Review: Saffire by Sigmund Brouwer

In my last few posts, I have mentioned that I started something new with reviewing books. One day I was watching YouTube and a video titles How To Get ARC's was recommended to me. I watched it, and one of the sites mentioned was Blogging For Books. I checked it out and immediately signed up for it. Having a blog got me approved and I looked through the fiction novels that were available to review first. It took me a good while to figure out if I only wanted to review e-books, or get physical copies which would take a week or two to get to me, or do both. I decided to go with a physical book first and this is it.

About the Book:
For President Teddy Roosevelt, controlling the east-west passage between two oceans mattered so much that he orchestrated a revolution to control it. His command was to ‘let the dirt fly’ and for years, the American Zone of the Panama Canal mesmerized the world, working in uneasy co-existence with the Panamanian aristocrats. 

A love story set within a historical mystery, Saffire brings to life the most impressive-and embattled- engineering achievement of the twentieth-century.

My Thoughts: The cover is a pretty and vibrant yellow and I love the palm fronds. I know very little about the Panama Canal. I don't think I learned that much about it in my history classes at school. I know it's part of American History, but my school district seemed hellbent on shoving the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and WW2 down our throats every year. I enjoyed learning that most of the story is true about the Panama Canal and that most of the main characters were real people. I wouldn't exactly call this a love story as Mr. Holt and Raquel have few interactions, and are smitten with each other at first sight. It was slow at the beginning, but 100 pages to the end, I was flying through the pages. It made me question if Germany did get their hands on the Canal, would that have made a difference to WW1 and WW2?

About the Author: Sigmund Brouwer is the author of eighteen novels with nearly three million copies in print. His recent novel The Last Disciple was featured in Time magazine and on ABC's Good Morning America.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.