Review for A Beckoning Hellfire
I came across this review for my novel, A Beckoning Hellfire, that I wanted to share. A Beckoning Hellfire is the second book in the Renegade Series, and tells the story of a family from north Alabama and how the war impacts them. A Beckoning Hellfire centers around the son, David Summers, as he enlists with J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry. Thank you for the review, Scarlett Jensen!
Copyright © 2021 by J.D.R. Hawkins. A Beckoning Hellfire. Hawkins is an award-winning author who has written for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, e-zines, and blogs. This is a widely researched historical novel.
A Beckoning Hellfire follows the same family as in her previous book, A Beautiful Glittering Lie. With her novels, you’re doing more than just reading; you experience. It is recommended to fiction lovers even if historical is not your favorite. You are transported into the human side of war.
The validity of war, as well as Hiram’s death in the Battle of Fredericksburg, motivates David to convince his best friend, Jake, to go with him and enlist in the Confederate army, more to avenge his father than for idealism.
Expressing horror, suffering and cruelty of war the author recounts the human side of this war. Historical facts that mix with a look into how the war is seen from the eyes of a young soldier, tell the story of a family from north Alabama. But what a cruel thing is war. To separate and destroy families and friends and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world. To fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world…My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men. —Robert E. Lee, letter to his wife, December 25, 1862.
Things taken for granted before: Impending darkness engulfed David’s heart. Feeling the need for solitude, “I’ve heard tales as many as half a dozen from this county alone, died fighting with Hiram.”
Resentment and hostility simmered throughout the county. The Northern invaders had taken David’s father, and all he could think about was his own vendetta.
Excerpt:
“Fightin’ for the grand ole Southland. And of you. He talked about you all the time, David. How much of a man you’d become, and how you hoped it would last long enough to see his intentions through. I see it, you’re the next of your pa’s kin to pay for his mistake.”
What with the Yankees breathin’ down our necks? David plans to join the army. “What about the crops? Jake will git in with the cavalry. Ma, how will we kill any Yankees ? God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party – and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to affect His purpose. Ma’s voice softened his heart and calmed him, like an angelic phenomenon.
David wanted a chance to avenge Pa’s death. He had already committed a murder. Captured before he reached Virginia, runnin’ from, he thought to himself. He would run away for now, fight for his father’s honor, and deal with this whole awakening in the people of the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul.
We have a tale demonstrating the strife cultivating feelings of patriotism, virtue, and courage. Instances of self-sacrifice and of generous soldiers of the Confederate States of America, to give an oath of allegiance.
For David, this could be the last time he’d ever see Alabama again. He already felt homesick. David was on the run. Was Jake an accomplice to a murder by David?
The war: Yankees had exhilaration in their hearts that bubbled out into hilarity. Some damn Yankee tyrants, men in combat screamed, slashed, and cursed. Bullets whizzed, and thousands of hooves thundered. This story reminds you of the glorious land of Dixie, and proves that they were of noble race and lineage In the history of the country.
J.D.R. Hawkins 