I am from this part of Missouri so my comments may be slanted but I loved to book for the strong female character. This is a story about one family's involvement in the Civil War and the consequences they face for their preceived siding with the Confederacy. The place names brought back memories of my childhood in the hills of southern Missouri. The historical information presented in the form of quotes from actual journals added to my understanding of the conditions of the time. The author did a good job of matching journal entries to what was happening in the text. Sometimes I read the entries as I came to them, at other times I continued reading about Adair and then went back to the journal entry.
Some of the text is not for the squimish but sometimes people have to make hard decisions