Cordelia Owens can weave a dream around anything and is well used to winning the hearts of everyone in Savannah with her whimsy. Even when she receives word that her sweetheart has been lost during a raid on a Yankee vessel, she clings to hope and comes up with many a romantic tale of his eventual homecoming to reassure his mother and sister.
But Phineas Dunn finds nothing redemptive in the first horrors of war. Struggling for months to make it home alive, he returns to Savannah injured and cynical, and all too sure that he is not the hero Cordelia seems determined to make him.
As the War Between the States rages ever nearer and Savannah’s slaves start sneaking away to the islands off the coast to join the Yankees, both Phin and Cordelia get caught up in questions they never thought they’d have to ask–questions that threaten the very dreams of a future they’d cherished.
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“If history were told in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”
—Rudyard Kipling
Where the American Civil War is concerned, there are really very few books that tackle the era and its mountains of struggles in any way that will do it any kind of justice. Most that I have any knowledge of, either trivialize the era into big dresses and some crummy war over...who knows... Or completely turn to glossing over how convoluted even something as devastating as slavery can become when whole generations have grown up hearing it justified, no matter how crazy the justification can sound to us here looking back in hindsight. And unfortunately, neither side was fully innocent or righteous in how they handled...anything, really.
Enter this stellar new book by Roseanna M. White: ‘Dreams of Savannah’
I have loved every book Roseanna puts out; her serious attention to and intentions for the WHY and the WHO for each story is evident every. single. time. Honestly, ‘Dreams of Savanna’, may have even bumped itself up to the distinguished position of My Favorite among all her books. Hard to do, when I’ve loved her Ladies of the Manor series characters so much all these years...
I mean, I still love and follow many authors whose characters often seem like the same girl/guy, with a different job and different color hair, but all the same ticks, wants, and thoughts...and even the same basic relationship. I can get around that often, for the most part, and still enjoy an overall well-crafted story.
But Roseanna writes, it almost doesn’t feel fair to call these people Characters at all; they’re People, with lives, just going about living and not waiting on readers to start their story.
So back to the history, before I connect it to these wonderfully real people Roseanna has set in Savannah, Georgia...
—N.D. Wilson, ‘Stories Are Soul Food’
If we want to have a right view of anything, ESPECIALLY history, we had better be careful what we read — because it’s true, stories impact us permanently. Whether we want them to, or not.
Well, THIS is the kind of book that you most definitely want your “loves and loyalties” to be imprinted by.
We can think WE know exactly what should have been done, if so-and-so had just had our modern “wisdom” and sensibilities, or whatever. But we were NOT there. None of us knows how we would’ve responded in the same situation; unfortunately, more often than not, we would have taken just as long to see and correct anything as anyone who WAS actually there. Or longer. If we ever DO see.
Watching Delia and Phin navigate the increasingly rough waters of the Civil War is a sobering, thought-provoking reminder to have the humility to take a second look at what you’ve taken for granted. As another character puts it:
‘How could her father miss it? Though mankind did have a remarkable ability to be blind to what they didn’t want to see.’
It’s really beautifully done — and still a very enjoyable (not overly heavy) read at the same time. I often find myself “taking it slow” with Roseanna’s books, as I usually feel like I need time to chew on her meaty narrative, like enjoying a fine stake. But for some reason, I flew through this one at breakneck speed... Which definitely surprised me.
Now, when writing book reviews, it’s so difficult for me to find a balance somewhere between not enough and too much information, without giving any of the story away... So I’m going to stop right here, tell you to get the book yourself:
Order it here ——> Dreams of Savannah -- book page
And then ask you to try to read anything historical (fiction or otherwise) with growing honest humility, as I aspire to do the same. If we’re honest, nothing in our own lives has seemed quite so easy or straightforward as what we claim we would have seen and done in someone else’s situation which we can only see in hindsight.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 16:25
— — Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy Dreams of Savannah from the publishers. I was not required to provide a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone. — —
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Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award nominated author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. You can learn more about her and her stories at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.
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