Mr. Speed is the man that Lincoln ended up boarding with - literally sleeping in the same bed with - when he arrived in Springfield. Speed was a shop owner, and they lived above the shop. They became very close, and Speed had a great deal to do with turning Lincoln into a proper gentleman that would be accepted by society, given his backwoods upbringing.
Mary Todd comes to Springfield to find a husband. Really. She was one of many siblings, and her older sister, who lived with her husband in Springfield, was sending for her sisters one at a time to find them suitable matches in Springfield. Mary proved a difficult case. She was introduced to Speed and Lincoln but never dreamed of a relationship. Well, if one was possible, it was certainly to be with Speed, and not the awkward Lincoln.
The story is told in alternating points-of-view between Mary and Speed. Living in Illinois, I found the history of Springfield to be particularly interesting. The romance between Lincoln and Mary was very tumultuous. At first, it was secret since Mary knew her sister would not approve, and then after they became engaged and everyone knew, they broke it off. Which meant that Mary was "used goods" and destined to be a spinster. All very dramatic.
The story flows easily, even though sometimes we get the same events told by the two different narrators, it worked well and I never lost interest. The relationship between Speed and Lincoln was particularly interesting. Speed had a hard time accepting that Lincoln was getting married -- they had both made a pact that they never would.
The narrative ends shortly after Lincoln becomes President, and really it skips from their marriage to the beginning of the presidency, which was almost twenty years. So this is the story of the "Courting" and not much else. We do get a glimpse of the end of Mary's life, back in her sister's home in Springfield, as well as a sentence or two about what happened to each of the other main characters.
All in all, a very interesting story and I really enjoyed it. However, I am profoundly disappointed that there isn't an author's note at the end explaining the variances from the truth. This seems to be required in a fictional account of a true story. Hopefully, this will be included in the final copy, because it almost made me not want to recommend Courting Mr. Lincoln. You will need to do some research, if you are like me, and need to know! Especially about the event that brought Lincoln and Mary back together after their engagement was over. Is that really what happened?
Courting Mr. Lincoln is marketed as an adult book, but I think teens who are interested in an entertaining historical romance will enjoy this one too.
Published by Algonquin, April 23, 2019
eARC obtained from NetGalley
352 pages
Rating: 4/5
I see you are happily making the shift to adult books, as am I. In fact I've read very few YA books this year so far. Though I still want to be in the know about potential award winners.
ReplyDeleteMy first question was going to be how historically accurate you felt it was and you answered that with your comment about no author's note at the end. I do think that's crucial these days as we all want to know if we're reading true fiction or if a bunch is based on historical research.
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