A Soldier's Secret: The Incredible True Story of Sarah Edmonds, Civil War Hero by
Marissa Moss
(May contain spoilers)
Format: Paperback (arc)
Publishers: Abrams & Chronicle Books
Published: 1st September 2012
Pages: 400
Main Characters: Sarah/Frank,
Date Started: 17th October 2012
Date Finished: 23rd October 2012
Rating Given:
Blurb from Goodreads:
The story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who masqueraded as a man named Frank Thompson during the Civil War. Among her many adventures, she was a nurse on the battlefield and a spy for the Union Army, and was captured by (and escaped from) the Confederates. The novel is narrated by Sarah, offering readers an in-depth look not only at the Civil War but also at her journey to self-discovery as she grapples with living a lie and falling in love with one of her fellow soldiers.
I received an email from Abrams & Chronicles (thanks for sending me the book) if I wanted to read this book and even though it's not my normal kind of book it sounded interesting so I thought I would give it a try and I'm glad I did.
The cover doesn't exactly draw me in but once I had read the story the cover explained itself. It's the title that actually drew me in so I'm glad it's in the centre of the book and bold making it eye catching.
I loved that this story was based on a true story as it gave the book more meaning and making the journey all the more remarkable. From the moment I started this book I was hooked and was intrigued to find out what was going to happen to her. The thing that I didn't like at the beginning was that if you never knew the title you wouldn't know the secret. We don't even find out her real name or even the background story of why Sarah poses as a man until a few chapters into the book. It's a very remarkable story that makes me think how lucky us women/girls have it today compared to back when this book was set. It is an action packed book as you would imagine a book set in the civil war would be and this book certainly paints a very vivid picture. Even though it was a depressing story of war there was still times when I would laugh out loud but then there was times when I felt for her especially the things she had to endure. I did find the book a bit repetitive as it was mainly fighting/disguising/ill/recover which was pretty much repeated throughout the story which did get a bit annoying. I loved that after Moss finished the story she also explained where she got her information from and also a couple of things that she made up which was the one thing I wanted to be true so it kind of breaks my heart to know that that never happened.
Frank/Sarah was a great character as she was so brave I just couldn't imagine seeing the things that she did without my stomach turning. She seemed more like a man than any of the male characters. I enjoyed seeing how she overcame certain situations and some of them even made me cringe. She just seemed to me like she was born in the wrong century as she wouldn't have had to go through half the things she did do today. There was a few other characters that was in this book book but they where mainly men who didn't know that she was a woman. My favourite character aside from Frank/Sarah was Damon as he was really funny but also he just seemed genuinely a nice guy. Jerome I liked and could see why Frank/Sarah fell for him but he did annoy me a lot. What makes me want to read about these characters more than I have before is that where real people in real situations.
Overall an inspiring read and one that I would definitely recommend to anyone.
