A review by katieparker
All Other Nights by Dara Horn

4.0

All Other Nights is about a 19-year-old Jew named Jacob Rappaport, who is a Union soldier during the Civil War. One day, he is summoned before three of his officers who have an assignment for him: travel across the lines to New Orleans to kill his uncle, who is planning the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Thinking he has no choice but to accept, he makes the journey and completes the mission, much to his surprise. When he returns, he expects to be lauded for his efforts, but is instead met with a new mission: befriend a family known to his father, and marry one of the daughters, who is suspected of being a Confederate spy. What he doesn’t anticipate is to genuinely fall in love with her.

I won’t say much to ruin any more of the plot than I already have, but I will say that I became so engrossed in it that I stayed up well past midnight the last three nights reading it. It reminded me a lot of the many young adult historical fiction novels I read as a kid, primarily the books by Ann Rinaldi. I actually probably hadn’t actually read a Civil War-based novel since then! I enjoyed the book a lot and will almost definitely seek out the author’s other works, though what I really want is a sequel to this one.