Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars 
Book Blurb:
1875 Vermont. Asa James hasn’t exactly sucked on the silver spoon. No one chooses to grow up on a rural poor farm, but a mixed-race orphan with Asa’s scarred face has little choice.
Determined to be a naturalist and scientific thinker in the vein of Charles Darwin, instead he finds himself thrust alone into the wider world, taking a tutor’s position at a mountaintop mansion. There, the widow Caro Rockwell is glossy and sardonic, someone so far outside Asa’s experience that she could well be another species. But soon he glimpses the broken woman inside the shell. Amid a series of eerie events, they form a friendship that grows into a sweet and tender sort of love.
His heart has what it wants. But then, from within the many dark recesses of Mansfield Hall, a shameful secret is discovered that will force Asa into making a terrible choice.
His Review:
There were many orphans as a result of the civil war in the United States. The subject of this story, Asa James, is just such a child. The government did not have programs as they do today to care for the orphaned and displaced. Tolland Town Farm was set up to fill the void and offer starving children a home and place to live. There was also a sort of education program for them.
Work and cleanliness were the primary focus of the program where the young, pregnant unwed mothers were offered a place to live and have their children. Many industries such as cheese making and various meat products were taught as well as bookkeeping and farm management. Cooperage was particularly important as the products from the farm were shipped all across the country.
Asa is a self-taught entomologist and biologist who loves everything about the natural world. He gets up early and works until sundown to collect and catalogue every plant and insect that he comes in contact with. His drawings are life-like and meticulously done. He sneaks out whenever possible and works by candlelight when there is no other light.
This is an enlightening story of self-determination and success in the most austere of life’s circumstances. Read and enjoy the adventure! 5 stars – CE Williams
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.
Book Details:
Genre: 19th Century Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, American Literature
Publisher: Koehler Books
ISBN-13: 979-8888249307
ASIN: B0FPZTYSLQ
Print Length: 306 pages
Publication Date: December 16, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s):
Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble
The Author: Jodi Lew-Smith lives on a farm in northern Vermont with her patient husband, three wonderfully impatient children, a bevy of pets and farm animals, and 250 exceedingly patient apple trees which, if they could talk, would suggest that she stop writing and start pruning. Luckily they’re pretty quiet. [Goodreads]
Jodi Lew-Smith lives on a hill farm in the rural “Northeast Kingdom” of Vermont, with her husband, dog, chickens, and 250 apple trees. Her grown children come and go, staying long enough to make her laugh. She has always been a writer but also enjoys biology, which comes out in her fiction. She holds a bachelor’s in English literature, a master’s in botany, and a doctorate in molecular genetics, with which she works as a biocurator for a genomic database. [Amazon]
©2025 V Williams
Rosepoint Publishing 