Title: Molly Lee
Author: Andrew Joyce
Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Blurb:
Molly is about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime . . . of two lifetimes.
It's 1861 and the Civil War has just started. Molly is an eighteen-year-old girl living on her family's farm in Virginia when two deserters from the Southern Cause enter her life. One of them--a twenty-four-year-old Huck Finn--ends up saving her virtue, if not her life.
Molly is so enamored with Huck, she wants to run away with him. But Huck has other plans and is gone the next morning before she awakens. Thus starts a sequence of events that leads Molly into adventure after adventure; most of them not so nice. She starts off as a naive young girl. Over time, she develops into a strong, independent woman. The change is gradual. Her strengths come from the adversities she encounters along the road that is her life.
We follow the travails of Molly Lee, starting when she is eighteen and ending when she is fifty-three. Even then Life has one more surprise in store for her.
My Review:
Molly Lee is a young woman when the charismatic Huck Finn (yes, that Huck Finn) saves her life and steals her heart. She falls instantly in love and is heart-broken when Huck disappears and doesn't take her with him. She does what any love-sick woman does: heads out into the great big world to find her man.
Along the way, she is attacked, befriends a madam and works in a bordello, sold to a Indian war chief, kills a dirtbag, ends up in jail and so much more.
Does that keep Molly down? No way! She's got more backbone than all the men in the Civil War. It's only when she least expects it, Huck appears.
I'm a HUGE Mark Twain fan and Huck Finn is one of my favorite literary characters. I was a little nervous reading this book as I've read many adaptations of Huck Finn and they were all disappointing. I was not disappointed with this book.
Andrew Joyce did a seamless portrayal of Huck Finn and I was really impressed. I had to remind myself that I was not reading Mark Twain. Molly Lee is historically accurate and each character is multi-faceted. I loved the imagery and non-stop action of this book and I highly recommend it!
Favorite Character: Molly Lee, of course. I loved everything about her from her ability to get into bad situations to determination to find her beloved Huck Finn. She's a spunky woman and I was so sad when her story ended I want more!
Favorite Quote: "It was a good thing I didn’t cotton to foolishness like being carried over the threshold and such." ~Molly
My Rating: 5+ stars
Buy it now:
Author Biography:
Andrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn't return from his journey until years later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books. His first novel, Redemption: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, was awarded the Editors' Choice Award for Best Western of 2013. A subsequent novel, Yellow Hair, received the Book of the Year award from Just Reviews and Best Historical Fiction of 2016 from Colleen's Book Reviews.
Joyce now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, Mahoney: An American Story.
Social Media Links:
Website: https://huckfinn76.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/huckfinn76
Reviewed by: Mrs. N