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Book Summary

Reviewed byMonica Wyatt
The Chelmsford family saga turns into a thriller as Abigail's granddaughter fights her way back to New England, escaping evildoers, exploding steamboats, and spies. She becomes trapped in the drudgery of her own family's textile mill. Still good history although the plot's a potboiler. Fans of the first two books will want to read it.

Is It Any Good?

3

This last book in the Chelmsford sisters trilogy, following Stitch in Time and Broken Days, reunites the family and their pieces of quilt that the first two books divided. Ann Rinaldi she mars her writing with frequent sentence fragments. She strains to concoct a plot that will bring the quilt and the family back together, and relies on remarkable coincidences to keep the story moving.

Wild coincidences abound. Grandmother Abigail forces the 14-year-old Amanda to remain silent for two weeks, teaching her an unusual skill that comes in handy later when Amanda can't betray her southern accent while hiding in the Lowell textile mills. When the evil Nicholas chases Amanda through the dark streets of Lowell he's certain to kill her. Fortunately, Nancy, Thankful's half-Indian daughter, formerly called Walking Breeze, just happens to be out and about, armed with scissors.

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