What I’m Reading: My Name is Resolute

I just finished up reading the actual book of My Name Is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner.  I don’t read a lot of books anymore but this book wasn’t available in audio at the time so I bought it and read it.  It’s unusual for me to buy a book anymore too but I had great hope for this book.  The author, wrote my favorite series of books, These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (P.S.), The Star Garden (Sarah Prine), and Sarah’s Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906.  In my reading preference those books are right at the top of the list.  I’d give the whole series 5 stars.  If you haven’t read them and like historical fiction, grab these up.  They are wonderful.

Anyway…back to My Name Is Resolute.  Being I LOVED the other books, I thought I would love this one too.  High hopes had me jumping in, planning reading time into my evening and sneaking 10 minutes in here and there during the day.  But that quickly ended.  It wasn’t the book that the others were.

I think too much story was told.  In the other books the main character ages over three books worth of time.  In this book the main character goes from a child to a 60 year old woman.  That would have worked better if such a focus wasn’t put on the adolescent years.  At one point towards the beginning I almost put the book down.  It was slow but then I worked through that part and continued on…my love of historical fiction pushing me along.

Here is what Amazon had to say about it, “The year is 1729, and Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family in Jamaica, and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister are sold into slavery in colonial New England and taught the trade of spinning and weaving. When Resolute finds herself alone in Lexington, Massachusetts, she struggles to find her way in a society that is quick to judge a young woman without a family. As the seeds of rebellion against England grow, Resolute is torn between following the rules and breaking free. Resolute’s talent at the loom places her at the center of an incredible web of secrecy that helped drive the American Revolution. Heart-wrenching, brilliantly written, and packed to the brim with adventure, My Name is Resolute is destined to be an instant classic.”

In the end, for me, it wasn’t a bad book.  Amazon readers say 4.7 stars…for me..NO WAY…more like 3.7.  If you want to test Nancy E Turner out as an author read These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (P.S.).  That is the author’s best work and it does deserve all of 5 stars.