by Sandra Merville Hart
The final book in the Spies of the Civil War Series, Tides of Healing, shows that everyone had difficulty adjusting to Union occupation in Vicksburg after surrender.
One of the lighter scenes early in the book has Savannah Adair and her mother unpacking a box of food that the Union army had provided. They find beans that smell like coffee. They’re not the brown color they’d have expected.
The green color confuses them but the two women who have never cooked or baked anything figure that coffee beans turn brown while boiling.
Adding to the urgency are the wounded Confederate soldiers in their parlor. The men need sustenance even more than Savannah and her mother.
Read Tides of Healing to discover how they fare with coffee making and so many other challenges following the city’s surrender.
Here’s the back cover blurb:
Savannah Adair has endured the unimaginable, hiding in a cave while her beloved Vicksburg was under siege. With the city now occupied by Union soldiers, Savannah cannot stand by and do nothing. So when one of the gaunt, half-starved Confederate prisoners asks her to spy for the South, she can’t refuse the chance to take back her home.
First Lieutenant Travis Lawson takes pride in the Union army’s hard-fought victory, but he quickly realizes that the challenges of rebuilding and reconciliation are just beginning . . . and not everyone is appreciative of changes he’s making. Namely, the fiery and alluring Savannah Adair. Despite their differing loyalties and the societal divide between them, Travis cannot deny the growing feelings he has for her. When he is tasked with finding Southern spies in Vicksburg and he captures a female spy, Travis is forced to consider that the woman he’s beginning to love may be the enemy.
Sandra Merville Hart 