doctor that spared her life.

A tale of body snatchers and manipulation, The Yellow Lantern held me spellbound from its beginning to the very end. Characters were easy for me to identify with and were quite well-rounded. The story is riddled with secrets and deception with a few unexpected twists along the way. The importance of making the right choice is strongly emphasized in this suspenseful story based on true crimes.

I am quite happy that the subject matter was not what I expected. I loved this unique tale and recommend it to everyone who enjoys their suspense with a different angle.

Talk about creepiness! This book has it!

The story begins with Josephine coming to...and discovering that she's supposed to be dead! Yes, according to the doctor she works for, he'd already held her viewing, and even buried her. So what is she doing now? Well, he didn't want her to be alive, and had every intention of changing that, when she is spared from that fate at the last minute....and then...

Well, her story does go on.

Yes, this is a book about grave robbers. (And yes, it is actually based on true events!!)

You're probably wondering why I read it, if it's creepy. Well... you see...it's more than that...and it is quite the intriguing story line.

I mostly enjoy reading historical fiction, especially those that are based on actual events. It's such a good way to take in those history lessons that I wouldn't learn otherwise.

Set in the 1800s, in Massachusetts. It has an interesting setting as well as plotline.

And the characters. I couldn't help but feel empathy for Josephine. She was in an impossible situation. Forced to work for the grave robbers to keep her father safe, she was quite desperate. And yet, her pluckiness and determination shone through. Her way of putting others' needs ahead of her own.

If you enjoy historical suspense/mysteries, check this one out!

Disclaimer: I receive complimentary books from various sources, including, publishers, publicists, authors, and/or NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review, and have not received any compensation. The opinions shared here are my own entirely. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

This fascinating novel is third in Barbour’s multi-author series “True Colors: Historical Stories of American Crime”. It is exciting, with characters defined through actions, conversations, and thoughts. It is based on actual crimes in general in the early 1800’s that anyone desperate for money to help a loved one, could fall into. It is written with skill and sensitivity.

Josephine awakens to find Dr. Chadwick, who she works for as an assistant, ready to plunge a knife into her. The fact that she was alive stuns him, and he tries to talk her into letting him finish the deed as she won’t survive the illness she has. She was dead for 24 hours and her father already grieves her. Chadwick is doing research he thought he could only accomplish by stealing bodies of people who had just died.

Alvin, her father’s hired hand, comes in and sees Josephine alive. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her and reminds Chadwick he knows where the empty graves are. Chadwick leaves her to the cellar to recover. Her father visited once and said that he and Alvin have a plan to get him out of a mess and she had to trust Alvin. He said he committed a terrible wrong, that murderers were after him and only Josephine could save him.

Mr. Bates, Sr. successfully owned and ran a factory in Gloughton, Massachusetts, to process cotton fibers from his plantation in Georgia. Mr. Bates became the legal guardian of Braham when his father died at the plantation where they were indentured. When Mr. Bates died, he left ownership of the mill and the plantation to his son, Gerald. Braham would manage the factory. Gerald has always hated Braham and continues to treat him as a servant.

Alvin brings Josephine, now called Josie, to this factory to get a job. Braham hired her, unaware that accidental deaths of women in the mill attracted the attention of grave robbers. That is what Alvin expects Josie to help with – when people die, she will hold the lantern for him as he digs up the grave, then refill it. As a healer using herbs as her mother taught her, the idea is abhorrent, yet she has to save her father. Despite the growing attraction between Braham and Josie, she tries to do her job and stay quiet. Until the first woman is injured in an accident and Josie treats the woman with herbs and salves, gaining Braham’s respect.

I like Josie/Josephine and her struggle with her faith even when thinking God wants nothing more to do with her. Braham is a good man, also a believer, yet he seems almost too emotional with regards to Josie. Her healing skills, her help with the late Mr. Bates’ sister who is dying, and what he sees as her goodness appeals to him even though people start to talk.

Along with challenges to their faith and their places in the world, there is a complex mystery. How injuries keep occurring, what is causing the severe illness of some of the women that Josie and the local apothecary are treating, and who is behind the growing grave robbing scheme make this a compelling read. I like the frequent, varied references to the lantern lights. The end holds more than one surprise, and all loose ends are tied up. I highly recommend it to Christian women who appreciate the underlying spiritual themes, mystery, history, and romance.

From a thankful heart: I received a copy of this from the publisher and CelebrateLit, and this is my honest review.

