Set in Virginia, beginning in 1862, this is the story of
Captain Alexander Hunter, an officer in the Confederate army, who is respected
by all but continually outsmarted by a Union scout, a mere boy. In reality, the
boy is a young woman named Andrea Evans, who works for her cousin’s husband, Col.
J.J. Jordan of the Union army.
Thinking to send Andrea away from battle, J.J. sends her to Richmond
on an undercover assignment to act the lady in the heart of the Confederacy. She
is to report to Col. Daniel Delaney who is sweet on her. (Their emerging “sort
of” romance was a bit confusing, especially given I was pretty sure Hunter was
the hero.)
The author takes pains to tell us what courageous beings
both Hunter and Andrea are—larger than life characters of extraordinary
intelligence, strength, courage and ability. Andrea thinks Hunter is “the
incarnation of knighthood”; he thinks her smile is “the sweetest that had ever
illuminated a mortal face”.
Though she is a Southerner, Andrea fights for the North because
of her past experience with slavery, slipping across the South’s lines, going
without food for days (apparently without ill effect) as she defies Hunter. No
less gifted than his nemesis, Hunter is committed to seeing the South
independent.
Our heroine Andrea begins the story dressed as a lad with
short hair, but less than a year later, she’s in Richmond with long hair,
dressed as a lady and waltzing around the dance floor with Hunter, who sees her
as the only intelligent female around. Her appearance, specifically her hair,
was a constant question throughout the story. When she acted the lad, all
accepted her as a boy; when she played the lady, she had a lady’s hair. Hmm….
When Andrea ends up in prison (beaten badly, but apparently
not raped), Alexander brings her back to his family home to slowly recover. In
that same house is Victoria, who we are led to believe is Hunter’s mistress, but
we are never sure about that.
You won’t experience a major battle of the Civil War, but
you will see some of the guerilla warfare Hunter and his men engage in and you
will live through the aftermath of bloody men and horses.
I liked the story, much of it very well written, but the
pace is uneven. The first part and the last part were the best; the middle
dragged with the constant and repetitive bickering between Andrea and Hunter at
his Virginia estate.
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