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    A Blue and Gray Christmas
    A Blue and Gray Christmas
    A Blue and Gray Christmas
    Audiobook6 hours

    A Blue and Gray Christmas

    Written by Joan Medlicott

    Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    When a rusty old tin box is unearthed at the Covington Homestead, longtime housemates Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover that it contains letters and diaries written by two Civil War soldiers, one Union and one Confederate.

    The friends are captivated by the drama revealed. The soldiers were found dying on a nearby battlefield by an old woman. She nursed them back to health, hiding them from bounty hunters seeking deserters. At the end of the war, the men chose to stay in Covington, caring for their rescuer as she grew frail. But while their lives were rich, they still felt homesick and guilty for never contacting the families they'd left behind.

    Christmas is coming, and the letters inspire Amelia with a generous impulse. What if she and her friends were to find the two soldiers' descendants and invite them to Covington to meet? What better holiday gift could there be than the truth about these two heroic men and their dramatic shared fate? With little time left, the ladies spring into action to track down the men's families in Connecticut and the Carolinas and to make preparations in Covington for their most memorable, most historic Christmas yet.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 30, 2009
    ISBN9781400185221
    Author

    Joan Medlicott

    Joan Medlicott was born and raised on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She lives with her husband in the mountains of North Carolina. She is the author of the Ladies of Covington series as well as several standalone novels. Visit her website at JoanMedlicott.com.

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    Reviews for A Blue and Gray Christmas

    3.5/5

    12 ratings11 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Mediocre Christmas story....much like reading something from a Guidepost book series- just not the quality. Multiple storylines were not cohesive , overall? Disconnected fluff.
    • 3/5
      This book is actually part of a series, I didn't actually know that until I looked it up afterward, but there were only a few times I felt out of the loop while reading. The story was unique, I hadn't yet read anything quite like it before, I liked how this story was narrated in the present and lived in the past. The dialogue between the characters in the present seemed to fake and cliche to me and I disliked that part more than anything else. I enjoyed the friendship the two "former-enemies" shared most of all though. This book was just OK to me, a nice Christmas, read-once, kind of book.
    • 4/5
      First of all, let me say I hesitated reading this book because I'm not big on stories having to do with war. Also, I saw it was from the Covington series and I don't like reading books out of order. I decided to go ahead and read this one because of the synopsis. The idea of three woman doing so much research on these two men that lived so long ago drew me in and I wanted to find out what they found. I thought this was easily a standalone, the fact that I hadn't read the others before it hadn't mattered at all, and I assume that applies to the other books in this series. With that said, I really loved this book. It was very interesting and held my attention from begining to end. I enjoyed every aspect of the story and loved the relationship between the three women. I highly recommend this book, it left me wanting to read the rest in the Covington series.
    • 4/5
      Title: A Blue and Gray Christmas
      Author: Joan Medlicott


      Rating: 4/5
      No. of Pages: 336
      Published: November 10, 2009
      From the inside flap:
      In this stunning holiday story, a cache of Civil War-era letters and diaries sweeps the ladies of Covington up into a dramatic and heartwarming historical saga that inspires them to plan an unforgettable Christmas for two families forever changed by war.

      When a rusty old tin box is unearthed at the Covington Homestead, longtime housemates Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover that it contains letters and diaries written by two Civil War soldiers, one Union and one Confederate.

      The friends are captivated by the drama revealed. The soldiers were found dying on a nearby battlefi eld by an old woman. She nursed them back to health, hiding them from bounty hunters seeking deserters. At the end of the war the men chose to stay in Covington, caring for their rescuer as she grew frail. But while their lives were rich, they still felt homesick and guilty for never contacting the families they'd left behind.

      Christmas is coming, and the letters inspire Amelia with a generous impulse. What if she and her friends were to find the two soldiers' descendants and invite them to Covington to meet? What better holiday gift could there be than the truth about these two heroic men and their dramatic shared fate? With little time left, the ladies spring into action to track down the men's families in Connecticut and the Carolinas, and to make preparations in Covington for their most memorable, most historic Christmas yet.

