This is a stand alone sequel to "Push Not the River." Set in Poland in the late 1790's, early 1800's, the novel tells the story of Jan and Anna Stelnicki. Jan and Anna are finally married and start their family, but when partitioned Poland has hope in becoming a nation again with Napoleon's help, Jan goes to war, leaving Anna to keep her family together.

Anna is also reunited with the meddlesome Zofia in this book, but this time it's like they are more collaborators in crime than Frenemies.

It's a lush, sweeping epic, that reminded me of "Gone with the Wind." It wasn't easy for me to put down, so if you want to escape to a cabin in the woods and get lost in history for a weekend, this book is excellent for that.

Anna. She's truly the epitome of a "heroine." She has faults and failures just like us.

How Jan stayed off to war for so long. He made me mad. After all the $hit he went through to be with Anna in the first book to leave her like he did in this book infuriated me.

Read what was going to happen next, only I don't know if the author is planning to write one. I also wanted to get more in touch with my own Polish roots.

proud to be Polish.

is James Conyrod Martin. I can tell he did a lot of research to nail the historical aspects of the book.

It has all the elements of an epic, romance, love, adventure, and intrigue.

On the author's Amazon page, he has a Book Trailer for the previous book, "Push Not the River," which helps establishes the characters if you want to check it out.

Zofia is a compelling character in her own right. Her love for Jerzy is in itself heartbreaking because she doesn't realize it herself until it's too late.

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Created Sep 23, 2008 at 4:36pm • Submit your own review...