Where Can I Flee

Title: Where Can I Flee
Author: A.M. Heath
Series: Ancient Words, book 1
Major Themes: American Civil War, Confederacy, Epistolary, Family
Synopsis: After seeing her brother off to join the Confederate army, Claire must learn to trust God with his safety and figure out how she can best support her family and friends as the war drags on.

I’ve been wanting to read this series for a long time, since soon after I was introduced to A.M. Heath’s books. Some of her readers talked about loving Ralph and Claire, and I realized they were characters in Where Can I Flee and the two sequels to the story. So when I finally got to meet them in this book, I was excited to learn why they were such a hit with other readers! I think I’m starting to understand, but I also can’t wait to read book two in the series, because I feel like I’ve barely had a chance to meet Ralph yet!

Claire Harper is living at home with her father and brother Frank as the American South decides to secede from the Union. Although their family has never owned slaves, Frank believes in the right to free choice and doesn’t want to be dictated to his whole life about what he can or cannot do. When he leaves to join the Confederate army, Claire is worried for her brother, but she tries to understand and respect his convictions. While he is training, fighting mud, sickness, and battles in the army, Claire and her father work together to try to keep the family farm going. When fighting reaches down even into their area of the country, her strength and resources are taxed to their limits. Meanwhile, her relationship with the Lord changes and grows, as she realizes she has a heavenly Father that loves her—not a distant God who took her mother too early. Facing the potential loss of friends and family to the war, can Claire trust God no matter what?

There were many things I appreciated about Where Can I Flee, and probably one of the biggest reasons was because I loved learning about the history this book represents. Typically, with Civil War novels, the book is either focused on the Union side or, occasionally, the Confederate side. This book starts with the Confederate perspective, but as the story goes on and new characters are introduced to the plot, some of the reasons for the Union side are shown as well. I’ve never seen that in a book before, but I appreciated the chance to see both sides in one story. Both had good reasons for why they did what they did, and that can be hard to pick up from some history texts.

As far as how the story was put together, I admit I struggled with it somewhat. This was a slow read for me; but it may not have been a good time for me to be reading, due to other commitments. I believe this was Heath’s first book, and it was amazing to see how she has grown as an author since this came out. If you’re looking for a solid Christian story that has a strong historical backbone and is a clean read, this could be a good option. I don’t know that I would ever take the time to re-read it, but I’m glad to have had the chance to read it once!

I was given a review copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it.

WARNING: Throughout the book, several characters (including Christians) become soldiers and fight in battles. This is shown as a good, patriotic thing to do, which I don’t agree with if we consider Bible passages like Matthew 5. Occasionally, there are disparaging or dismissive remarks about slaves. A man is killed in ch. 8. There are battle scenes in ch. 11 (people killed, dismemberment mentioned, etc.), 18, 21, 23 (a fight and a description of a wound), 26 (a man gets shot in the arm), 28 (watching someone get killed), 35, and 36 (some descriptions of maimed or dead people). There is some touching (a hug, holding hands, etc.) between unmarried people in ch. 2, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 25, 26, and 30. “For heaven’s sakes” or a variant is used in ch. 2; devil is used in ch. 16, 19, 21, and 27; and there is lying in ch. 26 and 30. There is some stealing in ch. 24, and a few mentions elsewhere.

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