From Publishers Weekly
In this first book in the Shenandoah Sisters series, Phillips, a prolific author and longtime CBA bookseller, offers a light historical novel with the flavor of young adult fiction. Mary Ann "Mayme" Jukes is a young African-American slave girl living in Shenandoah County, in North Carolina, in the 1860s. When marauding outlaw Confederate soldiers kill her family, she escapes to Rosewood, another plantation owned by the white family of Kathleen "Katie" Clairborne. Here, Mayme finds more devastation; 15-year-old Katie is the only person left alive. The girls become friends and together vow to run the plantation and keep the adults' deaths a secret until Katie comes of legal age to own the debt-ridden property. The book is mostly a collection of short, sketchy scenes, presumably setting up events for the next book in the series. Phillips's prose is simple and workmanlike, adeptly moving the events along. The reader is left with a few questions (the plantation is devastated, yet the girls have plenty of livestock and groceries), and the spiritual thread is fairly basic (God tells Mayme directly what to do, and they speak to each other in italics). The epilogue leaves the reader hanging until the promised second installment. Young evangelical Christian women looking for escapist historical fiction will find this passable, if not particularly memorable, entertainment. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Book 1 of SHENANDOAH SISTERS. Two young Southern girls, one the daughter of a plantation owner and one the daughter of a slave, barely survive the onset of the Civil War and the loss of both their families. When these tragic circumstances bring them together, they join forces to discover if they can make a life for themselves. As their preconceptions give way to experience, they gradually learn to value their contrasting and complementing strengths and skills as they face the formidable task of keeping body and soul together in the aftermath of this devastating war. But is it possible the Lord they have come to know has something bigger in mind for the plantation than either of them can imagine?

About the Author
Michael Phillips has written three dozen books, most of them novels, with sales totaling over four million copies. He and his wife have been CBA retailers for over thirty years and make their home in Eureka, California.

Excerpted from Angels Watching over Me (Shenandoah Sisters, 1) by Michael Phillips. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A Visit to Town The sun dawned just as it had many times before during Kathleen Clairborne’s young life. She rolled over in bed to see its light slanting through her window. She gave a sleepy sigh of pleasure. It was Monday and no more rain was in sight. They would be able to go into town. Her mother had promised her a new dress for her birthday, but Katie had been afraid more rain might cancel the outing. Greens Crossing was six miles away. It was not a trip her mother made often, especially if the road was muddy. There was not anything unusual about this particular day. The sun had beamed into Katie’s window on countless mornings just like it. Yet this would not be like any of those other days. Katie would look back on this as the day when, for her, everything began to change. Greens Crossing was not a large town. A handful of stores, a livery stable, a school, a church, a bank, a general store and post office, and one saloon clustered together at the intersection of two roads. We lived a little closer to town than she did, but I’d never set foot in it in my life. Though the Clairbornes’ Rosewood was not the largest plantation of the region, they were known by most of the citizens of Greens Crossing. Richard Clairborne, Katie’s father, was a hard worker, fair to his slaves, faithful to his family, but a man who kept mostly to himself. He didn’t have close friends in town. His three sons were like him in that way. Neither they nor Katie attended the Greens Crossing school. The Clairbornes weren’t seen at church except for occasional special circumstances. Six miles is a fair piece by horse and buggy. Once or twice a year, Mrs. Clairborne rode the even more daunting nineteen miles into Charlotte. That’s where she bought her own clothes and Katie’s and did most of the family’s shopping. But Katie had grown two inches over the winter, and the dressmaker in Greens Crossing was as skilled as any in the city. Since it would not be until later in the summer that she and her husband would be taking a wagon into Charlotte again, the buggy would carry them into Greens Crossing today. Katie and her mother left the dressmaker’s an hour after arriving in town and stepped from the wooden sidewalk to cross the dirt street. "Hello, Rosalind," a woman’s voice called out behind them. Mrs. Clairborne paused and turned toward the general store owner’s wife, who had spoken to her. Katie continued into the street, still thinking of the soft, pretty fabric they had picked out and the bright yellow hat they had ordered to go with the new dress. She didn’t notice her mother stopping to chat with Mrs. Hammond. Neither did she see two riders suddenly gallop recklessly around the saloon at the corner. A tumult of shouts and whinnies suddenly filled the air. "Get outta the way, you—!" Mrs. Clairborne swiftly turned toward the ruckus. "Katie ... watch out!" she cried as she ran frantically toward the street. Suddenly a man’s heavy step ran past Mrs. Clairborne. The next instant Katie was thrown to the ground. A second later the riders thundered by. The tall, lanky Negro picked himself up off the ground beside the frightened girl. He stooped down, took her hand, and pulled Katie to her feet. "Yo needs be a mite mo careful crossin’ da street, Miss Kat’leen," he said, brushing the dirt from his trousers and shirt. "Dem two soldiers mighta run right ober da top er you." Mrs. Clairborne rushed toward them. "Oh, Henry, I can’t thank you enough!" she exclaimed to the black man who worked in the livery stable. "Katie, are you all right?" she said, taking Katie’s hand. Still too stunned to speak, Katie nodded. "Dern blamed soldiers," muttered Henry, who had bought his own freedom some years before, "dey been raisin’ a ruckus roun’ ’bout fo days now. Ah doan know what’s goin’ on. De’re all ridin’ down t’ Charleston. Somethin’s up fo sho—I been hearin’ talk ’bout an army gatherin’. Yor husband joinin’, ma’am?" "I don’t know, Henry," sighed Mrs. Clairborne. "I really don’t know." As they talked, Katie gazed up into the face of the tall man. The shine in his eyes and the gleam of his perfect teeth drew her gaze into his earnest countenance. An uncommon sensation of gratitude welled up within the heart of the young white girl for the Negro man who had run in front of racing horses’ hooves to keep her from being trampled. Mrs. Clairborne’s voice intruded abruptly into Katie’s reflections. "Kathleen, sometimes I wonder if there’s a brain in that head of yours," she said, pulling on Katie’s hand as they walked away. "What gets into you to wander into the street like that?" "Ah wouldn’t be too hard on da chil’, ma’am," said Henry from behind them. "I’m grateful for what you’ve done, Henry," rejoined Mrs. Clairborne, turning back toward the stable hand, "but now you must really mind your own business. The child is careless and scatterbrained. She needs to watch where she is going." "Yes’m," said the black man. He tipped his hat to mother and daughter, then ambled back in the direction of the livery.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Book 1 of SHENANDOAH SISTERS. Two young Southern girls, one the daughter of a plantation owner and one the daughter of a slave, barely survive the onset of the Civil War and the loss of both their families. When these tragic circumstances bring them together, they join forces to discover if they can make a life for themselves. As their preconceptions give way to experience, they gradually learn to value their contrasting and complementing strengths and skills as they face the formidable task of keeping body and soul together in the aftermath of this devastating war. But is it possible the Lord they have come to know has something bigger in mind for the plantation than either of them can imagine?

About the Author:Michael Phillips has written three dozen books, most of them novels, with sales totaling over four million copies. He and his wife have been CBA retailers for over thirty years and make their home in Eureka, California.

SYNOPSIS

Book 1 of SHENANDOAH SISTERS from bestselling author Michael Phillips. Two girls, brought together amid the turmoil of the Civil War, are forced to break down preconceptions and prejudices to survive hard times ahead.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly