Friday, October 16, 2015

Mapmaker's Children - A Review

Published - May 2015, Crown Publishers
Author - Sarah McCoy
Title - Mapmaker's Children
Format - hardcover, paper, audio, ebook
Find on Amazon

About the book (from Goodreads):
When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
   Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance. 
   Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

My thoughts:
This is a new author to me. So I wasn't sure what to expect. I was drawn into the story rather quickly. Despite the fact that it took me a few months to read the book. That's due to other review commitments I had going on. I've always been fascinated with the Civil War time period and this is set partially in the prewar months. 

I really enjoyed both the modern story and the historical one. As Eden uncovers the secrets of her house, Sarah's story is told. I knew really knew that there were maps for the slaves to follow. I mean, I knew about the follow the drinking gourd and understood that meant the Big Dipper/Little Dipper.

The detail in this book was amazing. I really enjoyed getting deeper into history of an era I already loved. 

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books program for the purpose of reviewing. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Recommended to fans of Gone With the Wind, Sara Gruen, Lisa Wingate, contemporary fiction, historical fiction

Rating - 4 stars

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