A review by librarianinperiwinkle
A Distant Magic by Mary Jo Putney

4.0

Mary Jo Putney is one of my favorite romance novelists, and this is the 3rd book in her Guardians series, which puts a magical spin on historical events, although the 2nd book is more magical romance than history. Still, I picked this book up expecting a romance novel and was surprised to discover it's really more about the history of the abolitionist movement in Britain. The romance is a distant second to the main plot about traveling through time to safeguard key abolitionists & their growing support amongst regular Brits. I had not actually realized that Britain convinced escaped slaves to fight with them in our Revolutionary War by promising them freedom, and then when the British lost, they kept their promise as best they could by evacuating as many former slaves as possible from the newly minted U.S. It was a really interesting read. Putney wove her story of European & African magics around actual historical events and people. So I'm kinda sorta categorizing this book as alternative history.