The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy

ISBN: 97803853448904

Hardback - 320 pages

Synopsis:

When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.

Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance. 

Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

Review:

I am a fan of historical fiction books from this time period so I jumped at the chance to get to read this book. This is the first book I have read by this author but it will not be the last. I enjoyed reading this book and getting a look into the history of John Brown and his family's involvement with the Underground Railroad. The author really made Sarah come to life in this book. I thought it was very interesting how Sarah put the maps in the quilts so it was easier for the escaping slaves to understand. I also liked Eden and enjoyed following along with her as she was finding out the history of her house. It seems that Sarah and Eden have more in common than you think. It is almost as if you are reading two books at once but they go well together so the story just flows nicely. If you are a fan of historical fiction I think you will like this book.