What a fabulous review! I have a lot of Hambly's SF -- Dragonsbane was my intro to her, too -- but somehow didn't even know she wrote historical fiction. Thank you for expanding my horizons! (And adding to my virtual TBR!)
She also has a book about Mrs Lincoln (which is good), a book about the wives of the founders (and she works in Hemings), and one about two friends during the Civil War.
Great review, I agree. Believe it or not, the first six (!) books of these are sitting on my physical TBR -- have been forever, in fact. Maybe now I'm finally going to get around to reading them ...
@Linda: I, OTOH, first heard about Hambly because of this series and only learned that she also wrote fantasy much, much later! :D
@Linda: I, OTOH, first heard about Hambly because of this series and only learned that she also wrote fantasy much, much later! :D