Welcome to Litsy!

From"New York Times"Bestselling Author Jennifer Chiaverini, the first novel to chronicle the singularrelationship between Julia Grant, beloved First Lady, and the courageous woman who was her slave and namesake. In 1844, shy Missouri belle Julia Dent met Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, brilliant horseman and reluctant soldier.The two fell deeply in love, but Grant s abolitionist family refused to attend their wedding. For despite herhusband's objections, Julia keptas her slave another Julia, known as Jule. Since childhood they had been companions and confidantes. Julia was gifted with prophetic dreams, which Jule helped her interpret; Juliasecretly taught Jule to read, while Jule became her vision-impaired mistress s eyes to the world. But as Grant rose through the ranks of the Union army during the Civil War, thestark distinctions between mistress and slave strained their unlikely friendship.Both women risked certain danger as they traveled to and from General Grant s military headquarters until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation inspired Jule to make a daring bid for freedom."