Book & Author Spotlight: Victor’s Blessing by Barbara Sontheimer
Title - Victor’s Blessing
Author - Barbara Sontheimer
Publisher - Atmosphere Press
Release Date - November 15, 2022
Pages - 582
Formats - Paperback and Ebook
Decription
American Legacy Book Awards - Finalist Romance General
A Civil War saga of passion, torment, betrayal, and perhaps the most challenging of all human emotions, forgiveness.
Victor Gant 6'5", the son of an Osage slave, is an unexpected hero for a Civil War tale. A self-made man he prospers In Ste. Genevieve Missouri. He is well liked, respected and makes a proper living as the town's favorite blacksmith. Ethan, his boyhood friend, is well educated and wealthy, and the two forge an unlikely bond.
All Victor's dreams come true when he marries the only woman that caught his eye, the town's shy beauty. But dreams can be fleeting and when the two men enlist in the Union army, Victor comes to realize that secret longings and bitter resentment are ebbing away at he and Ethan's bond. A decades old wound becomes infected with jealousy, a jealousy that collides with honor and all that is decent.
For Victor to keep one promise, another must be broken, forcing him to bestow an agonizing blessing of his own.
Five Questions with Barbara Sontheimer, Author of Victor’s Blessing
Author Barbara Sontheimer
1. If you could sit down for a long conversation with one of your characters from Victor’s Blessing, who would you choose—and what is the one question you’d want them to answer honestly.
I would love to speak with Victor. I would love to know how he was able to love his friend Ethan with such understanding even when Ethan was in love with Celena (Victor’s own wife) as well as forgive Ethan for deserting him when Victor needed him most. Victor was such a good human, and yet his life was short.
2. You spent fifteen years researching and writing Victor’s Blessing while raising a family. Was there a particular moment—mundane or extraordinary—when the story suddenly felt real to you, as if Victor had stepped off the page?
Absolutely! I shared the story with my family as I was writing it. When I had to end it the way I did, I remember my oldest son (Martin, 17 at the time) being devastated and asking me if I could change the trajectory. I too spent a weekend pacing my house trying to think I of an alternate storyline, but anything other than I did would have weakened the story.
3. If Victor’s Blessing were adapted into a film or limited series, what would you hope audiences would feel in the quiet moments—the scenes without battles, speeches, or spectacle?
That humans are deeply flawed and complex beings. That right and wrong is not always obvious, and that forgiveness is a difficult yet rewarding emotion.
4. Many writers talk about books that shape them as people, not just as artists. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, which would it be—and why does that story continue to matter to you?
The Shell Seekers by Rosalinda Pilcher was a deeply layered novel about lost chances and lives that are lived in quiet disappointment.
The other novel that deeply affected me was Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson. The story of Rimma the bird girl , was rife with lush imagery from the Amazon rainforest. As an adolescent as I read it I was sure I could fine her!
5. Your novels often ask readers to slow down and notice the lives history tends to overlook. What do you hope a reader does differently—if anything—after closing the final page of Victor’s Blessing?
Remember that nothing lasts forever, no pain, no joy, no strife. And to be our best we must learn to forgive.
