Mary Fremont Schoenecker Four Summers Waiting

Four Summers Waiting

Mary Fremont Schoenecker

Five Star, Jul 2006, $26.95

ISBN: 1594144753

In 1860 on Long Island, father and daughter Horatio and Maria Onderdonk continue to mourn the loss of his wife, her mother who died last year. However, Maria is ready to move on so when her best friend Carolyn Grisham invites her to attend an Abolitionist Sunday meeting she agrees to go. At the session, Maria meets zealous abolitionist Henry Simms, a medical student who works on the Underground Railroad; they are attracted to one another and correspond afterward as he returns to school and she to her Evergreen Park, Long Island home.

As Henry prepares to open up his medical practice, war breaks out between the states. He joins the Union as a contract surgeon; Carolyn becomes a nurse; and Maria's struggles to find a way to help the Northern cause over the objection of her father who opposes the war and the freeing of the slaves. Letters between Henry and Maria serve as her solace as she lives precariously through the doctor she loves until she decides she has had enough inactivity and heads to DC to assist her Henry.

Mary Fremont Schoenecker provides a fascinating historical fiction novel with a romantic subplot that enhances the readers understanding of motivations and relationships. The story line focuses on the differing of opinions towards the Abolitionist movement in the north as some like Horatio consider them terrorists while Henry deems the conductors as human rights heroes. Using letters to move the story forward is clever, but it is the insight into how various people feels about freeing the slaves that makes for an interesting Civil War drama.

Harriet Klausner

Four Summers Waiting

Mary Fremont Shoenecker

Five Star, Jul 2006, $26.95

ISBN: 1594144753

In 1860 on Long Island, father and daughter Horatio and Maria Onderdonk continue to mourn the loss of his wife, her mother who died last year. However, Maria is ready to move on so when her best friend Carolyn Grisham invites her to attend an Abolitionist Sunday meeting she agrees to go. At the session, Maria meets zealous abolitionist Henry Simms, a medical student who works on the Underground Railroad; they are attracted to one another and correspond afterward as he returns to school and she to her Evergreen Park, Long Island home.

As Henry prepares to open up his medical practice, war breaks out between the states. He joins the Union as a contract surgeon; Carolyn becomes a nurse; and Maria's struggles to find a way to help the Northern cause over the objection of her father who opposes the war and the freeing of the slaves. Letters between Henry and Maria serve as her solace as she lives precariously through the doctor she loves until she decides she has had enough inactivity and heads to DC to assist her Henry.

Mary Fremont Shoenecker provides a fascinating historical fiction novel with a romantic subplot that enhances the readers understanding of motivations and relationships. The story line focuses on the differing of opinions towards the Abolitionist movement in the north as some like Horatio consider them terrorists while Henry deems the conductors as human rights heroes. Using letters to move the story forward is clever, but it is the insight into how various people feels about freeing the slaves that makes for an interesting Civil War drama.

Harriet Klausner