Wide Is the Water

Purchas Family #4

by Jane Aiken Hodge

This is the second book in the Purchas/Purchis saga. At the end of Judas Flowering, Hart and Mercy were reunited and preparing to marry. Wide is the Water opens with Hart leaving Mercy to find his cousins in New England while he returns to fight. Both seem to regret the way things are left, but nothing can be done about it. Soon, Mercy is left to take care of Ruth, a girl traumatized by Indians while Hart is captured by his English cousin, Dick Purchas, who takes him to England. Will Hart and Mercy ever be together?

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical, American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Suspense

Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

Jane Aiken Hodge was born in the USA, brought up in the UK and read English at Oxford. She received a master's degree from Radcliffe College, Harvard University.

Before her books became her living she worked as a civil servant, journalist, publishers' reader and a reviewer.

She has written lives of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer as well as a book about women in the Regency period, PASSION AND PRINCIPLE. But her main output has been over twenty historical novels set in the eighteenth century, including POLONAISE, THE LOST GARDEN, and SAVANNAH PURCHASE, the beloved third volume of a trilogy set during and after the American War of Independence. More recently she has written novels for Severn House Publishers.

She enjoys the borderland between mystery and novel, is pleased to be classed as a feminist writer, and is glad that there is neither a glass ceiling nor a retiring age in the writers' world. She was the daughter of Conrad Aiken and sister of Joan Aiken.

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Aiken Hodge is one of my favourite authors. This book lives up to her reputation as a masterful story teller. It has been a great many years since I read "The Judas Flowering" that I hardly remember it and didn't realise "Wide is the Water" is a sequel until I was well into it. Then it dawned on me why bits of the past appeared to be glossed over as if the reader should have prior knowledge of them. I very nearly set aside the book to see if I could find a copy of the first book to review its contents but decided I might as well keep reading seeing I was so far along in the story already. Besides, the suspense was holding me hostage and there were just so many plot twists that I had to finish the book. I had to know if the seemingly star-crossed newlyweds would ever find happiness with so many forces at work against them, not the least of which was the war that they each no longer felt so passionate about fighting in. The "wide water" separating Hart and Mercy was far more menacing and difficult to bridge than the physical one of the Atlantic Ocean. The author really evokes some strong feelings in the reader about that insidious "wide water" that attacks even good marriages. That would be a challenging discussion theme for a book club to engage in.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exciting book set during the American War of Independence. Well written, good characters, but a bit too much politics and intrigue for my personal tastes. Follows others about the Purchis/Purchas family in the UK and USA by the same author. Three and a half stars, really.

[Cary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the sequel to Judas Flowering. Still Revolutionary War backdrop and at times such a slow moving dialog.

[Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this woman's work, she died though and I am worried that her books won't be available much longer.