The Yellow Lantern by Angie Dicken is part of the True Colors series which are fictional stories based on true American crime. Having read the first couple books in the series, The White City and The Pink Bonnet, I was looking forward to reading The Yellow Lantern and was not disappointed. The author drew me in immediately as in the first few pages she describes the near-death experience of a young woman thought to be dead. Set in a small Massachusetts village during the early 1820s, the book tells the story of a woman caught in a dreadful and wicked web of deceit and grave-robbing. Death had led Josie and her father down a dark path into the hands of dangerous and ruthless individuals. Would the nightmare ever end and justice prevail? Would her passion for healing lead to her purpose in life or would evil thwart her destiny? The author brings an exciting edge-of-the-seat climax to this historical fiction account of the illegal practice of body-snatching. The characters are realistic and either likable, relatable, or despicable. Dialogue flowed seamlessly without sounding forced. I had a hard time putting the book down. The story pulls on the reader’s emotions, shock and horror, anger and revenge, sorrow and compassion. It is a book that kept my interest and I look forward to reading more from this author.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via Barbour Publishing and CelebrateLit. A favorable review was not required and opinions are my own. This review is part of a CelebrateLit blog tour.

This has been a fantastic series of books. I have loved every one of them. This one is a bit spooky because who would go around stealing bodies. I know in the long run that maybe some good came out of doing research on dead bodies but it was too bad that there was not a better way to accomplish this goal. I really enjoyed the characters. I loved that some were good and others could be down right nasty. I received a copy of this book from Celebratelit and Barbour Publishing for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

"Fiction Based on Strange-But-True History" is a sure way to get my attention. In "The Yellow Lantern," Angie Dicken illuminates the morbid business of grave diggers stealing cadavers to advance medical science. I love fiction that preserves historical information most of us never learn in school. "The true crime of body snatching was more rampant than rare throughout history," Dicken writes in an afterword to the reader. "I was surprised to come across a case where several stolen bodies supplied an entire medical society, but more disturbing was the fact that some body snatchers would even murder for the chance of payment."

The truth really is stranger than fiction.

I can believe robbers would kill people to supply doctors with cadavers. I'd never have believed doctors would torture and kill humans for medical research, but there's Mengele and the Nazis. Ok, I accept the premise of Dicken's villain being a doctor who'd kill healthy young people for his research.

Dicken also weaves in a cast of young women exploited as workers in a cotton mill, adding another layer of historical horror stories to this thriller/romance novel. I love the descriptions of the mill, e.g.,

*... a fine snow of cotton bits lingered in the air. She was in a sort of storm, one where the thunder banged from the machines, and the particles in the air floated without chill or wind.*

Dicken is good at plotting, pacing, tension, conflict, and suspense. Fans of the romance genre will love this story. I found the tropes of the genre distracting--e.g., handsome factory manager Braham Taylor frequently breathless in the presence of Josephine Clayton, aka Josie Clay, mysterious new cotton mill employee--but I kept reading. There are plenty of positives that allow me to recommend this novel.

The young women and girls working in the factory are well-drawn. Their plight is all too authentic. As Molly, a coworker, tells Josie, "We've got a lot of talent in these girls. Some come from poor families and others from families who demand their sons receive an education using their wages. We might not have the status to go off to prestigious schools and find glorious apprenticeships, but we are hard workers with the most important thing of all...Freedom."

How Josie ends up in a cotton mill is a plot twist I will not spoil for other readers. Her natural talent and her training as a healer come in handy when there are on-the-job injuries, but this also gets her in trouble because she abandons her work station to tend to employees in need of immediate medical attention. Ridiculous as that sounds, overbearing and punitive bosses like hers have real-life precedents. Fans of Claire in the "Outlander" series will find much to love about Josie and her knowledge of herbal remedies.

Josie's passion for healing also helps account for her part in helping a doctor acquire cadavers:

*"Imagine the discoveries that might be made." Josie understood how important discoveries were--she'd longed for them when her mother was ill.* Her widowed father and his foolish debts are the main reason Josie gets caught up with body snatchers. I've always had trouble with the trope of protagonists allowing others to be harmed rather than see their own loved ones suffer, but, ok, it's a trope. Josie will sink into subterfuge and grave robbing all to protect her father. I don't buy the helpless victim excuse, but it does provide for the drama that comes straight from real life. E.g.,
women posing as mourners were hired to keep watch for the gravediggers, Dicken tells the reader, and many "factual tidbits are laced in Josephine's tale." In one scene, the gravedigger tells Josie, "Sometimes they'll lace the dirt with straw so it's more difficult for grave robbers to shovel. In Boston, they've even made cages to go on top of the dirt. Sawing through creates quite a ruckus for the snatchers." (Read the story, and you'll see how the yellow lantern of the title comes into play.) By 1815, body snatching was declared illegal.

