Meghan Gorecki and I have floated in similar circles for years until we finally met in 2015. We immediately bonded over our love of books and writing dreams. I love the chance to be able to support Meghan Gorecki as she releases Amongst the Roses on April 12!

If you love the civil war, then you need to check out Amongst the Roses.

About Meghan M. Gorecki:

Meghan M. Gorecki is an author of inspirational fiction about what God can make beautiful from the ashes of history, and hearts. A lover and avid studier of people, times gone by, and fiction, she has been writing since childhood and now houses her books under Northern Belle Publishing. Coffee and red lipstick color her days as a redhead from a box, alongside her treasured tribe of family and friends in her beloved hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Author Links:

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website

About Amongst the Roses:

The War Between the States shakes Margaret Bryant out of her comfortable upper-class life when her father enlists in the Army of the Potomac. Despite being safely ensconced above the Mason-Dixon Line in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Margaret finds her strength tested by opposition from familiar faces and Confederate threats. Will she let a young man from a lesser station into her heart even as war rages ever nearer to the homefront?

Restless Connor Doyle sees the war as a way to escape from his family’s farm and his identity as a poor Irishman’s son. His brother, Adam, torn between duty to country and his family, enlists alongside Connor. Adam dares to hope in a future with Margaret when he begins a courtship correspondence from the war front. The two brothers make a vow to protect one another at all costs, but when faced with death and destruction from all sides—will they be able to uphold it?

The three bloodiest days in America’s history brings these three together at Gettysburg and tragedy’s cruelty threatens to tear two hearts apart—and bring two unlikely allies together.

Book Links:

Amazon | Goodreads

Trek Through Chambersburg & Amongst the Roses with Author Meghan M. Gorecki

So because I’m a very calculating author (and only mildly OCD with historical accuracy), I chose Chambersburg to be the setting where Margaret, Connor, Adam, and their families would live. It was super close to Gettysburg, saw plenty of its own action during the war—but wasn’t as intimidating a locale to set a historical tale in as my beloved Gettysburg. Someday, someday I will.

When I chose this city, I knew I’d need to get my hands on any and all information I could on its past. Stacks of books, Google Maps/Satellite images didn’t quite do it as much justice as seeing it in person on a surprise trip east with my mom, sister, and best friend in the spring of 2012. Fitting, since Margaret’s own family are the most important people in her life, that mine would bless my socks off on a trip to Gettysburg with a stop in Chambersburg.

Back in the 1800’s, Chambersburg was rather in it’s hey-day. Booming railroad and lumber industries made Franklin County’s seat a teeming city with somewhat of a melting pot of people. There were the wealthiest who lived in an area formerly called New England Hill. The merchants and bankers and politicians and oldest families of the city lived in the mansions up on a slight hill. The German and Irish immigrant families that made up the poorer population of the city mainly farmed or worked in the rail yards that bordered the city.

On our trip, after perusing the incredible historical center they have in what used to be the Chambersburg bank across the street from the courthouse, I confusedly tripped along my way outside dying to find an antebellum era (or older) home I could model the Bryants after.

Lo and behold (major humble pie moment/shout out to my younger sister Sara, aka my Annelise), she pointed to a blue sign with yellow letters that told us about the Burning of Chambersburg. Which I had known about but hadn’t done as much in-depth research that would have shown me the entire city, including the vast majority of homes, were burnt to the ground in 1864. So every building I saw was decidedly not from any time earlier than 1864.

The neighborhoods and especially the downtown area were set up very similarly to how they were prior to the burning in 1864, thankfully. Most notably, the Town Diamond.

Not a square—a diamond. Even prior to the fire, this was the epicenter of the city. A large four way intersection, people would gather and mingle and catch up and gossip and do business.

The white pillared courthouse was rebuilt to look almost exactly the same as before the fire, and it stands sentry at one corner of the Diamond. This area of downtown Chambersburg would be where the recruitment tents would’ve been set up, where Connor and Adam and everyone else would’ve stood in line to enlist.

Even better? That same ground of the Town Diamond? Generals Lee and JEB Stuart stood on and walked on. Be still my nerd girl heart.

Chambersburg is but a small part of how good God was in bringing this story together. I got to go there—I know that’s a gift in and of itself. To go to the place where you’re setting a story. To stand in it, using your own eyes to see what your characters might be seeing. Just the fact that it and its people during the Civil War saw so much loss and injustice with the invasions? It’s a testimony to how God makes beautiful things out of ashes—which is exactly what He does for Margaret, Connor, and Adam in Amongst the Roses. And especially it’s sequel. 🙂 I’ll leave you with that mysterious teaser.