Lois Hoadley Dick

As a home-schooled kid of the 90s, I read many books from BJU Press's Light Line and Pennant imprints, and I remember this one being a favorite. It's fast-paced and vivid in its depiction of 1600s England--the conflicts of the Church of England, the Black Plague, the Fire of London, and protagonist Cissy Nidd's meeting John Bunyan when he's jailed as a Dissenter. I loved reading the letters between Cissy and Gil Turpin, the highwayman trying to make good. I loved the question of whether Cissy and Gil will be false or true coin when their love and faith is tested.

I still own this book, though I haven't read it in decades. Given its shortness (less than 200 pages!), I don't see how the author could have fully developed all the setting and events and characters I remember, but when I first read it, I loved its uniqueness among the contemporary and American historical novels available then.… (more)