      Mine:
      A Blue and Gray Christmas by Joan Medlicott is part of the Covington Series and was the first one I read, I would have to say that it would be well worth it to read more of the series. The characters of Amelia, Grace and Hannah wonderful and developed. A box of letters from the civil war was found on the property, the women read the letters and are touched by the letters.
      The authors of the letters are one soldier from the south and one from the north. The two were both injured and were helped by Miss Ella Mae who brought them up as her own. The “Girls” decide it would be a great gift to find the family of the soldiers and invite them for a wonderful Christmas celebration.
      This is a delightful tale for Christmas as the geneorsity of spirit is shared by all.
    • 2/5
      Three friends, Grace, Amelia, and Hannah, come across a box once buried full of the letters and diaries of two Civil War soliders: Tom from the South and John from the North. Both soldiers were injured during the war and ended up abandoning together, hiding deep in the Appalachian mountains that they made their home. Tom felt he had nothing to go back to and John chose to leave his wife and daughter to begin a new life. The letters the three women read and share with others express friendships, fears, loves, and the dramatic after effects of war. John is left with severe post traumatic stress, so he has to completely rebuild himself after the horrors of war he experienced. When Tom and John decided to stay in the mountains, they took on a new last name to begin their lives anew. When Grace, Amelia, and Hannah find the letters and learn about the break up of families, they decide together that it would be the perfect Christmas treat to reunite the families and share with them the letters and diaries of their long lost ancestors, believed to have been killed in the war. It is not an easy thing for the women to do, and they search through records and graveyards to find and connect people together. A lucky break happens when they meet a relative of John’s, Milo, who came from the line descended from John’s second marriage. The threads start coming together for the women, and it seems all too soon that they are going to get the Christmas they want. The best part of the book is the Civil War letters. Reading about the experiences and lives of Tom and John was very emotional for me. I chose to participate in the book’s blog tour because I am a student of history and absolutely love a good historical fiction novel. The Civil War is in itself a very emotional war, so being able to read about it in such a personal way was very tender, sometimes sweet, sometimes painful. I felt especially bad for John who had such a hard time forgetting everything he’d seen and done. The intimacy of the letters really made me feel like I had connected with the two men on some level. Unfortunately, I felt that I connected very little with the story apart from the letters. While I enjoyed very much the progression of Tom and John’s lives, I found some other aspects of the novel quite not to my liking. The story line moves along in a way that is not only too quick, but entirely unbelievable. Everything just seems to fall into place and the initial roadblocks are obligatory. Something about the dialogue put me off, too. But what I disliked the most was that the book is full of unnecessary detail and lacks where there should be detail. We are given a paragraph about baking and the ingredients that go in and in what order, but the actual plot itself is rushed along. I would have liked a little less unnecessary dialogue and action and a little more that had actual substance or contributed to the plot. Nevertheless, it is a very sweet book. One of those quick rainy or snowy day reads that will leave you feeling warm inside at the end of it all.
    • 4/5
      rom the inside flap:When a rusty old tin box is unearthed at the Covington Homestead, longtime housemates Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover that it contains letters and diaries written by two Civil War soldiers, one Union and one Confederate.The friends are captivated by the drama revealed. The soldiers were found dying on a nearby battlefield by an old woman. She nursed them back to health, hiding them from bounty hunters seeking deserters. At the end of the war the men chose to stay in Covington, caring for their rescuer as she grew frail. But while their lives were rich, they still felt homesick and guilty for never contacting the families they'd left behind.Christmas is coming, and the letters inspire Amelia with a generous impulse. What if she and her friends were to fi nd the two soldiers' descendants and invite them to Covington to meet? What better holiday gift could there be than the truth about these two heroic men and their dramatic shared fate? With little time left, the ladies spring into action to track down the men's families in Connecticut and the Carolinas, and to make preparations in Covington for their most memorable, most historic Christmas yet.my review: Adorable is the best word to describe this book. Also, charming and sweet. Though this is the first book I've read in the extensive Covington series, I had no problems getting into the story. I liked the women in this novel and the way the author wrote about the civil war through the perspective of two men on opposite sides, coming together as best friends. The two men never return to their families and the women of Covington set out to track down their descendants to share this treasure and the story of these men.It was a nice little Christmas story. The book itself is even adorable, about three-quarters the size of a normal hardcover, it fit perfectly in my small bag!my rating 4/5
