Mayflower Bride

Preliminary thoughts:
I liked Mary and William as characters and enjoyed the descriptions of what they faced on the Speedwell and the Mayflower.

Jarring historical errors:
—Pneumonia: Not only were the symptoms and treatment and the statistics of fatality off, pneumonia wasn't even discovered and named until 1881
—Washing one's mouth out with soap as a treatment of swearing: First, there wasn't bar soap as we know it. Most soap was “brown soap,” with lye sourced from ash, which doesn't fully harden. Further, the earliest instance of using soap to wash out one's mouth as a punishment was in 1832.

Format choices: I get that she wanted to stay as close to Biblical quotes as possible, and included the ampersands for “and” in the quotes, but it was extra-distracting to try to interpret symbols instead of a simple word during character conversations.

Later thoughts: I actually recall it more as a 2.5; I really won't be rereading. There are just so many other Mayflower stories that are more historically accurate and better plotted.

Thanks to the publisher for a free review copy.