Most people avoid thinking about how med students learn and who might be on that table getting dissected, but in my early 20s, I donated my body to science. I have not un-done that despite the protests of my children. As a society, our squeamishness about dead bodies has also kept organ donation to a minimum, to the point that the sale of organs from live donors has led to illegal, unethical trafficking. Any novels and movies addressing this subject are high on my "must-read" list.

Medical knowledge in the early 1800s wasn't what it is today, and doctors sometimes mistook the comatose for the dead. The stethoscope didn't exist until 1846, and it took some time for doctors everywhere to have one. Go online, and you can find endless nightmarish stories of people buried alive. In 1889, a Kentucky man exhumed the body of his wife, Octavia Smith Hatcher, when others in the community revived after being considered dead. The lining of her coffin had been shredded, her fingernails were bloody, and her face was frozen in a shriek of terror.

I've held back (believe it or not!) on saying negative things about the novel, but for me, the tropes of the romance genre add distractions rather than value to the story, and so does the prose style. Metaphor and idiom seem to escape Millennials, even those who are trained writers, and even editors. E.g., "His chin pushed up his lips into a deeply set frown." Huh? (At least Dicken and her editors know not to hyphenate after an -ly word.) Call me a crabby last-century English teaching major, but I wince at "fresh" prose that tries too hard, so to speak. This:

*Sorrow tiptoed beneath his starched white shirt.*

*Her eyes grew wide. Sapphire bobbles searched his face.*

(Proofreaders, note: Bauble, not bobble, is a small, showy trinket or decoration. Editors, blue eyes as baubles is a distraction. "Comradery" is spelled camaraderie.)

*She then tilted her face toward him, gave him a curt smile, and stared. His mouth went dry. A tremble seized his chest, foreign and unwelcome. He took in a jagged breath and stared back at her, searching beyond the light that washed her face and trying to determine his next words.*

*Fear laced the back of her neck.*

Ok, there was a lot of that kind of writing, but what really makes me wince and cringe is the sad history of medicine and the horrific casualties of workers in human industry.

Just an aside: I saw a TV show about the bodies in the basement of a house in London where Benjamin Franklin lived for twenty years returning to Pennsylvania to support the American Revolution. His friend and protege William Hewson studied medicine and anatomy in an era when society believed it a sin to disturb the bodies of the dead. Med students had to resort to grave digging or hiring grave robbers to unearth cadavers for illicit classrooms held in private residences. During recent repairs on Franklin’s old London residence, workers discovered human remains in a secret, windowless room beneath the garden. Forensic scientists concluded the bones of fifteen bodies, six of them children, dated back to Franklin’s time there. [Why Were 15 Bodies Buried in Benjamin Franklin’s Basement?](https://commonplacefacts.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/why-were-15-bodies-buried-in-benjamin-franklins-basement/)

In all, the story of Josie Clay and Braham Taylor is not my kind of romance, but the real-life details that inform the narrative make this novel a must-read.

The series True colors: Historical Stories of American Crime has taught me areas of history that I knew nothing about. As is true in history, some things are harder to believe than others. So it is with the wicked web of the ‘resurrectionists’, people who snatched bodies from the grave for medical research. How is Josephine Clayton to extricate herself from this horror when she wakes up on the table, finding herself about to be autopsied? In an effort to save her father who has become entangled in this network, she promises to help replace her body. After all, everyone thinks she is dead!

This story holds a certain gruesomeness as you follow Josie and those who are coercing her help in their dreadful task. I appreciated the author’s note at the end of the book, explaining that this practice was widespread in the early 1800’s. As one who has benefited from medical experimentation, I can partly understand the need for this learning. However, I am grateful for those who donate their bodies to medical science, thus replacing the need for such nefarious activities!

I enjoyed learning a little more about the healing herbs that were cultivated by our young herbalist. Her reliance on prayer reminded me that the Lord is there even in the direst of circumstances.

I received a copy of this wonderful book through Barbour Publishing, NetGalley and CelebrateLit. The comments, impressions and opinions given are my own and were not solicited.

Told in a way that felt like a gothic novel from way back when with a slight Agatha Christi feel to it. The story draws you into the dark shadows to reveal a grave-robbing story, and the dark side of medical history.

