Sometimes a book comes along that you just love so much and you see people buzzing about it for awards and you get really excited and invested because OMG YOU LOVE THAT BOOK and then it doesn't get nominated for anything and now there are copies at Amazon for a penny and a sales rank over a million and you wish you could just buy three thousand copies yourself and send them to everyone you know or will ever know and tell to read it if they have ANY interest in a wonderful historical love story.
That book, for me, is A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant which came out in 2006 and now seems almost entirely forgotten. Let me tell you what I love about this book:
--Meg, the main character. She loves reading and writing, and her journey to becoming a writer is wonderful and rings very true. She's a strong girl that modern women can identify with, but at the same time she is most definitely a product of her age. Modern girls might like her, but she is NOT a modern girl plunked into the 17th century.
--Edward, the love interest, and his relationship with Meg. It's not simple. It's not quick. It keeps you guessing a bit. As a reader, I had time to fall in love with Edward myself. He's smart. He's a bit tortured (quite literally, he was physically tortured). But it's not too much. One of my favorite book love interests ever. If you like love stories between smart people, for goodness sake do yourself a favor and BUY THIS RIGHT NOW.
--There is a subplot about Muslims and Islam and the politics and relations of the time that are accurate to the past but also resonate to now, and they're very well thought out. Shades of grey on both sides. I love shades of grey.
--The language and historical feel. It feels like the time period, but it's not stilted...it feels fresh, like you're really there, and besides that some of the lines in this book are very lyrical and wonderful but not pretentiously so.
Reviewing books has never been my forte, so I hardly know how to say how much I love this book, but really, read it. I don't reread books that often but I've reread this one, and I'll reread it again more than once.
