Of Blood and Brothers, Book One

E. Michael
Helms
Genre: 
Historical

In 1863 Daniel Malburn, while  still a teenager,  decides to join the confederate army along with his buddies. Nothing has prepared them for the atrocities they have to endure. Daniel’s memories of his sweet love, Annie, keeps him going. But when he sees his good buddy Hamp blown apart right before his eyes he is devastated and can’t wipe the horror from his mind. 

Elijah Malburn, is only sixteen and feels guilty for not joining the war with his brother. He loves Annie too and can’t forget her.  In order to help his widowed mother, Elijah  takes the family slave, Jeff, to work in the salt fields. When he and Jeff are captured, however,  he is given the chance to either join the Union Army as a scout or be imprisoned. Jeff had been inducted into the Union Army already, so Eli decides to join up with the North.

 

E. Michael Helms describes the horrors of the worst war the United States has ever been involved in with honesty and brutality. The story of two brothers on opposite sides of the war and in love with the same girl is complex and yet simple in the ways of human nature. The reader will be swept away by the story of these two small town young men who have to grow up fast and think quickly to save themselves from the ravages of war.  Sadly turning the last page, one is both moved yet anxious for more of the Malburn brother’s story!

 

Rose Mary Espinoza