The Widow helped Annatje become Miss Anna Winters, respectable English schoolmarm. When the riot was quashed and Anna’s father arrested and killed, Annatje became a fugitive.Ĭircumstances brought her to the attention of the Widow, Angela Ferrars, an enigmatic spy who repeatedly appears in Thorland’s books, a woman whose only revelation is her hatred of the British. The estates’ feudal set-up incited tenant riots, one of which Annatje Hoppe’s father led. Scott Fitzgerald’s imagined in his final glorious Gatsby paragraphs) who settled New York and New Jersey and established patroonships, powerful, wealthy manorial estates. The Dutch Girl focuses on the Dutch settlers (that F.

Our hero is childhood sweetheart, disgraced and disinherited-landed-rich-boy-no-more highwayman, Gerrit Van Haren.Įach novel in Thorland’s Renegades treats one aspect of the American Revolutionary War and imagines people’s loyalties and personal stories caught up in it.

The heroines, however, tap into the heroes’ romantic, protective core, an inner self the heroes have forgotten, seemingly discarded, or tucked away as years of political and/or military expediency hardened them. The eponymous Dutch Girl is Annatje Hoppe, whose alias is Miss Anna Winters, spinster New York school teacher. At their side, though often on opposite sides of the American/British divide, are heroes, somewhat more knowing, experienced, and equally embedded in the political interests of their day. They learn to navigate turbulent waters of intrigue and political interests without ever losing themselves. They may start out naïve and young, but they’re survivors. Thorland’s heroines are intelligent, beautiful, marginalized, caught up in the politics of war and espionage, but always, at core, ethical, admirable, and independent.

Thorland’s Renegades are as much fun to read as Willig’s Carnation series (Miss Bates is a HUGE fan). Thorland cleverly interweaves history, adventure, spy thriller, and romance. Miss Bates thinks it should become one of the great rom-sagas and certainly deserving of the same status as the dubious Outlander (Miss Bates isn’t a fan). Donna Thorland’s Renegades Of the American Revolution series, of which The Dutch Girl is fourth, is unique and wonderful.

The Turncoat by Donna Thorland