Although I think I would have enjoyed the story line, I just could not get into the flow of the back and forth movement of the story. The story is written in the form of letters back and forth between two young women and I kept getting confused as to who was saying what. I gave it 40 pages and still couldn't find a way to continue without confusion.

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This book still haunts me after several weeks. The story is told through letters written by two women. One in the north and one in the south, before, during and after the Civil War.

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After I finished the novel, I was glad I had stuck with it. The format is actually a little irritating. I am not crazy about epistolary novels but this one was very hard to follow because some of the letters were not actually sent so it is hard to remember who knows what. Also, some of the info about what letter(s) were sent, received or burnt was puzzling. The stories of all the women, both the central characters and those otherwise mentioned are interesting. The novel brought up alternate ways of looking at the Civil War, from women's perspectives rather than men. I can't say I enjoyed reading it, but I can say I was awakened to the possibilities of what life was like for the women surviving at home during the Civil War.

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