An unprecedented view of Lincoln's Springfield from the acclaimed and bestselling author of Loving Frank. Nancy Horan, author of the million-copy New York Times bestseller Loving Frank, returns with a sweeping historical novel, which tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to the Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young asylum-seeker who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield from Madeira, Portugal. Showing intelligence beyond society's expectations, fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira lands a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hostess duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary. Along with her African American friend Cal, Ana encounters the presence of the underground railroad in town and experiences personally how slavery is tearing apart her adopted country. Culminating in an eyewitness account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, The House of Lincoln takes readers on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and that continue to reverberate today.
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I just finished The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan and here are my thoughts.
It's 1851 and Ana has fled Madeira with her family to escape religious persecution. Living in Ilinois during the time when slavery was at a turning point.
The book follows Ana while she works for the Lincoln family.
It was an interesting enough read and I was excited to have my hands on this kind of historical fiction. I found it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped it would be.
The plot was slow and really didn't seem to go anywhere and I spent my time wishing for some excitement. The book wasn't redeemed by the characters either. There wasn't mcuh going on in the entire book. Don't get me wrong, it was ok for the most part and I did finish it but I felt there was so much more that could have been done with this book, that is missed the mark for me.
The writing was lucid and I could see the talent of the author so it was a real shame for me that the book didn't sing to the stars for me.
I love historical fictions and this one isn't about Lincoln in the slightest so of you are going in thinking it is, you need to manage that expectation.
3 stars. Thank you to source books for my gifted copy
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