Abby Thomas is in a small town in southern Illinois for the summer, tutoring a very resistant preteen named Merrideth, as part of her teaching degree program. Merrideth is defiant, her mother makes no real attempt at discipline, and the house, once beautiful, is now old, rickety, and has few modern conveniences.
But there's John Roberts, a handsome and really nice local guy, a spiffy new computer from Merrideth's absent, divorced, possibly drug-dealing father, and a computer program called Beautiful Houses that turns out to have some really interesting features.
Such as the ability to follow the life of Charlotte Miles, daughter of the owner, in 1858 when the house is a train stop on the Alton & Chicago Line. Abby and Merrideth finally connect over a shared interest in history, and a fascination with Charlotte, a new suitor named James McGuire, and his boss-Abraham Lincoln.
There are also other neighbors--a boy about Merrideth's age, an elderly woman who lives for gardening and is happy to share both plants and her memories, the local minister and his wife, in Abby and Merrideth's time. And both supporters of Lincoln, and entirely too many supporters of slavery, in southern Illinois, in 1858.
It's a well-told, absorbing story, with very good characters. Recommended.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
No comments:
Post a Comment