Coolmore

Rating:
Summary: A Union soldier changes the lives in a Southern family.
Review: "Coolmore" is an intriguing story of a minor Civil War incident and its aftermath. It's not "Gone With the Wind" because it is set in North Carolina, where plantations were fewer and smaller. It does portray, however, what one of those plantation families suffered at the hands of Union soldiers near the end of the Civil War.

"Coolmore" is the name of the small plantation with four slaves. The house (an actual historically significant house in Edgecombe County, N.C.) is also midway between two objectives of the Union troops, who have a foothold in the eastern part of North Carolina.

After Union troops do significant damage to Confederate stores and supply lines in the town of Rocky Mount, they head to Tarborough to do more damage. On their way to Tarborough, they pass Coolmore. The unusual architecture of the house attracts them, and they stop and plunder the plantation for rations. After freeing the slaves and burning some of the support buildings, they contemplate burning the plantation house. But one officer stops the men because of his appreciation for the house's beauty as well as the beauty of Julia, the owner's teenage daughter.

When the war ends, the Union officer decides to stay in the South, and his memory of Julia leads him back to Tarborough, where he is not wanted by the defeated townfolk. He persists in trying to make a living in unfriendly territory because he is still attracted to Julia. But Julia has no interest in the man who brought ruin to her family and so many others.

A chance meeting at church, starts a romance destined not to be easy.

"Coolmore" really does show how the Civil War did affect ordinary people--soldiers and civilians alike. A sequel certainly is in order to explain the same characters as they live ordinary lives during the hardships of Reconstruction.

My only reservation comes from my not being a Civil War buff. I found too much detail in some of the military descriptions and, possibly, not enough detail about work in the fields of the plantation. Even so, I found it kept my attention and kept me reading past my bedtime.

Rating:
Summary: A Union soldier changes the lives in a Southern family.
Review: "Coolmore" is an intriguing story of a minor Civil War incident and its aftermath. It's not "Gone With the Wind" because it is set in North Carolina, where plantations were fewer and smaller. It does portray, however, what one of those plantation families suffered at the hands of Union soldiers near the end of the Civil War.

"Coolmore" is the name of the small plantation with four slaves. The house (an actual historically significant house in Edgecombe County, N.C.) is also midway between two objectives of the Union troops, who have a foothold in the eastern part of North Carolina.

After Union troops do significant damage to Confederate stores and supply lines in the town of Rocky Mount, they head to Tarborough to do more damage. On their way to Tarborough, they pass Coolmore. The unusual architecture of the house attracts them, and they stop and plunder the plantation for rations. After freeing the slaves and burning some of the support buildings, they contemplate burning the plantation house. But one officer stops the men because of his appreciation for the house's beauty as well as the beauty of Julia, the owner's teenage daughter.

When the war ends, the Union officer decides to stay in the South, and his memory of Julia leads him back to Tarborough, where he is not wanted by the defeated townfolk. He persists in trying to make a living in unfriendly territory because he is still attracted to Julia. But Julia has no interest in the man who brought ruin to her family and so many others.

A chance meeting at church, starts a romance destined not to be easy.

"Coolmore" really does show how the Civil War did affect ordinary people--soldiers and civilians alike. A sequel certainly is in order to explain the same characters as they live ordinary lives during the hardships of Reconstruction.

My only reservation comes from my not being a Civil War buff. I found too much detail in some of the military descriptions and, possibly, not enough detail about work in the fields of the plantation. Even so, I found it kept my attention and kept me reading past my bedtime.

Rating:
Summary: Who edited this book?
Review: Although Mr. Everett weaves a good story, I found his characters one dimensional and his style of writing annoying. His use of punctuation, particularly exclamation marks, made me wonder if he had an editor at all. At one point I counted 53 exclamation marks in three pages. I felt like the characters were constantly yelling. Although this may seem appropriate at some times, as in battle scenes, it hardly seems necessary in everyday conversation. I never felt like I got to know his characters, and could not tell one army officer from the other. They were not developed at all. His heroine, Julia, was an annoying, bratty teenager with few redeeming qualities. I found this to be a wholly unsatisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Who edited this book?
Review: Although Mr. Everett weaves a good story, I found his characters one dimensional and his style of writing annoying. His use of punctuation, particularly exclamation marks, made me wonder if he had an editor at all. At one point I counted 53 exclamation marks in three pages. I felt like the characters were constantly yelling. Although this may seem appropriate at some times, as in battle scenes, it hardly seems necessary in everyday conversation. I never felt like I got to know his characters, and could not tell one army officer from the other. They were not developed at all. His heroine, Julia, was an annoying, bratty teenager with few redeeming qualities. I found this to be a wholly unsatisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific! A real page turner.
Review: Coolmore is a clean, decent book that captures the imagination and won't let go. I stayed up till 4 am one night; couldn't put it down. I hope for a sequel one day!

Rating:
Summary: Honest-to-goodness, the way it really was in the rural South
Review: I know this author as an honest student of his subject. I was much impressed with the accurate description of the physical surroundings and people of the 1860s. The reader can almost smell the aromas and visualize the countryside of the rural South. That, along with the factual presentation of the Yankee raid so well-known in Eastern Carolina, and the fictional romance that symbolically began a healing process between the two sides, makes it a good period piece. The author's easy, uncomplicated writing style results in a good book to relax with on a rainy day.

Rating:
Summary: Honest-to-goodness, the way it really was in the rural South
Review: I know this author as an honest student of his subject. I was much impressed with the accurate description of the physical surroundings and people of the 1860s. The reader can almost smell the aromas and visualize the countryside of the rural South. That, along with the factual presentation of the Yankee raid so well-known in Eastern Carolina, and the fictional romance that symbolically began a healing process between the two sides, makes it a good period piece. The author's easy, uncomplicated writing style results in a good book to relax with on a rainy day.

Rating:
Summary: Civil War novel woven from actual events
Review: In COOLMORE, William L. Everett has interwoven a romantic narrative with actual events of the War Between the States as they affected Eastern North Carolina.

The book takes its name from Coolmore Plantation, built c. 1859, and is listed on the National Historical Registry. The elegant house was actually spared from destruction during the Civil War because of its unusual architecture.

Against the backdrop of the war, fictional characters suffer the hardships, anguish and privations experienced by people in the South when the Union army dismantled and destroyed life as they had known it.

The Dupree family--Frank, Ada, and Julia--reside at Coolmore. A son, Willie, has been killed in battle. Union troops, led by Captain Seth Chamberlain, a young member of a cavalry unit from Albany, New York, plunder and pillage the fields and outbuildings at Coolmore, but spare the house because Captain Chamberlain believes that he has had a connection to it.

Julia Dupree is a ! spirited Southern beauty who vents her wrath on the Union soldiers at every opportunity and is deeply resentful of the indignities her family has suffered at their hands.

When the war ends, Seth Chamberlain could not forget the beautiful Julia, and does not return to New York. Chamberlain recognized the need for farming implements and supplies to help Eastern Carolina farmers make their land productive again and the possibility of reconciliation with the lovely Julia. He establishes himself in "Tarborough" and begins to cultivate the trust of the landowners and, in time, the confidence and love of Julia Dupree.