Washington's Lady

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing

Washington's Lady
(Bethany House June 1, 2008)
by
Nancy Moser


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nancy Moser is the author of three inspirational humor books and eighteen novels, including Solemnly Swear, Just Jane, and Time Lottery, a Christy Award winner. She is an inspirational speaker, giving seminars around the country. She has earned a degree in architecture; run a business with her husband; traveled extensively in Europe; and has performed in various theaters, symphonies, and choirs. She and her husband have three grown children and make their home in the Midwest.

ABOUT THE BOOK


It has been said that without George Washington there would be no United States. But without Martha, there would be no George Washington. He called her "my other self."

Who was this woman who captured the heart of our country's founder? She dreams of a quiet life with her beloved George, but war looms...

Though still a young woman, Martha Dandridge Custis was a wealthy, attractive widow and the mother of two small children with no desire to remarry. But when a striking war hero steps into her life, she realizes that she is ready to love again. She is courted by, then marries the French and Indian War hero.

Yet she wonders whether this man, accustomed to courageous military exploits, can settle down to a simple life of farming and being a father to her children. Even as she longs for domestic bliss, Martha soon realizes she will have to risk everything dear to her and find the courage to get behind a dream much larger than her own.

Her new life as Martha Washington took her through blissful times at Mount Vernon, family tragedies, six years of her husband's absence during the Revolutionary War, and her position as a reluctant First Lady.

Known for moving first-person novels of Nannerl Mozart and Jane Austen, in Washington's Lady, Nancy Moser now brings to life the loves and trials of the First First Lady of the United States.

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

Washington's Lady is told from the point of view of Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington, our first president. The story begins with the death of her first husband and continues through her life and ends shortly after the death of her second husband, George. The point of view allows us to see into the heart of this great lady and understand the risks involved in defending the rights of the colonies and to see the great players as people, and not just historical figures.

At the end of the book, the author explains where the book is based on fact, and where she has let her imagination tell the story. Martha a recent widow, who has lost her father and two children, leaving her with a large plantation to run and two small children to raise alone. As a rich widow she knows there will be many suitors, and wants to find one her own age and not marry for convenience but for love.

Most of her life has been lived within a few miles of home. She decides to leave her trusted world and become the wife of George Washington. He has traveled and with this union opens her life to see more of our vast country. The story is told through her eyes, and the book is dull at the beginning as all the background material is introduced.

However, the book takes off and you get deeply involved when she remains childless and her daughter develops epilepsy and her son is an untamed child. One of the strong points of the book, is realizing even in loss other doors open for service. She realizes late in her life that if her daughter had not died, she would not have went to the soldiers camps and visited the sick and wounded.