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MWSA Review
Laura C. Rader’s Hatfield 1677 is a love story set against a backdrop of colonial conflict. This is not traditional military fiction. Frontier violence and survival are central to the story, but the heart of the narrative is a family’s faith in and love for each other. Readers who like relationship- and character-driven stories and survival epics will likely enjoy this book.
Readers seeking a treatise on North American colonial warfare must find it elsewhere. While there is little discussion of campaigning, Rader succeeds in exposing the horrors of war. Examining battlefield dynamics is not the novel’s primary aim. Rader paints a convincing portrait of colonial life, and her world-building feels authentic. She clearly devoted significant time and effort to researching colonial Massachusetts.
Hatfield 1677 is recommended to readers seeking historical fiction grounded in family connections. Rader offers a moving portrayal of perseverance and connection in trying times, leaving a strong impression on those who value the human side of history.
Review by Ben Powers
Author's Synopsis
Inspired by a true story of love, courage, and survival in seventeenth-century New England.
Benjamin Waite, devoted husband and father, is the volunteer military scout for the colonial Massachusetts town of Hatfield during King Philip’s War. He protests a planned attack against a Native American camp but reluctantly guides the army on their ill-advised mission.
The Algonquian sachem Ashpelon and his tribe retaliate, laying waste to Hatfield and taking seventeen colonists captive, including Benjamin’s wife Martha and their three young daughters. Then, Ashpelon heads north to Canada with his hostages in a desperate bid for freedom.
While Martha courageously strives to endure captivity and protect her children, Ben and his friend Stephen Jennings defy bureaucracy and brave the wilderness to find and rescue their loved ones.
Based on the lives of the author’s ninth great-grandparents, this riveting novel of love and war in colonial America, told through three different perspectives, is one you will not forget.
Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle
Review genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Pages/Word count: 396 / 99,000