Book By: Laura Frantz
3.5 Stars
Acadia and the plight of French Canadians in the 1700s is an area of history that intrigues me; not only from a national interest point of view, but from a personal connection. I’ve long enjoyed reading about the early beginnings of Canada. So when I saw that Laura Frantz was tackling this time period in Canada, I was anxious to read the story.
The premise is intriguing as well as the plot. The British community portrayed in the story was done well. One got a sense of who the British were and what they stood for at the time. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the same vibe from the Acadian/French Canadian community or characters (I live in a community with 70% French Canadian).
There’s a lot of French vocabulary thrown into conversations and thoughts that are mostly written in English. This was really distracting to me since my brain would automatically correct the sentence into complete French sentences (we speak French at home on a daily basis).
William Blackburn’s character is easy to like as well as Sophie’s brother, Bleu. Descriptions of Acadia are vivid, pulling the reader into Nova Scotia.
There was a lot of work in creating the story world, but the pacing was on the slow side for me at the beginning. It didn’t pick up until halfway through the story and then continued right through to the end.
I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.