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Tour: 227. A Blue and Gray Christmas by Joan Medlicott...

December 15, 2009
blue and grayAbout the book:
When a rusty old in box is unearthed at the Covington Homestead, longtime housemates Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover that it contains letters and diaries written by two Civil War soldiers, one Union and one Confederate.

The friends are captivated by the drama revealed. The soldiers were found dying on a nearby battlefield by an old woman. She nursed them back to health, hiding them from bounty hunters seeking deserters. At the end of the war the men chose to stay in Covington, caring for their rescuer as she grew frail. But while their lives were rich, they still felt homesick and guilty for never contacting the families they'd left behind.

Christmas is coming, and the ltters inspire Amelia with a generous impulse. What if she and her friends were to find the two soldiers' descendants and invite them to Covington to meet? What better holiday gift could there be than the truth about these two heroic men and their dramatic shared fate? With little time left, the ladies spring into action to track down the men's families in Connecticut and the Carolinas, and to make preparations in Covington for their most memorable, most historic Christmas yet.

joan mendlicottAbout the author:
Joan Mendlicott was born and raised on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She lives with her husband in the mountains of North Carolina. Find Joan online at her website, www.joanmedlicott.com.





drey's thoughts:
What interested me about A Blue and Gray Christmas was the description--how cool to read about two Civil War soldiers who survived the carnage and chaos, to live out the rest of their lives as brothers... And that's the best part of the story--the letters and diary entries of these two soldiers.

How hard it must have been, to realize while you might be drawing your last breath, that you don't really know what it was all for--the loss of life, hunger, cold, uncertainty, chaos... And not knowing about PTSD back then, so no diagnoses or treatment was available. Which, even if it had been, Tom and John couldn't have utilized anyway, being deserters.

Of course, this is all woven into the lives of Grace, Amelia, and Hannah, who do their best to dig deeper into the history of the two soldiers, and find their families. A Blue and Gray Christmas is my first introduction to these lovely ladies of Covington, and while they're charming, I found myself more entranced by the soldiers' histories than the current-day sleuthing. Still, this is a cozy, feel-good book to pick up for the season.

Title: A Blue and Gray Christmas
Author: Joan Mendlicott
ISBN-10: 1416597352
ISBN-13: 9781416597353
Hardcover: 323 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009

Challenges: 100+

Disclosure: My copy of A Blue and Gray Christmas was provided by Pocket Books for this blog tour.

Tour stops:
Books Reviews by Buuklvr81
The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object
Good Books & Wine
I Read
Rundpinne
Morbid Romantic
Book Junkie
My Book Addiction and More
Red Headed Book Child
Blog Business World
My Reading Room
Frugal Plus
Book Magic
All About {n}
The Bibliophilic Book Blog
One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Psychotic State
That’s a Novel Idea
My Friend Amy
Brizmus Blogs About Books
A Few of My Favorite Things
Found Not Lost
Jen’s Book Talk
The Princess and the Monkey
Marta’s Meanderings
Readaholic
Broken Teepee
Books, Books Everywhere
Books, Books, The Magical Fruit
Reading at the Beach

1 comments:

Melanie said...

I've just started reading this. I love the ladies - Grace, Amelia and Hannah. And the letters are interesting, and I can't wait to find out what happens to these men. But the idead of getting thier families together for Christmas is a little unrealistic for me. I've got mixed feelings about the book so far. Hopefully it will all come together for me.

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