FictionZeal

The Betsy Wisdom docked at Yorktown in September 1754.  Sophia Grafton was on board.  She was heading for a plantation in Virginia calledWildwood.  Her father had heavily mortgaged their London home thinking that Wildwood would provide a good crop of tobacco.  It did not.  The lawyers that were settling Lord Grafton’s estate had to let the London house go.  Sophia determined that she would go to Virginia; learn about growing tobacco; and how to transport it to England for profit to pay off the debt her father had left.

In the New World, she faces many hardships, difficult winters, and a far more primitive life than she was used to.  She reconnects with Henri de Marechal, a man who knew Sophia when she was just a child.  He was a spy for the French government.  He has agreed to help Sophia to get to Wildwood.

This is quite a long book (over 600 pp).  In my estimation, it is much longer than it needs to be as it has a lot of mundane information to fill the pages. It took quite a while, for instance, to get to the heart of the story.  We first learned about Sophia Grafton from early childhood and how she grew into a young and very attractive young lady meeting young men that her father would prefer her to marry.  The dialogue was delightful and very fitting when it was utilized.  However, much of the story was told through narration.  This is the first of a trilogy and does have ‘hangers’ intending to lure the reader to continue with books 2 and 3.  The historical aspect was an interesting take on young America, but I’m not sure it includes actual history.  I did a google search for the Betsy Wisdom and came up with nada.  Rating: 3 out of 5.