Review: Redemption on the River by Loren DeShon

Title: Redemption on the River
Author: Loren DeShon
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: July 2012
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a Historical Fiction fan.
• You like well written characters.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Silas Jacobson pulled a trigger, killed his father, and ended up months later face down in Memphis mud, trying to forget the girl who betrayed him.

Silas buries his father on the farm, his guilt in himself and leaves home seeking to forget past mistakes. He travels on Mississippi steamboats and meets his best friend in a brawl, his worst enemy in a cathouse, and a mentor and lover at a New Orleans faro table. Fighting, fornicating, and cheating at cards are a grand time, but there's another woman, a girl on a mission of her own, who saves his life and offers the opportunity to redeem himself.

Silas staggers out of the mud to go to her, but he finds that she's deceived him from the start. He'll risk his neck for her—he owes her that much—but love is no longer possible. His shot at redemption comes down to his conscience, the two women, a poker game, and the turn of a card.

Redemption on the River is historical fiction set along the Mississippi River in 1848."

My Two Cents:

This book takes us on the mighty Mississippi River during the mid-1800s (specifically the 1840s), from St. Joseph to St. Louis, all the way down to New Orleans. This is not a time period that I am very familiar with. The area is still struggling with a lot of issues, including abolition. The air is politically charged. I actually did not realize that efforts to abolish slavery had started so early. I love Historical Fiction that can open my eyes to new time periods and this one did just that for me!!!

I really liked the characters in the book a lot. Okay, I didn't like Silas, the main character, in some parts of the book. Let me explain. Silas, I think, is a good person in the book at his core but in some cases, he makes some really bad choices. Choices that made me thrust my fist in the air and cry "Nooooooo" at certain points (note: my cats and husband looked at me like I was nuts for audibly yelling at a book). This being said, all of these character flaws really made me like Silas better. I think each one of us at some point or another has done something that we later look back on as being sort of a low point for us. We are all flawed in some form or another. Silas is flawed and definitely has those low points. I think it takes a very skilled writer to be able to make a character feel so real and multi-faceted.

Okay, and I definitely loved the love story in the book. I don't want to get too much into it because there are a lot of twists and turns that I read with mouth agape. The love story between Silas and Hannah is oh so good.

I think there were parts of the book that could have stood to be slimmed down a bit as they got away from the main "meat" of the story. But overall, I really enjoyed the story. This is a great book for Historical Fiction lovers. It has a great sense of place and great characters!

Bottom line: Great, character driven Historical fiction.