Friday, January 15, 2016

Review: The Open Doorway by Madeleine Mitchell

The Open Doorway by Madeleine Mitchell
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Time travel hurts. You don't need machines or black holes or event horizons - just Shawnee magic, an electrical storm, and a dose of good old fashioned agony. 

It’s the summer of 2015, as British dancer, Leigh Boswell, flees her abusive husband, Daniel, on a vacation trip to Gettysburg, USA. If the creepy child she meets at the Devil’s Den isn’t enough to freak her out, the storm the girl summons blasts Leigh into the aftermath of one of America’s bloodiest battles on 3rd July 1863 where, sick and disorientated, she’s helped by a young confederate soldier, Lewis Thornton Powell, whose simple act of compassion has repercussions across two centuries. 

In the Federal field hospitals of Old Dorm and Camp Letterman, and the notorious West's Building Prison Hospital in Baltimore, Leigh is taken under the wing of confederate sympathiser, Maggie Branson, and endures the horrors of Civil War nursing as she struggles to adapt in an alien world. Fate and circumstance take her deep into the Virginian countryside where she’s adopted by Daniel's ancestors; the Chandlers, and meets once more with the enigmatic Powell, with whom she seems unable to escape a mutual destiny. 

Tormented by her knowledge of the future, Leigh is driven to the sprawling metropolis of Washington DC in a desperate bid to alter fate and change history; but as her nightmare unfolds, she finally uncovers the terrible truth about the man she loves. 

Based on true events, The Open Doorway is a novel of struggle in adversity, timeless love, and karmic absolution. It pits the past against the future where for everything given in life, a price must be paid; and for everything taken, something wonderful is offered in return. 

A sweeping saga of a novel in the tradition of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, and its own unique voice. This is history with a punch!

My Thoughts:

This book starts out in 2015. Leigh is married to Daniel, a very abusive man. He receives an inheritance from family in America and they go to visit. She has decided to use their trip to Gettysburg to escape him. She is running from him during a storm and is caught up by blue orbs of electricity. She wakens to find herself on the battlefield in 1863 during the actual battle. She is hurt and a confederate soldier risks getting captured to help her.

Scared and not knowing how to get back to her time, Leigh helps nurse the injured soldiers. She manages to find Daniel's relatives that he eventually inherits from. She explains that she is a distance cousin and stays with them. She realizes that when the war ends, President Lincoln will be assassinated and hopes to stop it.

I love how the author took such a monumental time in history and had the character try to change it. Also, the little bit of revenge Leigh got on Daniel was priceless (no, I am not going to tell you what she did- you need to read the book to find out). This book is definitely worth a read.


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