Seybold's addictive melodrama is a tale of sin, redemption, forgiveness, love, and loss, with a soupçon of tragedy. An intriguing story of the brutal battle for women's rights. - Kirkus Reviews
"Sins of Liberty takes women's rights and immigration and intertwines them in a love story that you won't soon forget." - Jillian Forsberg, author of the historical novel The Rhino Keeper
This solid work of high dramatic embellishments, plus the growing motivations of women to find new places and roles for themselves in America, could not have come at a better time. Enlightening, empowering, and entertaining, all in one.- Midwest Book Review
"Effortlessly summons an era and conjures characters whose lives and tidal swings of fate and fortune will thoroughly invest readers. What a ride." -C. B. Bernard, author of Ordinary Bear and Small Animals Caught in Traps
Anna's plan of retreat doesn't include romance, but love comes calling in 1901 Raisinville. The immigrant brings a secret to the rural Michigan parish where she takes on work as a rectory housekeeper-the abortion she chose to escape a rich cad's broken promises. In that rectory refuge after the sacrifice of her child, she falls for Joe, a new priest listening with love in his voice and honor in his eyes. Taking a chance, she gives herself to him body and soul, searching for love and respect. He's exiled from priesthood for the affair-and then their love delivers a child. Married in secret, a fresh start calls Anna and Joe to Toledo, a hub of breweries, bicycle factories, and prospects for progress.
In a time when the Rust Belt sparkles, she works for better fortunes. Joe was a better priest than he is a provider, but she will improve him. She can be his church. When their child's scarlet fever shatters Anna's dream, they hunt down a cure. But Joe returns to the priesthood as part of his bargain with God. As the pain of separation slashes at her, Anna must start anew. She takes a hand in selecting a replacement husband, the prosperous, rising grocer George who adores her. Motherhood and years of marriage have changed her, but suffrage might sing to her deeper desire for liberty. As she urges her sisters toward the vote, Joe's bishop pursues proof of her secrets: the true father of her son. And if the bishop uncovers her darkest sin from the past, it would smash her suffrage work. To outrun his threat to her safety, family, and dreams, she must step beyond her own courage to find and trust allies. Liberty is at stake.
Ron Seybold is the author of the novels Sins of Liberty and Viral Times, as well as his fatherhood+baseball memoir Stealing Home. He is director of Austin's Writer's Workshop, coaching and editing authors who create books in fiction and nonfiction; an interviewer for Austin Liti Limits; as well as a Community Member of the Writers' League of Texas. His newsletter and Substack, The Write Stuff, has been serving writers each Friday for more than four years. A graduate of the University of Texas journalism program and a US Army veteran, he leads authors to develop their stories for publication. With his wife, the yoga teacher Abby Lentz, he lives and writes in Austin, an oasis where the family poodle Ella campaigns for walks and fetches with a smile. Visit with him online at workshopwriter.com and ronseybold.com.
