A review by wendiwoo1
The Union Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini

2.0

One of the reasons I love Chiaverini's books so much is that she infuses history into a stellar plot line. Her characters are the pulse of the story. Having said that, I think "The Union Quilt" lost that element of her writing. Since Chiaverini does not write chronologically, it's been quite some time since we have seen these particular characters in her books. She spent very little time reminding us of who these characters were that I had a hard time following in the beginning. Plus, I don't think many of the characters were that well developed in previous books, and it seemed she assumed we knew who they were. She did not seem to continue with the characters' development as the story played out. Much of the book reads like a textbook of the Civil War, which I, personally do not care for, though I do give her credit for her research and attention to detail. The ending of the book does bring more out of the characters than the beginning, so maybe a follow up to this book depicting the aftermath of the war and how these characters fared in the wake of loss and destruction would help get Chiaverini back on track. Also, I am not a quilter, but I missed the lack of quilting details in this book.