The Blue Cloak

Fantastic read!!
A real life adventures of two brothers
that are serial killers mixed with a
fictional romance between an
unlikely match.
This historical fictional read takes
place in the wilds of the Kentucky
frontier in the late 1790’s.
The storyline will grip the reader from
the beginning until the final word.
The book is extremely ably plotted
and skillfully written with characters
that will pull on the reader’s emotions.
Find out what happens with the brothers
and if the unlikely romance survives the
times.
A Very Highly Recommend Read!!!
I volunteered to read The Blue Cloak.
Thanks to Barbour Press for the opportunity.
My opinion is voluntary and my own.

In 1797 Knoxville is still a wild “west” town. Rachel Taylor lives with her parents and helps to run their mercantile - more just a stop along the way for travelers. When she stands up for her best friend Sally at her wedding to the mysterious Wiley Harpe, Rachel wonders if Sally is making a mistake. Her feelings are confirmed when it turns out that Sally’s new husband is on the path to being an outlaw, and he’s taking Sally and the rest of the family along with him.

Thomas Langford is heading south when he meets up with the Harpe crew. Thomas’s cousin Ben is a few days behind and stops at the Taylor’s mercantile. He is somewhat smitten with Rachel at first sight. Ben has to meet up with Thomas, however, so he can’t linger. He is due at another stop.

The Blue Cloak is a fictional story based on events that happened in history. The Harpes really were two brothers who wreaked havoc in the developing south, leaving a trail of death and destruction along their way. They did drag along the two wives - Sally and Susan - and the third “wife” Betsey. Sally, the daughter of a Baptist preacher, tries to keep her faith alive even in the darkest of times with the Harpes.

This novel was the second that I’ve read in the True Colors series. I enjoy the way that the true story is interwoven with a fictional one, so it reads more like a novel than a history book. McNear created two characters in Ben and Rachel that you want to follow. She also was able to make Sally someone that you could sympathize with, rather than berate for the choices she made. I am looking forward to reading the remaining books in this series.

3.75 stars

This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 16 Feb 2020 .

There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still. Corrie ten Boom

This book is not for the faint of heart. Reading about horrific crimes that have really happened never is easy to digest. The author has done a wonderful job of leaving most of the gory detail for us to imagine as we would or would not like. The True Colors series brings us true stories of American crime, while all are awful none perhaps so much as America’s first serial killers. Nowadays there would be a great deal stated about the early years of the Harpe brothers and how that shaped them to do what they did. Perhaps that is the case, but I think there were dark forces at work that only the Light could penetrate and change.

The story starts with the wedding of Sally to Wiley Harpe. Of the many gifts given, the gorgeous blue cloak was a true gift of love from Rachel to her best friend Sally. This blue cloak travels through many horrors before it finally returns to its place of origin. Totally unaware of what she was getting into, Sally leaves with her new husband for a life she could never have imagined. I think the hardest thing to read about was the apparent enjoyment the Harpes received by murdering innocent people.

The fact that there really are no circumstances so terrible or hopeless that His love cannot reach us gives us, as it gave Sally, the courage to go on. The Light truly is greater than the dark!

This incredible book was received through Barbour Publishing, NetGalley and CelebrateLit. All comments and impressions are my own and were in no way solicited.