First published 2015
In 1844 Missouri, Julia Dent meets Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant and begins a courtship that will span four years before marriage. Julia owns an enslaved woman also named Julia, called Jule, who guards two secrets about her mistress: Julia has terrible eyesight but possesses an uncanny ability to see the future. Jule becomes Julia's window to the world as Ulysses rises through military ranks to become general in chief of the Union Army. The Civil War tests the Grants' vow never to separate. Julia travels with Jule and her four children through dangerous territory to stay near her husband's side. Yet the two women experience vastly different wars. Julia advocates for all women while continuing to hold Jule in bondage behind Union lines. When the Emancipation Proclamation frees her, Jule claims her independence and builds a successful business, earning the title Madame. Their complicated bond endures through the Grant presidency in Washington and beyond to New York, where their intertwined stories of sight and shadow finally reach resolution.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, historical-romance, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Missouri, Washington D.C., New York
Period: 1844, Civil War Era
386 pages · Hardcover · Dutton
Content warnings: racism, slavery