What do readers think of The Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport? Write your own review.

This book may not be everyone's cup of tea (a Civil War novel) but it, for me, was one where I didn't skip a word because Ms. Davenport's writing was so wonderful. I will be going back and reading her other book in the hopes that it was equally good. Because the books I am treated to by BookBrowse are in so many different genres, I haven't found a bad one - some are just better than others - this is at the top of the stack so far. Please read it.

The Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport is set in the Civil War during the period from 1862 to 1872. The main characters are Johnny Tom, a Chinese immigrant brought to America to work on the railroads. He is conscripted into the Confederate army but manages to escape and fights for the Union because he hates slavery having suffered a similar existence since his arrival in America and also because he has been promised citizenship in exchange for his military service. Era Tom is Johnny's lovely and exotic daughter who is a nurse for the Confederate army. She is also spying for the Union in hopes of finding her father and …more because the Confederates killed her mother, kidnapped her father and abused her. The third character is Warren Petticomb, a Confederate cavalry officer who loses his arm in battle and falls in love with the beautiful Era as she nurses him back to health.

The book is beautifully written in rich and lush language. The author describes the battles and horrific army camps full of grotesquely wounded and dying soldiers with unrelenting realism while portraying its characters' emotions with great sensitivity and compassion. The author has carefully researched the book which is particularly interesting because the events are presented from the perspective of minorities who participated in the Civil War, in this case Johnny and Era Tom. The overarching theme of the book is the juxtaposition of honesty and deceit especially as it relates to Era and Warren. Their love is intense; however, Warren's devotion to the Confederate cause and Era's role as a Union spy leads inevitably to a crisis that threatens their relationship as well as their ethics. How they deal with the situation provides the reader with an absorbing literary experience. (less)

This is such a great book. this book is a graphic story of the horrors of the civil war told from the viewpoint of a Chinese immigrant fighting for the union army and his daughter working as a nurse for the confederate army while spying for the union army.

I would highly recommend because it tells a story of the realities of war and the very human characters.

Three alternating viewpoints makes this a difficult book to get into, but once I was, it was mesmerizing. And the research was impressive - I was right there with Johnny Tom, Era, and Warren.

This book is the greatest reason I love to read! It took me to the era of the Civil War and to the wet cold climate in which it took place - even though I was cozily snuggled up in my reading chair. I learned facts about American history that were never a part of school lessons. I met three characters who showed human strengths and frailties and struggled to overcome the emotional and physical adversities of their lives.

The book is a page turner that I will recommend to my friends - even the ones who love non-fiction best.

I really don't know what to say about this book. It is a wonderful story, I loved it but I don't know to whom I could recommend it. There is so much brutality in it, and it is filled graphically with the butchery of the Civil War that there were times I had to put it down, or skip parts. It is a VERY difficult read.
Having said that, it is also a love story that has so much substance to it I will want to recommend it to everyone I know. The love between the two main characters, Warren and Era, is wholly believable, but the love between the father, Johnny Tom and daughter, Era, is even more so. (Johnny Tom is a …more character that will stay with me for a long time.)
This book is Davenport at her best with characters, character development, and story. While it doesn't have the historical sweep of Song of the Exile, her historical focusing in Spy Lover gives this book its intensity and power that is quite incredible. (less)

This compelling story is set within US Civil War, revealing events through three distinctive individuals: Johnny, a Chinese immigrant whose enchanting personality survives prison, hunger and pain. Era, beautiful nurse skillfully cares for soldiers under harsh conditions. Warren, the Southern soldier who falls in love with Era is enraged by North's invasion of Southern way of life. Surprising events that were not in schoolbooks are revealed. Not a war story, definitely not a romance, this beautifully detailed novel provides pleasurable reading for anyone.

While I want to emphatically deny that my review was impacted by the means by which I obtained this book, I feel obliged to state that I received this book without charge in exchange for my agreement to give a true appraisal of it. What follows is my honest evaluation.

The author has done a magnificent job of creating a beautiful story of love made especially meaningful because it has survived prejudice, feelings of betrayal, sorrow, the beastly ugliness/savagery of war, forgiveness, and individual searches for self. Notice that I did not call it a "love story" because those words describe a romance. This book …more conveys deeper feelings and thoughts and the love found in the book expands to more than just one mere man and a woman.

We all are certainly aware of other Civil War novels – that history has been widely cussed and discussed as a period of national disaster and for certain people, feelings about that history continues to separate our nation. This is a Civil War novel but it is written about another group of people who also suffered terrible abuse in my country – a country that I deeply love with great pride because it does in fact offer liberty and justice for all. Remarkably, many of us have lived a full life mostly unaware of the magnitude of this other shameful period in our history. The author successfully gives us a history lesson about this abuse without making us feel she is chiding us.

The man in the novel is a wounded confederate soldier and the woman (the product of a marriage between an immigrant from China and a Native American woman) is the nurse who cares for him. The novel traces the lives of three people: the soldier, the nurse, and the nurse's father. The Chapters in the book switch back and forth allowing each of the three main characters to narrate their individual stories. In this way, we can successfully become the alter ego of each of them – sharing their feelings, thoughts, pain, and love. While this might sound like it might be confusing, the flow to me was quite natural.

I recommend it to audiences of all ages – with a warning in advance however that the descriptions not only tell about the need for forgiveness felt by the people who survive but they also provide graphic accounts of the horror of the battle fields. (less)