Book Review: Lynn Austin's Fire By Night

I just finished rereading the novel Fire By Night written by Lynn Austin (not to be confused with JANE Austin, whom my fingers keep typing). It's a story based on events during the Civil War (my favorite part of history for historical fiction novels) and focusses on the lives of two young women as they try to follow God's path for their lives even when society frowns upon it.

We first meet young Julia Hoffman, a lovely rich socialite who has her eyes on a young preacher. Her goal in life is, like most girls her age who have grown up in church, to become a wife and mother to a Godly man - even preferably a preacher - and she is content to do so - until she finds out that the man she's been trying to win over thinks not-so-highly of her or the other young ladies in her social class. His bluntness is not directed at her, but she overhears it none the less and is bound and determined to prove him wrong and then throw it in his face. She convinces her father to let her join the nurses in Washington, he believing she will tire of her dream in short order.

The second heroine in the tale is feisty, tom-boyish Phoebe Bigalow. She's a country girl who has every intention of joining up in the war. Left to tend a family's children while her three brothers go off to join the Union Army, it takes Phoebe all of one day to make up her mind to cut her hair, run away, and join the Yankees fight Johnny Reb. Phoebe's main reason? She's too tall and homely to ever be loved by a boy, so why not pretend to be one and at least have a purpose in life.

While their backgrounds are completely different, both women find themselves realizing and finding themselves once they are out of their element. Julia, who has had everything done for her, realizes she's far more capable than she knew. Phoebe, in turn, finds herself in a quandry when she finds herself falling in love with her best friend in the army. Both tell 'white lies' to get into the positions their in, and both are fearful of being found out.

The book takes a number of twists and turns not so much in the main characters, but certainly with those around them. The author is very good at keeping the reader within the mind of the two women and introducing the outside characters and their personalities in a similar way that the women might also have met and evaluated said characters. Julia Hoffman works with a cantakerous young doctor - James McGrath - whom is rumored to be a drunk and a murderer... the reader is fairly sure he isn't a murderer, but there is so little known for most of the story that you don't see the truth until the author reveals it in full.


I'm not a big fan of romance novels, Christian or otherwise, but I do find myself getting into this story for a number of reasons. This book centers around, as I said, one of my favorite parts of history. I'm totally into reading about the Civil War. Like all Historic Fiction novels, it does take a fair about of creative license, but overall the history is sound enough to keep it real. The second part is the selfish girl inside of me who understands the plight of both women. Phoebe for being a tom-boy and not fitting into that girlish mold that so many try to put her in, and Julia for being the good little Christian girl who's been told her whole life that her lot in life is to be the keeper of the home and a mother. While there is nothing wrong with that, it seems to demean the idea of all of what God had wanted.

Neither woman is against marriage, settling down, having a family and that being their primary goal. But, as Julia will come to realise - just because you're married you are not just another of your husband's apendages. You do not lose your identity. And there's a lot of God's work to be done by men AND women. Going against society's norms is sometimes needed if we are to do as God has called.

Over all it's a quick and enjoyable read. It's nothing steamy, it's sometimes cheesey, and yes it's one of those 'Christian Novels that try so very hard to not be the same as what the world would have in this same type of genre'. At least it's clean.