The time period for The Copper Road: Beyond the Promise is the Civil War. The principle characters are Shire who's fighting for the North, Tod who's defending the South and the recently widowed Clara who's caught in a triangle between the two. There are many complications in the story with a few evil antagonists thrown into the mix. The pace picks up midway, leading up to Shire and Tod standing face to face in a fierce battle when the story shifts with an unexpected turn of events. Later the men realize they had met before but don't yet understand the full impact for them personally. Circumstances of trying to extract a hidden mass stockpile of copper ore for the Confederate war effort and rescuing Clara from grave danger brings even more intrigue in a net of coincidences and dilemmas for them all. (Occasional descriptions would not be suitable for young readers.) ( )

Historical fiction is my favorite genre, but The Copper Road was not for me. If you are interested in military strategy and long descriptions of geography then you will probably enjoy this novel more than I did. I ended up skimming the battle descriptions, especially since I had read the prior book just before this one. I also skipped the parts from Opdycke’s point of view once Shire left his regiment because they seemed irrelevant and did not hold my attention. That did not seem to impact my understanding of the rest of the story.

I was hoping the sequel would convince me of the relationship between Shire and Clara, but I still found it forced and unbelievable. No recollections from Clara led me to think she really loved him let alone considered his friendship that valuable. At least there was one flashback in this book besides the Christmas Eve caroling that conveyed their friendship back in Ridgemont. The ending was disappointing. I only continued with the story to see whether Shire and Clara would stay in America, and if so, what they would do. I thought too much was left to the reader’s imagination. Since the Civil War did not come to its conclusion in this sequel, I’m wondering if another Shire’s Union book is in the works. However, I will not be reading a third if there is one.

For the positives, I did like the introduction of Tod. I found the chapters from his point of view the most interesting. Second, the book explored how people’s opinions on the war were not black and white in addition to the varied reasons why people took up the fight. As well, soldiers were not portrayed as inherently good or evil depending on which side they were on. The Shire’s Union series does portray the complexities of the American Civil War. ( )