The Mapmaker’s Children
Summary:
When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance.
Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Please note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review courtesy of TLC Book Tours.
Review:
This book was utterly charming. I found myself sucked into the story fairly quickly although it did take me a little longer to warm up to Eden. Initially I found her slightly annoying, but as I saw her interactions to Cleo she became more relatable. As I have not experienced any of the pain she was working through, I struggled to understand her relationship with her husband as well. After some time, it was Cleo and Cricket who stole the show.
The historical context was really the highlight of the book. A lot of the events and implications were relatively true to history and I thought it was a fantastic way to present the events. Sarah is an incredibly strong character who stood up for herself and I loved who she became. I would certainly recommend this one!
Warning: Contains references to violence.
Rating: 4 stars!
Who should read it? Fans of historical fiction and anyone who would like to learn a little more about the Underground Railroad. (There are a lot of historically accurate events!)