3 out of 4 stars
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Yesterday, by Samyann, is a historical novel based in present day Chicago with flashbacks to the Civil War in Charleston, South Carolina and The Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The story follows a young journalist, Amanda Parker, and a Chicago Mounted Police Officer, Mark Callahan. Amanda has had a life full of tragedy, with the loss of family members and loved ones. She feels that she is cursed and that anyone she loves is in danger of suffering untimely deaths.
Mark tries to convince her that they are in love with each other, even though she tries to fight them being together. Amanda tries to push him away thinking that she is protecting him, but he demonstrates his unconditional love by staying with her to help her through her journey to healing.
I liked how the author brought in details of the Civil War and the Chicago Fire that people may not know about. The emotion of what it must have been like to live through those times was easy to relate to and made me feel like I was actually living through those same experiences as I read. I also liked the romance that the author brought into the story. But I felt this book was different from the run-of-the-mill romance in that it wasn't your usual plot line of "boy meets girl and all is well." There were many twists and turns that were unexpected and this kept my interest from beginning to end.
I did not like how much profanity there was throughout the book, it seemed like every other word was a cuss word. I feel that this diminished my enjoyment of the book considerably and made it hard for me to focus on the story line at times. There were also a lot of sexual references and scenes that I could have done without.
I rated this book a 3 out of 4 stars. The writing was good and the story was an easy read and kept my attention. There were times I didn't want to put it down! I liked that the story was unpredictable, which I find refreshing. The story was interesting from a historical standpoint. The book had several good lessons woven throughout, one being that "every life means something". I took points away from my rating because of the large amount of profanity, alcohol/drunkenness, and three or four graphic sexual scenes throughout the book. Thus, I would recommend this book to mature readers.
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Yesterday
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