In April 1860, Dr. Ryder Cole returns home from his studies, sure of his abilities and on fire to serve his country and preserve the Union. A panther attack threatens to cut his life short until a young woman with a rife and a sure-shot eye appears out of the mist. Then she disappears, re-turning as Tom Boyde, his comrade throughout America’s Civil War, and as Diana, met in a Washington D.C. whore house. The seven Aprils from 1860 to 1866 tell their tale of love and war, sex and friendship. And the price of crossing gender lines.

I’ll be honest: I’m not generally a fan of war stories. I have a hard time separating myself from the real tragedies of war, so I don’t usually read them. That being said, this storyline is truly captivating. I didn’t realize until I finished it that the heroine was inspired by real events — a woman disguised as a man serving in the Civil War.

Though the storyline gripped me, I did find the book a bit difficult to read. At times the writing was choppy and I wasn’t clear on what was happening, and there were a few places where I had to read back a page to see if I’d missed something. I can read past punctuation and grammatical errors if the story’s good, but if you can’t, you might not want to pick up this book (there are several). I hope you can, though, because it’s truly an interesting story.

The style was a little too mechanical for me (more emphasis on history than on setting and character), but it was definitely an entertaining read. If you enjoy based-on-true-events stories, you might enjoy this book.

PG-13/R-rated for thematic elements. Get your copy here!