The Measure of Katie Calloway
5 stars~ *****
Review by Diana L. Flowers
Review by Diana L. Flowers
A "TREE''MENDOUS READ!
In The Measure of Katie Calloway, Serena Miller takes us on an arduous journey beginning in post civil war-ravaged Georgia to a lumber camp in Bay City, Michigan. Katie falls in love with and marries the handsome and charming, Harlan Calloway, a graduate from West Point, the sole heir of Fallen Oaks Plantation in Georgia.
As Sherman and his Union troops burn down everything in their pathway, Fallen Oaks is destroyed, leaving only a small cabin for Katie, her little brother, Ned, and Harlan, to inhabit. After the war, Harlan, turns to alcohol, and beats Katie severely, until one day fearful for her very life, she runs away, taking Ned and a small bag of coins with her, determined to get as far away as the money will take her.
She ends up in the beauful logging country of Michigan, and meets Robert Foster, owner of a lumber camp and desperately in need of a cook for his men.
As Sherman and his Union troops burn down everything in their pathway, Fallen Oaks is destroyed, leaving only a small cabin for Katie, her little brother, Ned, and Harlan, to inhabit. After the war, Harlan, turns to alcohol, and beats Katie severely, until one day fearful for her very life, she runs away, taking Ned and a small bag of coins with her, determined to get as far away as the money will take her.
She ends up in the beauful logging country of Michigan, and meets Robert Foster, owner of a lumber camp and desperately in need of a cook for his men.
Robert Foster is a kind and fair man; good to his "shanty boys" as the loggers were called, but a man who carries a deep burden of guilt for not being with his wife when she died giving birth. He, too, was on the battlefield, and saw tremendous atrocities such as couldn't be uttered, and he carries a secret that no one knows. Does Katie find out what it is by reading an old journal she finds of Robert's? And what about the secret she is keeping from him - the fact that she is not a widow, but a married woman.
Katie's work is backbreaking, and she must get up at two in the morning to begin feeding the shanty boys. Gruff on the outside, but with hearts of gold, they all grow to love Katie, and of course, her wonderful cooking! Robert Foster is falling in love with her as well, but Katie fights their growing attraction, as she is still married, and fearful of Harlan finding her.
Add a terrible forest fire that could destroy the whole 680 acre camp, a starving Indian woman with her baby, and a once runaway slave, to the budding, but forbidden romance, and you have one more exciting tale!
Add a terrible forest fire that could destroy the whole 680 acre camp, a starving Indian woman with her baby, and a once runaway slave, to the budding, but forbidden romance, and you have one more exciting tale!
Serena Miller's novel is laced with humor (I laughed outright at some of the episodes), but she covers some pretty heavy issues; slavery, spousal abuse, and post traumatic stress disorder, to name a few. Her extensive research into the lumber business taught me alot, and her realistic setting had me actually smelling the scent of spruce and freshly sawed white pine trees. I loved her secondary characters, and still miss the rough spoken and malodorous, but protective and loving shanty boys.
*One word of warning-Do not read this book while hungry, because Ms. Miller's many descriptions of the delectable, mouth watering meals that Katie concocts, will have you craving food and running to the kitchen..mmm.:) Wonderful novel, Serena Miller, and I am wholeheartedly looking forward to the next one!
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Giveaway: Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of this book in either Kindle or paperback version, your choice!