Angels Watching Over Me

This story chronicles the tale of a young black slave girl and a youth white slavemaster's daughter, both orphaned in the post civil war Shenandoah Valley massacre . The black girl, Mary Ann Jukes (known as Mayme) makes her way across the valley to find young Kathleen (Katie) Clairborne alone and frightened and completely unable to take care of herself on her large Rosewood plantation. The two teens bond and begin a journey that will make them defy all the historical prejudices of the south while discovering the reality of two very different worlds. I love the way this book weaves in the tentative musings of two youngsters just beginning to explore a personal faith in the Lord.

This is book one in a four book series. Katie's family is all killed shortly after the Civil War ends and she is left alone at her plantation. A slave girl who's family is also killed ends up staying with her and the two of them try to fool everyone around them into thinking that there are still adults there.
I enjoyed this book and really wanted to see what was going to happen. I did find parts of it a little bit slow though. There was also quite a bit of heavy content with the loss of their families and some of it is described.
Overall though I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the next one.

Set during the Civil War, Angels Watching Over Me, is a story about two young women overcoming their differences and working together to survive.

Mayme is a slave girl and Katie is the daughter of a plantation owner. When they are faced with tragedy, they must rely on each other to make it through each day.

I was very excited to read this book, unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. The story line is good. However, there are a lot of inconsistencies and it jumps around more than I would like. The story is narrated by a much older Mayme. She goes back and forth between her story and Katie's. In the beginning of chapter 11 she even says "I know how it is when you’re trying to keep track of what’s going on, and the storyteller jumps show more about till you get so confused you can’t tell what happened when." I feel that the book could have started at chapter 11 and it would have worked just fine. There is also quite a bit of dialogue and thoughts being repeated.

*Spoilers*

I did not particularly enjoy the portrayal of Katie's character. We are led to believe that she is not very intelligent. On more than one occasion she is put down for not being able to think for herself. But then she magically delivers a baby for a colored girl without any thought or question. And we are given no explanation.



Again, I will say that the main idea of the book is good and I did enjoy the storyline overall. But this is not the style of book that I prefer. I will not be reading the rest of the series. show less

I really enjoyed this book. I only hope I'd be blessed enough to have a Mayme in my life if tragedy struck that hard. I think the writer did an excellent job helping us to feel the sadness, the pain, the joy and the fear of the characters. This book was written as "part of a series" so reading the other books is like continuing with more chapters. I haven't finished them all yet, but book 2 was good also!

This was quite a historical insight for me. Extremely well written by a favorite author. Clearly, throughout this story you can see God's hand guarding these two unlikely companions as they try to survive the end of the American Civil War in the Southern states that tore itself apart, losing more from within than without.

“Angels Watching Over Me” was written by Michael Phillips as the first book in the Shenandoah Sisters Series. It is a post-Civil War story written about two young girls, one white and one black, living in North Carolina. Katherine Claiborne is the daughter of a plantation owner. Her father and three brothers are away at war and her mother Rosalind and Katie, as Katherine is called, are left to tend the plantation along with the slaves that the Claiborne’s own helping to tend the fields and doing other necessary work. One brother is killed during the war and after the armistice is signed, Katie and her mother are waiting for the return of their men. Tragedy befalls the Claiborne plantation, Rosewood, and Katie is left on her own. show more

Mary Ann Juke, also called Mayme, is a slave daughter on a neighboring plantation. Her family is killed when marauders attack the plantation and slave quarters as they did on Rosewood. Mayme hides from the killers and after burying her dead, decides to start walking in case they come back for her. She finds herself on the Rosewood plantation, hungry and tired. When she enters the house she finds Katie in a state of shock at what happened to her family.

Katie is not accustomed to working on the plantation and Mayme has to guide her as to what to do next to stay alive. The two girls decide to make the plantation seem as though the slaves are still working as freemen and the house and Rosalind are still alive. They are afraid that Katie will be sent to an orphanage and that Mayme will suffer a worse fate. The story continues by telling how the two young girls fooled the whole countryside into believing that Rosewood was still being run by Rosalind Claiborne, who is still waiting for the men to return from the war.

I was thoroughly intrigued by the resourcefulness of the two girls and all they accomplished, just the two of them alone. Katie and Mayme learned to love each other as sisters and lived accordingly. I was so impressed with this novel that I read the other three books in the series as they followed: Book #2 - “A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton”, Book #3 – “The Color of Your Skin Ain't the Color of Your Heart”, and Book #4 – “Together is All We Need”. I also want to read

This book was very interesting to me because I am a fan of historical novels especially novels about the Civil War. I think you will enjoy reading this book. I look forward to reading the sequel series, Carolina Cousins, by Michael Phillips.

NetGalley.com and Bethany House Publishers provided a free kindle copy in return for my honest review of this book.

You can find this review on my blog at http://wp.me/p2pjIt-7d. show less

A nice quick read. Interesting development of characters that will last for a series.