The Liberty Bride (Daughters of the Mayflower #6)

Title: The Liberty Bride
Author: MaryLu Tyndale
Series: Daughters of the Mayflower #6
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publishing Date: December 1, 2018

About the Book:

Lieutenant Owen Masters and Emeline Baratt meet on a British warship as sworn enemies. Where will Emeline place her loyalties when forced to spy against her country?
A brand new series for fans of all things related to history, romance, adventure, faith, and family trees.

War Forces a Choice Between Love and Country
A trip home from England to Maryland in 1812 finds Emeline Baratt a captive on a British warship and forced to declare her allegiance between the British and Americans. Remaining somewhat politically neutral on a ship where her nursing skills are desperately needed is fairly easy—until she starts to have feelings for the first lieutenant who becomes her protector. However, when the captain sends her and Lieutenant Owen Masters on land to spy, she must choose between her love for him or her love for her country.

Join the adventure as the Daughters of the Mayflower series continues with The Liberty Bride by MaryLu Tyndall.

More in the Daughters of the Mayflower series:
The Mayflower Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse – set 1620 Atlantic Ocean (February 2018)
The Pirate Bride by Kathleen Y’Barbo – set 1725 New Orleans (April 2018)
The Captured Bride by Michelle Griep – set 1760 during the French and Indian War (June 2018)
The Patriot Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse – set 1774 Philadelphia (August 2018)?
The Cumberland Bride by Shannon McNear – set 1794 on the Wilderness Road (October 2018)
The Liberty Bride by MaryLu Tyndall – set 1814 Baltimore (December 2018)

My Review:

Once again another author has written an amazing journey to add to the list in the Daughters of the Mayflower series! I feel as if each addition to the series becomes my new favorite. The danger, intrigue, and adventure are enough to captivate the reader from the first to last page.

Although this story is part of a series, each of the books are stand-alones. The characters are descendants of those from the first book, but only their relation is mentioned. You can easily read the stories separately. I personally recommend reading them all in order simply because I enjoy them and it’s interesting to see history in order, but it’s not necessary.

Something that was discussed often throughout the book was an emphasis that “works don’t save us.” Both Emeline and Owen share times from their childhood where the authority figures in their lives expected a perfection impossible to achieve on this side of heaven. Knowing he could never measure up, it hardened Owen against God and caused him to rebel. It was interesting to see his heart soften throughout the story and to see how he was slowly able to commit his life to Christ. Emeline had hurts in her past, but she desperately hoped to please God and to find favor in Him. It wasn’t only interesting to see their relationship with each other grow, but also their relationship and understanding of God their Heavenly Father.

As a reader you are aware of each of the characters’ loyalties, however the characters themselves spend much of the book trying to prove/disprove/test each other’s true loyalties. This added a whole ton of suspense and frustration at the same time. The author did an amazing job of creating doubt and intrigue with the characters as they sought the answers they were looking for, but as a reader you’ll wish you could simply shout them out. It honestly made me wonder what life would have been like for real people of the time. On several occasions the characters had to swear their allegiance to once side or the other depending on who they encountered. I feel it’s safe to assume that those types of encounters were highly likely to have happened in real life, and I can’t imagine the fear it must have sparked in the people as they attempted to save their own lives.

I highly recommend this book (and series) to historical fiction fans! It will challenge you to read about different times in history and can even spark interest in different historical events. As with the other books in the series, I recommend reading the author’s notes at the end because they share not only about the author’s research, but about what is truly fiction and nonfiction in the story. I can’t wait to see what the next installment of the series brings!

*I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the author in hopes of an honest review. I was not obligated to leave a positive review. Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone.

Rating: 

Age Appropriateness/Content Warnings:

*PLEASE NOTE: This section may contain mild spoilers but I do my best to reveal the difficult and/or triggering content without giving away the story

This is a good series that can bridge the gap from “kid” to “adult” literature. I would encourage the series to girls that enjoyed the “Dear America” books, but have outgrown them (or read them all). It’s written for adults but is relatively clean. This story has a whipping scene as well as a mention of another. There is some gun violence within the context of war. The language and romance were clean. I would recommend for ages 13 and up.