For the Colleys of southeastern Missouri, the War between the States is a plague that threatens devastation, despite the family’s avowed neutrality. For 18-year-old Adair Colley, it is a nightmare that tears apart her family and forces her and her sisters to flee. The treachery of a fellow traveler, however, brings about her arrest, and she is caged with the criminal and deranged in a filthy … women’s prison.
But young Adair finds that love can live even in a place of horror and despair. Her interrogator, a Union major, falls in love with her and vows to return for her when the fighting is over. Before he leaves for battle, he bestows upon her a precious gift: freedom.
Now an escaped “enemy woman,” Adair must make her harrowing way south buoyed by a promise… seeking a home and a family that may be nothing more than a memory.
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Loved this Texas history book set near area where I live in Central Texas. It’s always fun to put personalities and life details to history. Even if you ‘re not from Texas, I think you would enjoy reading how the home front dealt with the realities of war when their husbands, fathers, and sons were absent.
I really like historical fiction but I advise strongly that you skip the quotations at the head of chapters. These are interesting bits and perhaps eye-opening for readers but they are too many and too long, destroying the pace of the story. I decided to quit reading them somewhere along the line, and save them for after finishing the story, …
Wonderful descriptions of scenery and characters. Original perspective on the Civil War.
Interesting, well written historical fiction. Best features are original records at the beginning of each chapter. Contemporary voices add validity and color to a well – developed tale of perseverance and survival.
You learn what war does to people, what people in Missouri went through, especially innocent women and children punished and imprisoned because their fathers, brothers, husbands had been soldiers.
This book was written in a different way than I was used to, and I was surprised at how well that worked out. I appreciated what I considered to be the reality of what the characters experienced in the war time setting.
Interesting and well written.
Paulette Jiles is a wonderful writer who has opened up a period in the Civil War which is little known. Women were jailed for feeding and aiding their husbands and sons, caught between forces in the border state of Missouri. Informative and fascinating. Also heartbreaking at times.
It’s been a number of years since I’ve read Enemy Women, but I remember being very captivated by the story and the novel is on my “permanent never-to-be- removed shelf.
Story sounded good, as I really like period stories, but I couldn’t get into it. The writing style was very boring and just seemed like a list of details with nothing to draw you to the characters. I stopped reading a quarter of the way into.
Missouri, in the years leading up to and during the Civil War, was torn apart by opposing forces favouring North or South. Legitimate military units, militias and guerrilla bands all roamed the territory, worrying the civilian inhabitants with arrests, robbery, destruction of property and death.
Adair sees her father beaten and arrested by Union …
This one is really good. I tend to read family drama and this one is close-i enjoyed it very much!