This book, set in Boston and its surrounds during the early years of the American Revolution, is captivating and visceral in its delivery. The scene settings are rich and highly descriptive, thus transporting the reader into a thrilling and decisive time of the young American Republic's existence. The story focuses on a Boston brahmin family, "The Happy Hartfords" - which built its fame and wealth plying the ship-building trade. Specifically, the story focuses on the eldest son, Josiah, a recent philosophy grad of Harvard who is suddenly expected to take over the shipyard for his ailing father. Fate has other plans for Josiah and the Hartford family.

There is much that is good and interesting in this novel. As mentioned, the mise en scène is rich and rewarding. The historic detail of weaponry, military tactics, tools of commerce and the division of the populace's loyalties under British occupation are well illustrated. The writing seemed to be aimed at young-adults - too risqué for middle-schoolers, in my opinion, but perhaps okay for older readers. The dialogue felt a bit stilted at times and the book would certainly have benefitted from tighter editing.

Publisher: Black Rose Writing
ISBN: 978-1684337798
Pages: 303
Publication Date: September 30, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction ( )

This was interesting to me as a New Englander and familiar with history of Boston and southern NH. Written to a high school or young adult level, but a good read nonetheless. ( )

The White Conclave is a historical novel about a Colonial Gentleman ship builder thrust into the Revolutionary War.

It follows his experiences before the War and the beginnings of the War. We experience the brutal battles as much as he does as well as the preparations of war.

We also experience much of the British side and their Officers' preparations and experiences.

Amidst the war, there is some romance of course but nothing gratuitous .

There is definitely some factual data mixed into this book. The fighting tactics, Officers and Battles are real.

I won this from Black Rose Publishing via Library Thing. Reading war stories are not my thing but this one was enjoyable. The ending is obviously set up for more future books - after all the Revolutionary war was 8 years.

As a New Englander familiar with Revolutionary War history, I truly enjoyed this book. With relatives from both sides, and having tramped over these grounds, Miller's writing brought to life the struggle of war and Independence as experienced by a family truly in the middle. ( )

A historical novel set in Boston and the surrounding environs in the lead-up to the start of the American Revolution. My reading palate is mostly non-fiction (especially history), so I was pretty familiar with the important historical figures mentioned. I did my best to frame it as "historical fiction" focusing on the fiction part and not the historical sides, but I can't guarantee it didn't affect my view point. I did notice a few anachronisms and know one important character was completely out of place in the story; that's not that important, though, so not a big deal. So with that said and those caveats...

I thought the book was pretty mediocre overall; as one LT member notes, ti seems like it's written at a high school/young adult level, but there's not hing in the description or materials available that indicate that. The overall writing is boring and dull; "Tell, Don't Show" seems to be the imperative when it came to writing. Entirely too much of the plot is advanced through characters stating (usually quite flatly) their feelings/thoughts/what is going on, and not enough in describing both what is going on and especially how people feel about it. There are a lot of minor characters, and several seem to have no real purpose whatsoever (there was one character who I kept thinking would be important to advancing the story in someway but does nothing has only the most useless of arcs). I do not learn enough about anyone other than the two main characters to care much about them either way. The main character isn't very well developed and while we see him participate in many important events, he always feels like just a random person rather than someone with agency who has to make choices. I didn't feel for him one way or another.

Fine enough read overall if you're a high-schooler into historical fiction, but it definitely feels like you could get a better book for not very much work, either. ( )