This was a book that explored four main facets of American's War for Independence: 1) Washington Crossing the Delaware 2) Thomas Paine's contributions 3) Brutal conditions suffered by American Troops 4) Hessian involvement. If you are wanting blow by blow battle scenes, this book is not for you. There are few battles. The book focuses more on the conditions under which America's troops labored; and they were brutal, more so than I had realized. I was leery of reading this book because I had to read some of the author's position papers for a class I took, and I was not a fan! That being said, this book is top notch, IMHO. 345 pages ( )

This book describes Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton, along with the writings of Thomas Paine and the common Revolutionary War soldier. The basic facts involving Washington's crossing of the Delaware are fairly well known, and this book attempts to fill in some of the blanks of the story by giving the reader an idea of what may have transpired on a personal level of some of the leaders and soldiers. The dialogue crafted was a little melodrammatic, so I thought the book might have been written as Young Adult historical fiction. Apparently, it was not, but I think it would be a good read for that age group. It describes the hardships of the campaign, but doesn't go into the terror or gore that some modern books contain. While the historical aspects of the story were good, the dialogue created was a little too much of a Disney or Brady Bunch story for me.
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I would have rated this book a bit higher than 3.5 had there been fewer spelling and punctuation errors. I also felt like the battle scene could have used some maps to help better understand troop placements and routes both the Americans and Hessians took while fighting in Trenton.

Having said that, the authors do a really good job hammering home the grit of those malnourished, ill clothed, exhausted men who, on Christmas day, 1776, embarked upon a near impossible march to attack the Hessians at Trenton. The authors do a good job, too, of setting the stage in the introduction. If nothing else, that should stir the hearts of all Americans as to what these men did that day and why.

I've not read many historical novels so take these observations with a grain of salt. Unlike most novels, we really aren't presented one or more characters who change in some way over time. We get to meet all the main players (Washington, Knox, Green, Hamilton, etc.) along with Thomas Paine, whose words are the source of the book's title. We also travel with Jonathan Van Dorn, who I suppose is a fictional character, so we can truly get in the mind of the young soldiers who are fighting for a cause. Van Dorn's source of drive is Paine's latest work, "American Crisis."

I would certainly not discourage someone from reading this book. Just overlook some of the editing errors and do your best to visualize the main battle. As to the heart of the book, it is very good. ( )

DNF

Read the first chapter or so, and there was already more language than I am comfortable with, and being in George Washington's pov was really throwing me. ;) I *might* come back and give this a try someday, but I am just not feeling it right now.

I did not high expectations for this book when I began it, but it turned out much better than I expected. The story of the crossing of the Delaware was told through three viewpoints: George Washington, an army private, and Thomas Paine (author of Common Sense). The shifting viewpoints were interesting, but I really liked getting Paine's point of view. He's not a character who has been explored in depth in my prior readings. I like how the value of his writings were shown through other characters as important to the American Revolution. I also liked how Gingrich and Forstchen developed his character as a whole. A very pleasant surprise read. ( )