The more is read of this gothic tale, the more intense the story grew, the more I loved it. The story is well crafted and all the characters were so vivid and intriguing that it kept me turning the page to see what was going to happen.

I am really enjoying this series of books centered around true stories based on historical American crimes. While the characters in The Yellow Lantern are fictitious, the crime if bodysnatching was rampant at this time in history. While it is obvious that Ms. Dickens had researched the topic, at times the story felt forced. But that did not take away from the enjoyment of the story.

I recommend The Yellow Lantern for those who enjoy a good story centered around a truly horrendous crime, a few plot twists and a sweet romance. The author also included a lot of interesting information about the cotton factories and a little bit about the healing practices of the time.

I look forward to reading more books in this series.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I had heard of the term "graverobbers" before, but I guess I didn't realize it was a real practice in earlier times. This story dramatizes a situation where a family is blackmailed into participating in this shady scheme. There is a good deal of suspense in the story.
The author is a new one to me and I appreciated her handling of a disturbing topic.
I was given an electronic copy of this book by the publisher and asked to review it if I wanted to. I believe in supporting authors so am happy to share my thoughts on the book.

Reviewed on Amazon just now. I don't have a link yet. Will post to Goodreads as well.

I am loving this series by Barbour Books! The Yellow Lantern is the third book in the series and WOW each of the three authors have written fantastic books. If you haven't read the first two (which I think you should,) it's okay to start with this one because each is a stand-alone novel.

This story takes place in 1824, Massachusetts and from the first page I was a little freaked out to be perfectly honest but not in a creepy way but in an interested I must keep reading way! Body snatching was an all too real thing that I didn't know that much about but thanks to the authors subject matter I discovered it was in fact quite real. Luckily for our main character, Josie she was spared a horrible fate when she awakens and a deal is stuck where she is sent to work in a bobbin factory.

I really became caught up in the story once Josie is working and helping the mill workers with her herbs and catching the attention of the factory manager, Braham. She seemed to flourish and that was one of the most heartwarming parts of the book. I also loved, Liesel the young bobbin girl who was one of my favorite characters in this book. This in a book that you have to take you time with because there are so many things happening throughout and you'll want to savor each and every moment.

So, if you're looking for a book that has parts that will have you on the edge of your seat, while learning things you may not have been fully aware of or just a well written, fascinating book then this is one you will definitely want to read.

I received a copy from the publisher through Netgalley and was under no obligation to write a review. All opinions are my own.

True Colors is a series of books by various Christian authors based on historical crimes. This particular novel is based on the body snatching that took place during the 1800's as doctors tried to gain possession of cadavers in order to learn more about the body and how it worked as well as the variety of diseases that caused death.

Angie Dicken is a new-to-me author. I enjoyed this story but the plot line did not pull me in with its suspense as well as the first two did. I also would have liked a little more historical background as to the whys and wherefores of the body snatching, and I would have liked to see a little bit stronger suspense element. I also felt as though the Christian thread was not as fully developed as it could have been.

I did enjoy the characters of both Josie and Braham. Each of them was trying to overcome problems that arose from their past. For Josie, it forced her into making decisions she didn't really want to be part of. Whereas Braham had to push himself to stand up to Gerald and prove that he was not the person he appeared to be. I especially liked Alvin and the role he played as the repentant sinner.

The historical detail on the cotton mill and its workers was quite interesting and obviously well researched. I felt horrible that these young girls and women put in such long hours (usually about 14 per day) under such poor circumstances.

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions are mine alone. I was not compensated for this review.

3.5 Stars

In an effort to save her father, Josephine Clayton (Josie Clay) takes a position at a factory. Braham Taylor, the factory foreman, prides himself in gauging the characters of the people he hires. Yet, his newest employee is a mixture of challenge and mystery as well as strength and vulnerability.

As Josie (unsuccessfully) tries to blend in and play her part in a conspiracy, mysterious accidents are occurring within the factory walls.

I thoroughly enjoyed the romance in The Yellow Lantern. The slow build between Josie and Braham from distrust to admiration and the swinging pendulum between the two created some intense moments as well as some sweet ones. And the peek into the life of mill workers was interesting.

There were also a few challenges with this book. The number of characters is overwhelming at times and keeping track of who is who requires some brainpower. The sabotage of the factory equipment could have been fleshed out more, and the grave digging aspect was fairly disjointed throughout the book (at least until the end).

All that said, I know this is the first suspense Angie Dicken has written, so it’s a decent first attempt at the genre. Plus, I’m a fan of romantic suspense that’s heavy on the romance and definitely appreciated that aspect of this book.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.