The Last April

For readers who enjoy sassy and resourceful young women, books about the American Civil War civilian life, and snippets from newspapers of the era.

For fans of Ann Rinaldi, Kathy Cannon Wiechman

Spontaneous, fifteen-year-old Gretchen vows to help heal the nation from the recently ended Civil War. On the morning of President Lincoln's death, Gretchen finds an amnesiac Confederate in her garden and believes this is her chance for civic goodwill.

But reconciliation is not as simple as Gretchen assumed. When her mother returns from the market with news that a Confederate murdered the president, Gretchen wonders if she caught the killer. Tensions between her aunt and mother rise as Gretchen nurses her Confederate prisoner, revealing secrets from their past that make Gretchen question everything she knows about loyalty, honor, and trust.

The Last April is an entertaining, thoughtful novella of Ohio after the Civil War, meant to encourage readers to reflect on themes of fear and hope in uncertain political times. Reader favorites: amnesiac hero, gutsy heroine, stern aunt, hysterical mother, catty sister, hidden in plain sight, north vs south romance, bittersweet HEA, stuck in one house.