The Rebel's Pledge

Rita Gerlach

Review by Victoria

With descriptions and anachronistic details, you live in King James world and meet Matthew Hale. He is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, and faces the gallows. The king's greed commutes his and other prisoner's sentences so that they will be sold as slaves in America. That is only the beginning of adventures that will keep you reading and wanting more. He crosses the Atlantic as a man who has become a slave, but fortunate enough to find a good master who learns to believe and trust in him. He finds real love and hope, and returns to England to clear his name. Who was the man who plotted and murdered so that Matthew would be blamed? A man who still hates him, and wants the love that Matthew has found.

The plot is well woven and the characters are deep and real. None of this world exists only in the pages of the book. This world now exists in the turning of a leaf, raindrops, teardrops, the slapping of the water against a boat, and emotions such as hope, love, and irony -- exactly as people everywhere live today.

Rita Gerlach is an accomplished author who presents the late 1600's as they were. It is obvious that she has not only done a great deal of research, but understood the political and religious intrigue of the time. This is her first novel, but she must write more.

Enjoy this five star story.

(This review first appeared at Amazon.)

Author's and Publisher's synopsis:

Rita Gerlach's swashbuckling debut novel The Rebel's Pledge has all the page-turning elements of what a five star historical romance novel should have. . .mystery, intrigue, suspense, adventure, and romance. The Rebel's Pledge, released by Publish America, begins in 1686 just as the English Rebellion is at its height. Matthew Hale, a rebel and traitor to King James, faces execution. But by royal decree Hale escapes the hangmen's noose when he is sold into slavery in the Colonies to Edmund Carey, a secretly exiled Protestant loyal to Cromwell.

Through an act of bravery, Hale is freed and journeys back to England to find Carey's estranged daughter Laura.In love they marry and return to the eastern shore of Maryland and to the father Laura never knew. But when Hale is accused of murder he becomes a fugitive. In a harrowing turn of events, Hale must make his way back to England to clear his name, find his wife, and confront the enemy that sought to destroy their lives.