Blog Tour: Courting Mr. Lincoln

Welcome! I’m thrilled to be on the blog tour for the paperback edition of Courting Mr. Lincoln, by Louis Bayard which is out tomorrow everywhere you get your books. This is a charming book well worthy of all the praise and hype it’s been getting since it came out last April.

Here’s the synopsis:

“When Mary Todd meets Abraham Lincoln in Springfield in the winter of 1840, he is on no one’s short list to be president. A country lawyer living above a dry goods shop, he is lacking both money and manners, and his gift for oratory surprises those who meet him. Mary, a quick, self-possessed debutante with an interest in debates and elections, at first finds him an enigma. “I can only hope,” she tells his roommate, the handsome, charming Joshua Speed, “that his waters being so very still, they also run deep.”

It’s not long, though, before she sees the Lincoln that Speed knows: an amiable, profound man who, despite his awkwardness, has a gentle wit to match his genius, and who respects her keen political mind. But as her relationship with Lincoln deepens, she must confront his inseparable friendship with Speed, who has taught his roommate how to dance, dress, and navigate the polite society of Springfield.

Told in the alternating voices of Mary Todd and Joshua Speed, and inspired by historical events, Courting Mr. Lincoln creates a sympathetic and complex portrait of Mary unlike any that has come before; a moving portrayal of the deep and very real connection between the two men; and most of all, an evocation of the unformed man who would grow into one of the nation’s most beloved presidents. Louis Bayard, a master storyteller, delivers here a page-turning tale of love, longing, and forbidden possibilities.”

I don’t know a lot about Lincoln or that time period but really enjoyed this story even without much of my own historical knowledge. I appreciated that a lot as it was totally accessible and I didn’t ever feel like I had to stop and read some history books - although this story does make me want to go read up on some history now.

What impressed me about this book is how sweet the story is while being an incredible page turner about relationships and how they last, are stretched, made stronger, and how many of those things are the same throughout the years. Even between now and then, these relationships will look and feel like ones you have had. Bayard’s writing gives voice and empathy to these characters who are real and who become real again within these pages. I was charmed and impressed and would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in stories of friendship and love, and just as much to fans of historical fiction and Lincoln.

Thanks again to Algonquin Books for my free review copy - all opinions are my own.