Book Summary: After being imprisoned and branded for the death of her client, twenty-five-year-old midwife Julianne Chevalier trades her life sentence for exile to the fledgling 1720s French colony of Louisiana, where she hopes to be reunited with her brother, serving there as a soldier. To make the journey, though, women must be married, and Julianne is forced to wed a fellow convict.
When they arrive in New Orleans, there is no news of Benjamin, Julianne's brother, and searching for answers proves dangerous. What is behind the mystery, and does military officer Marc-Paul Girard know more than he is letting on?
With her dreams of a new life shattered, Julianne must find her way in this dangerous, rugged land, despite never being able to escape the king's mark on her shoulder that brands her a criminal beyond redemption.
My thoughts...I have read some of Jocelyn Green's previous novels in her Heroines Behind the Line series (Civil War). Her attention to detail in that series carried over to this novel. One has a sense of stepping right into a place and time in history. I personally didn't know much about the settling of Louisiana, so that was a definite point of interest for me as I read the novel. I appreciated that although the characters were fictional, Green based her story on true events.
This novel was action-packed. From Julianne's experience that branded her a murderer to the events surrounding her marriage to a convict, there is constant transition from one event in Julianne's life to another. Life in Louisiana was nothing like she thought it would be; it was much more difficult and filled with the constant fight for survival. Many did not make it through the hardships. Julianne's strength and will to survive helped her to persevere through severe emotional and physical traumas.
My impression from the book summary was there would be a romantic element, and there was. The romantic tension in the novel did build at times, but then fell a little flat for me. Especially her marriage to the convict. I couldn't quite grasp how she truly felt about this man. There was a moment in their first meeting that was very high tension, and emotionally traumatic for the characters, but I was left hanging....wondering how Julianne or her husband felt about that initial encounter. That aspect, as well as future moments of romantic tension, seemed to build and then come to a stop. I wanted to get into the characters' heads a little more.
Overall, this what I would call a historical Christian fiction novel with elements of romantic tension. There is never a dull moment as there were many twists and turns in the story. If you are a fan of this genre, Jocelyn Green is definitely an author to take notice of.
*I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in order to give an honest review, which I did.*
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