Twilight's Last Gleaming: Reviews
July 26th, 2008
Dear Readers,
Thank you so much for your support and kind words regarding the series. I'm sending book three off next week and it will be a tender but tense portrayal of America's preparations and response to the British invasion of Washington. I love to hear from you!
Laurie LC Lewis
May 20. 2008
Sister Lewis
I finished your second book in this series in about three days. The book kept my interest throughout the reading. I didn't want to put the book down once I got started. The book was well written, and the history was interesting. You kept my desire to read on. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, and hope we don't need to wait so long for their publishing.
If the first two books are any indication into your insights with history and enjoyable reading; then I hope you continue to write for many more years. I shall keep reading your work's with interest and delight. Your works seem to make history come alive.
Yours truly,
Woody
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June 2, 2008
Laurie,
Your Free Men and Dreamers series is outstanding. I have never been so touched while reading anything! My entire family can't wait to read your book together every night before bed. When can we expect the 3rd Volume?
Lindsey
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June 3, 2006
Ahhh!!! What am I going to do???? I just finished your . . . latest
installment and I am dying to know what happens next. I GUESS I can
wait until the next one comes out. Just kidding. It really was awesome though.
Stacey
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June 26, 2008
I started your second book of Free men and Dreamers yesterday and I'm already loving being able to "visit" Jed and Hannah and I feel like I can close my eyes and see the plantation and hear the crickets. I'm in chapter 5 and still going strong. Good thing my babies are grown or I'd be a very neglectful mom. Thanks again for sharing another lifetime with us avid readers. I've been telling everyone they have to start this series, it's so great. Hope to see you here again soon.
Kelli Hansen
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July 1, 2008
Dear Laurie,
I have loved your books. Is there going to be a volume Three?
Thank you.
Marilyn
Pleasant View, Utah
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July 24, 2008
Hi Laurie,
I just finished reading Dark Sky at Dawn last night and am ready to start Twilight’s Last Gleaming. My interest is piqued. I have enjoyed the surprises of meeting Stephen Mack and “putting two and two together” to realize he is Joseph Smith’s uncle. My interest was really piqued and I am looking forward for Hannah and Beatrice to meet Lucy Mack Smith in the second book.
I really enjoy historical fiction! I like reading about the peoples’ lives in different eras. It makes me also appreciate what I have and the sacrifices made by others.
I hope things keep going well for you and I hope that there are many more books to come. Do you have any idea how many books will be in this series?
I wanted you to know you have a fan in me.
Sincerely,
Wendy
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FROM ONLINE:
Feelings and Readings Blog at http://feelingsandreadings.blogspot.com/
"I also finished the second book in the Free Men and Dreamers series by L.C.Lewis the second book is Twilights last Gleaming. This is a much more serious book and historical fiction showing the state of the Union right before the church was restored to the earth. It just shows you that Heavenly Father is in charge and he knows what he is doing and the people in the book are very human and believable."
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From Meridian Magazine, Review by Jennie Hansen, June, 2008, available at http://www.meridianmagazine.com/books/080619summer.html
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Twilight's Last Gleaming is the second volume in a new historical series called “Free Men and Dreamers,” written by L.C. Lewis. Lewis is a tireless researcher who lives in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area — where she has firsthand access to the places she depicts in her novels. This series begins with the events leading up to the War of 1812, and this second volume carries into the war and the senseless brutality that inflamed a struggling new nation.
Volume One left the relationship between Jed and Hannah at an uncertain point and Hannah's sister's husband a prisoner of war. Twilight's Last Gleaming begins with Jed back at his plantation facing an impending attack from his neighbor who is a British sympathizer and the corrupt British agent who follows a self-serving, evil man in England who is more interested in wealth and a personal vendetta against Jed than in his nation's best interests. The man's son discovers his father's evil scheme and first runs away then becomes embroiled in the war.
Hannah and her sister, Beatrice, set off for New England in an attempt to reach Beatrice's husband and learn of his fate. They find themselves caught up in the devastating typhoid epidemic that took as many or more lives than the war. Not only must they battle their way free of the deadly disease, but they must also come to terms with their relationships with their family and with the men who love them.
Jed faces conflicting responsibilities as he struggles to keep his plantation, The Willows, and the recently freed slaves he considers his family, safe, while worrying about his sister, Franny, and Hannah's safety. A new worry is added when he learns of the attacks along the James River, where his best friend and foreman has gone to visit his family and support the war effort by sea.
This is a complex novel that follows the fortunes of five separate families from two continents. It is centered on a war that most people know little about and tend to dismiss as of minor importance when it was of major importance in uniting the various segments of a new country and earning recognition for America as a separate sovereign nation. It also was the period of time that Joseph Smith would later refer to as a time of great religious fervor during his boyhood. This period also saw the rise of the movement to end slavery and showcased the conflicting views on this sad institution.
This second volume of the series is not as fragmented as the first volume. Whether the first volume felt more choppy than the second because of the large cast of characters to introduce (with their many settings and trials) or because the author gained experience from that first book, I don't know, but the characters are more believable in the second volume and the flow of the story is handled in a much smoother fashion.
Action feels more precise and absorbing as well. I was sometimes frustrated with the first volume, though I liked it well enough to try the second. However I found myself truly fascinated with this second volume. History buffs and all those who enjoy complex novels should be sure to follow this series.