Bride of Liberty

by Frank Yerby

First published 1954

Amazon

3.3(49)

Polly and Kathy Knowles are sisters whose rivalry over Ethan becomes inseparable from the political crisis dividing the American colonies. Ethan serves as an officer in George Washington’s rebel army, forcing Polly to confront a conflict she initially sees as a threat to the social world and loyalties she understands.
As the Revolutionary War spreads, private competition gives way to choices about allegiance, courage and survival. Yerby uses the sisters’ romantic conflict to bring the larger rebellion down to the scale of families and young people whose futures are being determined by military events. Washington’s Continental cause is not distant political scenery: Ethan’s service places the emerging revolutionary army directly inside the central relationship.