Elaine Cougler

The Loyalist Legacy is the third book in the Loyalist series. I did not read the first two but that did not deter me from understanding what the story was about. The Loyalists were people who stayed loyal to the crown after the Revolutionary War. After they were defeated a lot of them moved to Canada, in Ontario near Niagara Falls. In this particular story we have William and Catherine Garner who eke out an existence on their two hundred acres. The novel starts out with Catherine alone with the children because her husband has gone to seek his brother Robert, who has gone to find their parents as they have disappeared from their home . Turns out that their father John has been arrested and put in jail for no reason other than the fact he was a Loyalist and because of one mans, John Strachan, hatred of the Loyalists. Bishop Strachan was the first Anglican Bishop in the area and was very political. He did not believe that the voice of the people was the voice of God.

The story spans 20 years and includes the struggles the families have with the Family Compact which is a group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (modern Canada) led by Bishop Strachan. There is political upheaval throughout the whole story but these people are strong, the reader gets to read about how these people survived the harsh winters, and the environment. There is also a bit about the slaves who ran away from their owners and how they are hunted, and how the Garners help these people along their way to relocate into Canada, not unlike the underground railroad that was prevalent during the Civil War. The Garners also befriended a Chippewa family that Catherine had taken in and fed and clothed. The family had left the reservation because there was hardly any game left on a small parcel that was given to the Chippewa's.

The town thrives and grows with the addition of a school, a general store and of more people coming to the area and settling down. There are many different characters that help to tell the story of this family, births, deaths and marriages that make this story very readable. Many characters are from history but the Garner family is fictional but it does give the reader an insight into the difficult life was for settlers in this era.

I loved the story, learned about the area and the history of Ontario which was interesting, and just loved the story of life for one family. If you love historical fiction, this series should please you.

This review is voluntary.… (meer)

I was immediately intrigued by this historical novel, set during the American Revolutionary period, with its POV squarely focused with the Loyalists. I don't recall seeing another historical novel with a Loyalist bent since Christine Blevins' two novels about her Tory widow, Anne Merrick, and those books aren't wholly pro-UK. Cougler is descended from a Loyalist fighter, as it turns out!

Taking place between April 1778 through the spring of 1780, the novel follows a young married couple, John and Lucinda (Lucy) Garner, who have a small cabin in rural New York. John joins the Butler Rangers -- a militia group hoping to quickly beat back the Continentals before the end-of-summer harvest -- while Lucy remains at their small homestead.

What was to be a brief, relatively painless campaign turns into a greater ordeal for both, as John's wartime experiences are far more gruesome than he ever imagined, and Lucy's isolation made all the worse as the seasons tick on and danger threatens from multiple fronts. (I'm being kind of vague to keep from spoiling things.)

The writing style is straightforward, although occasionally too simplistic for my tastes (I sometimes felt as if rather intense moments were breezed over now and then, to my disappointment; I would have loved to dig in and really sit with some of these deeply distressing times!). The point-of-view switches every few chapters from Lucy to John, which I found a little maddening; while I appreciate what it does to build tension, it made me want to scream when the switch happened at a particularly tense moment or when I was really 'in' one particular character's psyche.

However, Cougler very effectively conveyed the immense anxiety of Lucy's plight -- that being alone in the wilderness wasn't made dangerous just from the wildlife, for example, or even a household accident -- and her articulation of grim guerilla battles had me even feeling sympathetic toward the Loyalist rangers.
She had killed a cow, hung it, and butchered it. She had raised a crop of corn, some wheat, and some hay, and harvested them all by herself. She had fended off a thief trying to take her land. Well, not alone, but she had been strong. As she sat at the table by the light of one candle, listening to the logs crackle and burn in the stove, her hands crept to her face. She held her head and whispered, "Oh, God." (p94)
There are some nice extras in this book: two pages of references, nearly three pages of discussion questions, and a one page teaser from the next book.

While the first in a planned trilogy, this one ends on a rather definitive note -- satisfying for those of us who find a cliff-hanger ending to be cruel! -- but has me intrigued about what happens next. I found this book to be a zippy, emotional story that had a familiar-ish setting but unusual orientation for our hero and heroine, so those who like American Revolution-era novels but want to see it from a different view point should consider this book!… (meer)

I must admit, I've read many books centering around the Revolutionary War. Never have I read a book from the viewpoint of a British supporter. What a book! It will hold your interest from page one until the finish. Lucy and John are amazing people. John joins the British sympathizers Butler's Rangers and has to leave Lucy while fighting against the revolutionaries.

Lucy's story of survival is one of courage and great strength. We see the happenings from both Lucy's and John's perspective. Both underwent amazing ordeals. Here we have two people who just wanted to be left alone to farm their land. They were swept up in the terrible wartime.

I also loved reading about the Native Americans and how they interacted with both the American Revolutionaries and the British soldiers.

I highly recommend this book for any student of history or anyone just looking for a wonderful story. Does true love prevail? You'll just have to read the book to find out.… (meer)