Full review. What I loved most about this novel was Leveen's sensitive look at the emotional implications of being a wetnurse. Angelica has just lost her child when she's given infant Juliet; it's no wonder she fell in love with the needy infant she nurtured. But that relationship is fraught, for ...
This is grief's great trick: you think you have faced the worst of it, not dreaming of all that is yet to come. I, like many others, had to read Romeo and Juliet back in high school. When I first read the book I fell in love with it and couldn't get enough of the star-crossed lovers (oh how young I...
Lois Leveen’s notes at the end of the novel about the facts behind The Secrets of Mary Bowser are fascinating. Knowing where the line between fact and fiction lies in no way detracts from the story as oftentimes, the truth is more unbelievable than fiction. Mary was indeed as remarkable as the book ...
I received an ARC of "The Secrets of Mary Bowser" through BookBrowse's First Impressions program. I'm definitely in the minority, b/c most reviewers have given it 4+ stars. I found it very slow and boring; the characters just simply never came alive for me. I only made it to page 84 before giving...
At 450 pages, this is a satisfying brick of a novel. Rich with ambiance, filled with artfully articulated characters, and centered squarely in an era and locale that is vibrant, shocking, captivating, and real, The Secrets of Mary Bowser represents what I love about a good historical novel.Based in...
Mary Bowser was a real person, a freed slave who spied for the Union during the Civil War. She was highly educated, but played the "ignorant darky," posing as a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Letting the white people believe she was illiterate allowed her access to the w...
Log in with Facebook 
