Helpful Score: 7
First Line: For a time Alice remembered the good and forgot the bad, but after a while she remembered the bad and then had to forget everything to get rid of it; when it came back it came back in bits, like the pieces in a month-old stew-- all the same gray color and smelling like sick, not one thing whole in the entire kettle.
Alice Cole was seven years old when she and her family boarded the ship to America in 1756. By the time the ship docked, Alice and her father were the only two of the family left alive. Without a backward glance, Alice's father gave her over to John Morton as an indentured servant. It was the only way he had to pay off the debt of their passage.
Fortunately the next eight years were relatively good ones for Alice. She was treated like a member of the Morton family and believed she was a friend to the daughter of the house. But when Nabby Morton is married and the two girls move into Emery Verley's house, fifteen-year-old Alice finds herself the victim of sexual abuse by Nabby's husband. Having no recourse, Alice manages to stow away on a ship headed for Boston where she eventually finds herself living with the Widow Berry (last seen in Gunning's novel The Widow's War). The world has taught Alice to mistrust everyone's motives. Will she be able to learn to trust the Widow Berry?
Sally Gunning's historical novels, The Widow's War and Bound are a treat to read. The setting and period detail put me right in the action with the characters. Whereas Gunning shows us the plight of widows in eighteenth century America in The Widow's War, she tackles the subject of indentured servants in Bound.
In many ways the lives of indentured servants were even worse than those of slaves. Slave owners had made an investment in their slaves, and it was good business sense to see that they were fed and clothed properly. Since indentured servants were only going to be around for a prescribed length of time, it wasn't unusual for those who owned their indenture papers to spend as little on them as possible. All too many indentured servants found themselves worked hard and fed very little.
To see this practice through the eyes of a young girl is illuminating. Many a time I wanted to shake some sense into Alice as she made one wrong decision after another, but I had to make myself stop and realize that she was very young and had no reason at all to trust anyone. The only person she knew she could rely on was herself. The Widow Berry had years of bad lessons to overcome with Alice, and as the pages turned in Bound, I really wanted to see how it would all turn out.
If you like well-written stories set in colonial New England that have strong characters, excellent period detail and a smoothly plotted story line, give Sally Gunning a try!
Alice Cole was seven years old when she and her family boarded the ship to America in 1756. By the time the ship docked, Alice and her father were the only two of the family left alive. Without a backward glance, Alice's father gave her over to John Morton as an indentured servant. It was the only way he had to pay off the debt of their passage.
Fortunately the next eight years were relatively good ones for Alice. She was treated like a member of the Morton family and believed she was a friend to the daughter of the house. But when Nabby Morton is married and the two girls move into Emery Verley's house, fifteen-year-old Alice finds herself the victim of sexual abuse by Nabby's husband. Having no recourse, Alice manages to stow away on a ship headed for Boston where she eventually finds herself living with the Widow Berry (last seen in Gunning's novel The Widow's War). The world has taught Alice to mistrust everyone's motives. Will she be able to learn to trust the Widow Berry?
Sally Gunning's historical novels, The Widow's War and Bound are a treat to read. The setting and period detail put me right in the action with the characters. Whereas Gunning shows us the plight of widows in eighteenth century America in The Widow's War, she tackles the subject of indentured servants in Bound.
In many ways the lives of indentured servants were even worse than those of slaves. Slave owners had made an investment in their slaves, and it was good business sense to see that they were fed and clothed properly. Since indentured servants were only going to be around for a prescribed length of time, it wasn't unusual for those who owned their indenture papers to spend as little on them as possible. All too many indentured servants found themselves worked hard and fed very little.
To see this practice through the eyes of a young girl is illuminating. Many a time I wanted to shake some sense into Alice as she made one wrong decision after another, but I had to make myself stop and realize that she was very young and had no reason at all to trust anyone. The only person she knew she could rely on was herself. The Widow Berry had years of bad lessons to overcome with Alice, and as the pages turned in Bound, I really wanted to see how it would all turn out.
If you like well-written stories set in colonial New England that have strong characters, excellent period detail and a smoothly plotted story line, give Sally Gunning a try!
