My Name Is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner

My Name Is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner – 608 pages

Book Blurb:

The year is 1729, and Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family in Jamaica, and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister are sold into slavery in colonial New England and taught the trade of spinning and weaving. When Resolute finds herself alone in Lexington, Massachusetts, she struggles to find her way in a society that is quick to judge a young woman without a family. As the seeds of rebellion against England grow, Resolute is torn between following the rules and breaking free. Resolute’s talent at the loom places her at the center of an incredible web of secrecy that helped drive the American Revolution. Heart-wrenching, brilliantly written, and packed to the brim with adventure, My Name is Resolute is destined to be an instant classic.

My review: 4 stars

Click here to order on Amazon!

Nancy E. Turner has done it again and brought an incredible time of history, the American Revolution, to life with these amazing characters. At the heart of this book is love for your family when you are pulled apart and put back together amid the faces of piracy, kidnappings, war, Indians, indentured servitude, Papist rule and the art of keeping secrets. This book is a whirlwind of adventure and kept me riveted through the 600 pages. Resolute, the main protagonist is a woman whose strength in times of complete chaos are to be commended, as it was women like her in the 18th century whose support and courage were the backbone of keeping their men and troops alive. Books like this make you rethink your history textbooks form 30 years ago (which for me were so boring) because when you care so deeply about the characters and their families, you relearn history in entirely new empathic way.

Quotes I liked:

Did I love him? A woodsman? How could I love a simple woodsman? I had loved before. Always it was simply the first or closest or only single fellow in my acquaintance. I ate my supper alone and closed my door and windows for the night. Was love but a feature of vicinity? Perhaps if I stayed onboard a pirate ship I would love a pirate. If I lived in a castle, a prince.”

– “If you grow to love me that would be excellent. For now, that you tolerate me would be enough. I know I love you with my very core. Everything I have and all that I am I would give to you. I will hold that love sacred until you tell me it is all lost. Until you say you love another. That day, I will bury it. If I must wait until the waves stop coming from the sea, so be it.”

– “Never forget, either of you, that there is always something greater than yourselves at work in the world. Look for it. Seek the whole truth, rather than letting the wind blow you as it will.”

– “’Cullah? How is it possible for me to feel so young and so old at the same time?’
He scratched his head and turned to look at my eyes. ‘Are you ill?’
I laughed, though more tears flowed. ‘No. I am only a woman, and we are
complicated devices.’
‘Well and aye, my love. Well and aye.’”

–