Patriot Hearts

November 27, 2006
Hambly (The Emancipator's Wife
) showcases three wives and one concubine who kept the founding fathers happy at home and handled a gauntlet of crises with grace and fortitude. Martha Washington followed George to his Revolutionary War battlefield headquarters, used Southern hospitality to ease the political turf wars that dogged the nascent union and bolstered the charismatic general-turned-president as he united a squabbling nation. Formidable Abigail Adams could dissect the politics of the new republic and shoot the breeze about "Voltaire, Cicero, and Plutarch" with her husband, John, but had to endure long absences from her beloved and her son Charley's early death. When the invading British set fire to the capital in 1814, charming Dolley Madison rescued important cabinet papers. Slave Sally Hemings suffered the jealousies of Patsy, master and lover Thomas Jefferson's daughter. This is less a dramatically tense novel than a set of discrete fictionalized portraits designed to give history's women their due. Though it's likely too slow for fans of Revolutionary War fiction and not steamy enough for historical romance buffs, it'll find a niche among readers of women's fiction.

Starred review from December 1, 2006
Hambly's new historical novel (after "The Emancipator's Wife") opens with First Lady Dolley Madison waiting anxiously for husband "Jemmy" and deciding what to save if they must flee the White House during the War of 1812. She is thus reminded of her predecessors Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, as well as Sally Hemings, and each of these women has her turn at personal narratives, which take place at critical points in the nation's early years and in their personal lives. The perspective offered is distinctly feminine and gives readers a sense of peeking backstage at a play they know well. This reviewer had never thought of our first President as devastatingly attractive to women or realized that the capable John and Abigail Adams dealt with alcoholism in their family, or even that these notable women interacted so extensively. The issues of those early dayse.g., is liberty a right or a threat to home and wealth?still resound 200 years later. Look no further for a title to recommend as a reading group choice for the upcoming election years. This will appeal to all Americans of every political camp and will generate lively discussion. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 10/15/06.]Mary Kay Bird-Guilliams, Wichita P.L., KS

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2006
Moving back and forth in time from 1787 to 1814, Hambly presents the lives of four founding mothers: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Sally Hemings, and Dolley Madison. She turns the spotlight on the marriages, families, housekeeping, trials, and joys that played out backstage while men performed their public roles; and the fact that this is a novel allows Hambly to imagine much more intimate detail than would be possible in a work of history. She avoids pretty pictures; the women are not romanticized or sentimentalized. Slavery snakes through the book, mostly of course in the portions devoted to Sally Hemings, but it figures in the other women's lives as well. (Although First Lady, Martha invents errands that will send her servants back to Mount Vernon so they won't have been in Philadelphia long enough to be considered free.) This is superior historical fiction, firm in its grasp of history, not showy in its period details. It brings these women out of the shadows and endows them with flesh and blood.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)