About the story:
Fields of the Fatherless is the story of the beginning of the American Revolution in Menotomy Village, Massachusetts. While fiction, it is filled with facts. And it reveals that there is much about that first day of the War that many are not aware.
While the sacrifice of the few who fell in Lexington and Concord is written about in our history books, the worst battle took place in Menotomy as the British troops withdrew to Boston. By the time the King’s Army reached Menotomy, just six miles from Boston, they were exhausted, angry, and out of control. The brutal onslaught that occurred in my hometown—for this is the town I grew up in—brought more casualties on both sides than anywhere else that fateful day. It was a story from our history that begged to be told.
About the Author:
Novelist Elaine Marie Cooper is the author of The Road to Deer Run, The Promise of Deer Run and The Legacy of Deer Run. Her passions are her family, her faith in Christ and the history of the American Revolution, a frequent subject of her historical fiction. She grew up in Massachusetts, the setting for many of her novels.
Her stand alone historical fiction, Fields of the Fatherless, will by released October 22, 2013 by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.
Elaine is a contributing writer to Fighting Fear, Winning the War at Home by Edie Melson, and I Choose You, a romance Anthology. Her freelance work has appeared in both newspapers and magazines, and she blogs regularly at http://ColonialQuills.blogspot.com, http://AuthorCulture.blogspot.com and http://novelPastimes.com.
The award-winning author is married with two grown sons and she is the very proud GiGi of triplet grandchildren. Their birth coincided with the arrival of her first shipment of her first novel in 2010. She calls it “the best delivery day ever.” Elaine is a hopeless animal lover who can’t resist rescuing homeless animals. But her sweet yet practical husband keeps her adopting habits in line.
And now for my review:
I just finished reading “Fields of the Fatherless” by Elaine Cooper. I learned more about the first day of the American Revolution than I had ever known before. I felt like I was right there. Through the eyes of 18-year-old Betsy Russell, we see the fear and anxiety that filled the hearts of townspeople near Lexington and Concord before that fateful day when the King’s soldiers came marching along the road to confiscate the guns and ammunition stored in Concord. We experience the nerve-wracking waiting and wondering as her family and friends tried to prepare for the worst and prayed to be spared the horrors of war.
Elaine is an excellent storyteller. She brings the story to life. I kept feeling like I was peeking out the window watching the road to Concord for the King’s soldiers. I felt like I was trying to figure out where to go and what to do when they came.
The characters are likable and believable. The author develops them and the story line so well that we feel for them when tragedy strikes, and we are moved by their heartache and loss. I cried through many parts. I was moved to tears before the battle even started.
The author addressed forgiveness and how to deal with our enemies as Christians. As Betsy went on with life after the terrible day that took the lives of so many and left such bitterness and rage in the hearts of many in her hometown (more died in her town that day than in Lexington and Concord), we see how God pulled her through tragedy and restored her soul to the point that she could truly love her enemy and protect his life.
The last scene is very satisfying, and the author’s note at the end tells the rest of the story and ties it all together.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes history and enjoys immersing themselves in a story so that they feel like they were really there.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
