One Wore Blue by Heather Graham

#1 Civil War Trilogy
Copyright: 1991
Publisher: Dell
Genre: fiction
Pages: 444
Challenges: Year of the Historical, buy 1 book and read it
Author's Website
My rating: 4.5/5

Simple Description: 
It's the 1860's, at the start of the Civil War. Kiernan McKay is unmarried and getting older.  She knows she must decide on a marriage and soon.  The problem is that Anthony Miller keeps proposing and while she likes him, she doesn't love him.  She soon realizes that her love lies with Jesse Cameran.  The problem is that he decides to stay with the Yankee army and fight against the South. Kiernan is a Southern lady and very much a believer in the Confederates and what they are fighting for.  Kiernan knows she can't marry Jesse, even though he has asked, it just wouldn't be right since their views on slavery are so different.   However, could she marry another and love him?

Throughout this book we are shown the struggle between the two lovers as they are torn apart and reunited several times. Both characters are proud and firmly stand behind their belief.  Neither one is willing to back down even if it means losing the love of their life.  

Now what you really want to know....my thoughts: 
I'm not a big romance reader, and this is definitely a romance book. I would normally say that I don't really read romance, except that in talking with some friends I realized that the Virgin River series I'm in love with would be considered romance books.  So I have to admit that I do read some romance, but not many.   This book, you can't argue that it's not romance.  There are several "love" scenes and one of the main themes is the love between Jesse and Kiernan.  Will love be enough to bring these two together despite their beliefs regarding slavery?  That, my friend, you'll have to figure out my reading the book.

Kiernan is a very strong, female, character. I adored her.  I couldn't always agree with her, I mean she does think that slavery is ok and I most certainly do not.  However I loved that she was so strong and willing to stand up for what she believed, even if it meant losing her true love.  Kiernan had a lot of spunk and fire, you gotta love that.

Jesse is another strong character.  He loved Kiernan but wasn't willing to back down and change sides. He had to fight on the side he believed was right.  However, this didn't keep him from helping men who were hurt on both sides of the war.  (Jesse is a medical doctor)

While I don't read much about the Civil War, I keep wanting to and it is an interest to me.  This book revolves around the Civil War and I think the author did a great job with it.  She showed how families were torn apart by war, when family members fought on both sides and risked fighting against each other in the same battles.

I have to admit that I loved this book and I can't wait to get to the next one in the trilogy.  Again, I'm not a huge fan of romance, but this one has a great story line and great characters. That's what kept me reading it.
It might be hard to find this book, my local book stores didn't care it and I ordered it online, but I definitely think it's worth hunting down a copy.  I don't want to give too much away, so my description of the book isn't the best.  I went into it knowing it was a romance book revolving around the civil war and that was it. That might be the best way to do it with this one.  I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I loved it.

I am buddy reading this trilogy with some friends, so stay tuned for reviews of the next two books, we plan to read them within the next couple of months.



This book is part of my collection and was either bought or given to me.