The Seamstress of Acadie

As 1754 is drawing to a close, tensions between the French and the British on Canada's Acadian shore are reaching a fever pitch. Seamstress Sylvie Galant and her family--French-speaking Acadians wishing to remain neutral--are caught in the middle, their land positioned between two forts flying rival flags. Amid preparations for the celebration of Noël, the talk is of unrest, coming war, and William Blackburn, the British Army Ranger raising havoc across North America's borderlands.

As summer takes hold in 1755 and British ships appear on the horizon, Sylvie encounters Blackburn, who warns her of the coming invasion. Rather than participate in the forced removal of the Acadians from their land, he resigns his commission. But that cannot save Sylvie or her kin. Relocated on a ramshackle ship to Virginia, Sylvie struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. When her path crosses once more with William's, they must work through the complex tangle of their shared, shattered past to navigate the present and forge an enduring future.

     With likable main characters and a turbulent and heartbreaking-but fascinating-setting, The Seamstress of Acadie is sure to please longtime fans of early American/colonial historical fiction.

     I suppose I should have expected this one to take such a sad turn, considering the history of Acadia (did anyone else ever read the Song of Acadia books back in the day?), but for some reason some of the happenings (i.e., the deaths) surprised me. The book did not dwell too much on this, though in a way I think I would have liked it to; Sylvie goes through a lot and sometimes I felt like the book jumped a little too quickly from one situation to another. However, this is something that I have noticed that tends to come up in a lot of books by this author, so I doubt it will bother most Laura Frantz fans. And it was an engaging read that I managed to finish in a single day.

I received this book for free by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.