Warring Spirits - April Gardner

THE BOOK:

Three cultures, one battle. A thousand warring spirits.

In 1816 Georgia, escaped slaves control the land just beyond the American border in Las Floridas. Lost somewhere between white and black worlds, Milly follows hope to the only place that can offer her refuge—the place Georgians are calling Negro Fort. The first, sweet taste of freedom convinces Milly that surrender is not an option. Death would be more welcome.

Major Phillip Bailey has orders to subdue the uprising and return the runaways to their masters. Forced to fight alongside Creek warriors—the same who etched the scars into his mind and flesh—Phillip primes himself for battle. But inside, a war already rages—return for the woman he thought lost to him or concede her to the enemy she loves; follow orders or follow his heart.

MY REVIEW:

Star Rating: *****

Warring Spirits completely swept me off my feet! Revisiting characters from Wounded Spirits and discovering new ones, this next book in the Creek Country Saga is sure to win April Gardner new fans everywhere! It’s always a wonderful surprise when the second book turns out even better than the first (which was awesome to begin with! ;-), and that’s exactly what I discovered in Warring Spirits. That first scene drew me into this fantastic adventure alongside two amazing characters—Phillip the soldier and Milly the slave.

For Phillip Bailey, shackled to his haunting past, he understands and quickly come to sympathize with Milly—the young slave girl who looks every bit like a white person except for her frizzy hair. Throughout Warring Spirits, both Phillip and Milly are taken on a wild adventure as each struggles to find peace in a war-torn land. The ultimate journey for freedom seems to be continually thwarted for Milly, and no amount of Phillips secret aid helps her. It isn't until these two give the prize they both long for—freedom—to the Lord, that He returns it to them ways they could never have imagine.

Everything about this book was delightful. From the very accurate, if gruesome, details of the history, to the believable characters. April isn’t a cliché author, that’s for sure—everything within this book is as close-to-life as possible for a book, and I love it even more for that. An issue that is present in this book is the use of beautiful slave girls for their masters. While April does an outstanding job of not going into too much detail, a slavegirl is raped within the book, though the actual incident takes place “off scene”. This isn’t an easy matter to write about, I am sure, but I commend April for not steering away from the reality of that time period—as slaves were often used for such depravity by their masters.

From cover to cover Warring Spirits is a powerful, action-packed, romantic, emotional book with a message that will remain with you for a long time to come. April Gardner is a gem of an author worth setting alongside the other amazing historical fiction writers on my shelf (Jody Hedlund, Kaye Dacus, and Laura Frantz, to name a few!). Loved every moment I spent in Warring Spirits and was sad to see it come to an end!

I reviewed this book for the author. It was not required that I give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this book, which I have done.

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