    • 4/5
      This is the first book that I have read of hers. I did not know this is a series but I plan on starting from the beginning. I actually liked it. It is a nice christmas story with elements of the past and present due to the letters and diaries that were found .
    • 3/5
      Although a Blue & Gray Christmas is part of a series - I felt it was a wonderful stand-alone book... and one that is perfect for the holiday season.It is a heartwarming story about three friends - Grace, Amelia and Hannah who discover a tin full of Civil War-era letters written between two soldiers - one from the North and one from the South. They were both injured during the war and were found lying wounded in a field by Miss Ella Mae. Ella Mae took both of them in and brought them up as her own sons - but upon reading the letters the friends are appalled that these two men never returned nor advised their families that they had survived the war. So the girls take it upon themselves to contact the living descendants of both soldiers and invite them for a Christmas gathering at their farmstead.I really enjoyed Ms. Medlicott’s writing and her wonderful, lively characters. I especially loved reading the letters of the two soldiers that were so honest and heartfelt. This was a touching story about families coming together and celebrating not just the lives of these two soldiers but also celebrating the season.
    • 3/5
      When a rusty old tin box is unearthed at the Covington Homestead, longtime housemates Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover that it contains letters and diaries written by two Civil War soldiers, one Union and one Confederate. The soldiers were found dying on a nearby battlefield by an old woman. She mused them back to health, hiding them from bounty hunters seeking deserters. At the end of the war, the men chose to stay in Covington, caring for their rescuer as she grew frail. But while their lives were rich, they still felt homesick and guilty for never contacting the families they'd left behind.
    • 1/5
      Considering that I am not a huge fan of romance or romance-like novel, I expected a fair amount of saccharine and cheesiness in this book. However, the idea of a chance discovery of Civil War documents and an unlikely reunion of distant family members seemed like an interesting concept so I gave this book a try. I tried to be open-minded, but this book was just so bad. The writing style is nothing spectacular, the characterizations are weak, the dialogue is far from conversational (seriously, what 26-year-old man uses “shall” without a hint of jest?), and there’s an abundance of grammatical and spelling errors (if you’re going to write a novel in which diaries play a prominent role, please learn the difference between “diary” and “dairy.” Just because spell check says dairy is okay doesn’t mean it is correct in context). The book isn’t billed as Christian fiction but Christianity plays a big role, which would be fine if there wasn’t also the latent fear of any religion other than Christianity (the only “Hindu” character needs to be baptized before the book ends, even though she is already an active member in the church. Even with this conversion, one character insists that this woman is a terrorist. Our heroines come to the rescue by explaining she’s Hindu, not Muslim. This ‘Hindus aren’t Muslims!’ refrain is echoed several times, and it is only the last one which is given the addendum, ‘Oh yeah, and not all Muslims are terrorists.’). In addition, I had two major issues with the plot. The first is that the ladies find a box of letters and diaries in which the letters are not addressed to anyone and were never sent. This is later rationalized as a cathartic experiment – but for starters, the men wouldn’t know to do this and secondly, then why not write solely in the diaries? Presumably these would also serve the same purpose. Secondly, when the women first begin opening the letters, there is a brief mention about how delicate these documents are. However, this doesn’t stop the women from bringing the letters and diaries all over the place, half the time shoved in a purse! I cringed every time I read about one of the women pulling such a delicate piece of history out of their purse like it’s a grocery list of no particular consequence. I definitely cannot recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      I’ve loved each of the books about Hannah, Grace and Amelia - and this was no exception. Warm, friendly and charming - listening to it coming up to Christmas was just lovely ❤️?