About the Book:
When small town Acadian girl, Evangeline, 18, is faced with choosing between living out her late-mother's unfinished dreams at her father’s insistence or following her own charted path that includes her summer boyfriend, the American Max, the magnitude of her decision weighs heavily. When she folds to her father’s pressure and moves to Montreal, she not only finds herself embroiled in political protests and losing Max, but begins to unravel a family secret her father was desperate to hide. My Evangeline, set in retro 1995, tells the story of a willful heroine, who with all her irreverent and rebellious undertones, is stopped in her tracks by duty. With a nod to Longfellow’s epic Evangeline who was faced with the same choice, we meet a contemporary heroine who begins her journey naïve and dutiful. And like the fabled heroine of old, she finds her inner strength once she realizes the casualty of her choices. Elements of magic realism permeate the story as she unravels the secret. She meets an owl, a panther and a raven that challenge her ability to reason as she sets out in search of her true spirit.
About the Author:
HEIDI RADFORD LEGG has written six screenplays and piles of essays and poems. Born in New Brunswick, Canada, she has long admired the beauty and character of the Acadian people with whom she shared many idle unfettered summer days in her youth and… more than a few missed curfews. She has a graduate degree in journalism from Concordia University in Montreal and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two children, a short walk from Longfellow's home. This is her first novel. www.heidilegg.com
My Opinion:
I must admit to not knowing much of the famous poem to which this novel compares its heroine. To me that did not detract from enjoying the tale of a young woman wanting to make her own way in the world but feeling beholden to the father who raised her after her mother died in childbirth. Eve so wants to pursue her dreams at the school of her choice with her boyfriend but her father does not recognize - or does not WANT to recognize the strength of their love. He feels Eve needs to live a bit before she settles down. He does not want her repeating her mother's history.
Eve reluctantly agrees to her father's pressure and goes to school in Montreal instead of America where she meets a man of money, influence and ulterior motives. As she gets involved in the separatist movement for Quebec she learns that all is not as it seems.
This book was a departure for me from my usual reading material and that is why I so love reviewing books. It gives me the opportunity to read stories I might not have otherwise found. It challenges me to look to different genres where I find gems like this.
I found myself very involved in Eve's life as she found herself torn between her father and her boyfriend. Eve is a very young character and she has some growing up to do as she is faced with life's decisions and her parent's past. A book I truly enjoyed and I suspect would be especially good for lover's of Longfellow's heroine.
My Evangeline is available on Amazon.com
Disclosure: I received a copy of My Evangeline gratis. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.
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