#FridayBookShare ~ The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier @ShelleyWilson72

 #FridayBookShare is a game created by Shelley Wilson to help search for an ideal read.

Anyone can have a go – all you need to do is answer the following questions based on the book you are currently reading/finished reading this week and use the hashtag #FridayBookShare

First line of the book.

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb

Introduce the main character using only three words.

Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).

Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)

Your favourite line/scene.

The Last Runaway by Tracy  Chevalier

First Line   She could not go back.  When Honor Bright abruptly announced to her family that she would accompany her sister Grace to America- she thought: I can always come back.

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb

When modest Quaker Honor Bright sails from Bristol with her sister, she is fleeing heartache for a new life in America, far from home. But tragedy leaves her alone and vulnerable, torn between two worlds and dependent on the kindness of strangers.

Life in 1850s Ohio is precarious and unsentimental. The sun is too hot, the thunderstorms too violent, the snow too deep. The roads are spattered with mud and spit. The woods are home to skunks and porcupines and raccoons. They also shelter slaves escaping north to freedom.

Should Honor hide runaways from the ruthless men who hunt them down? The Quaker community she has joined may oppose slavery in principle, but does it have the courage to help her defy the law? As she struggles to find her place and her voice, Honor must decide what she is willing to risk for her beliefs.

Set in the tangled forests and sunlit cornfields of Ohio, Tracy Chevalier’s vivid novel is the story of bad men and spirited women, surprising marriages and unlikely friendships, and the remarkable power of defiance.

Introduce the main character – Honor is modest and brave but, an outsider.

Delightful Design

Audience appeal   This book is very difficult to pigeonhole.  If you are interested in the role of women in the history of the American settlers and would like to know more about how runaway slaves were helped to escape to Canada then you must read this book.

Your favourite line/scene

The one thing I am truly valued for here is my sewing and quilting.  Judith has handed over all of the sewing and I have happily taken it.  At several of the frolics I have been asked to quilt the centre panel, as that is the one most noticed on a bed.

I am now working on a quilt for Dorcas to replace one of those she gave me for my marriage.  Judith told Dorcas to let me decide what is best.  In that one area, then, I am my own mistress.

I expect by now Mother will have asked thee for the Star of Bethlehem quilt I gave thee before leaving for America.  I was ashamed to have to ask for it back, but I know my dearest friend will understand.  Circumstances have led me to marry much sooner than expected, and I was not ready, in terms of quilts – and other ways too.

If you want to join in, then answer the F.R.I.D.A.Y questions and use the Friday Book Share meme. Tag Shelley (@ShelleyWilson72) in, so she can read what you have added, too.