5 Stars

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Genre: Historical Fiction

Date of publication: January 17th, 2017

Where you can find The Second Mrs. Hockaday: Amazon

Book synopsis:

When Major Gryffth Hockaday is called to the front lines of the Civil War, his new bride is left to care for her husband’s three-hundred-acre farm and infant son. Placidia, a mere teenager herself living far from her family and completely unprepared to run a farm or raise a child, must endure the darkest days of the war on her own. By the time Major Hockaday returns two years later, Placidia is bound for jail, accused of having borne a child in his absence and murdering it. What really transpired in the two years he was away?

A love story, a story of racial divide, and a story of the South as it fell in the war, The Second Mrs. Hockaday reveals how this generation—and the next—began to see their world anew.

---

My Review:

The Second Mrs. Hockaday was a fantastic book, and I loved reading it. Told through letters and journal entries, it brings Civil War Era South to life.

I have read plenty of Civil War Era books to know when one is good or not. This book is a good one. The plot is fantastic, and for the author to use letters and journals to tell a horrendous story was beautiful. She seamlessly weaved the letters and the journal into a spellbound tale that you can’t put down.

I will say that there are several twists in this story. I called one of them, but the other one (which was told from Charlie’s perspective) surprised and haunted me after I finished reading the book.

---

I would give The Second Mrs. Hockaday an Adult rating. There is non-graphic sex. There is mild language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Second Mrs. Hockaday. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**