Preacher on the Run

Author: Jayna Baas
Genre: Historical Fiction
Series: For Liberty & Conscience #1

North Carolina, 1771

Robert Boothe has spent the last four years leading the tyrant-hating Regulators in standing against North Carolina’s corrupt British government. Just being an unlicensed dissenter preacher is enough to make Robert a target, but he refuses to back down from his conscience. Aside from a sympathetic court justice, the village of Ayen Ford has no other champion for its poor and defenseless.

Then Charles Drake, emissary of His Excellency William Tryon, comes to town with one ambition: winning the governor’s favor, no matter what it takes. And Robert Boothe just might be his last chance.

All Robert wants is a safe place for his little Baptist church to live and worship God. But the established church wants him to shut up. The governor’s men want him dead. And that safe place is farther and farther away.

You can run, but you can’t hide...

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Reviewer: Nancy Brown

I felt very comfortable reading this book, and was pleased by the amount of historical fact and how Jayna Baas weaved it into the lives of mature Christian characters. For being a debut novel, she shows a lot of promise. Her skill at writing stories to keep the reader interested shines through, and I'm so glad she glorifies God and Jesus His Son in this book! This, my friends, is what a TRUE Christian historical fiction book should be like.

I give this book 5 stars, it is a good Christian historical fiction book, and the cover was appealing and appropriate.  The characters were easy to imagine, and they had strong Christian values.

I also learned something new, and that was the story of the Regulators, and what they accomplished. The struggle against the powers that were back then seemed real, and quite frustrating and unfair. Again, this reality of the struggle is due to the God-given talent Jayna Baas used to portray that. This would be a great gift for a fan of American history.

This book was provided courtesy of the author through Interviews & Reviews.

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Reviewer: Martha Robinson

I live in South Carolina, so I selected this title because of its fictional account of events in North Carolina prior to the American Revolutionary War.

Preacher on the Run contains a lot of history in a very readable format. There are a variety of characters who represent the gamut of people living in the state at that time—including representatives of Governor Tryon and the Anglican Church.

The characters I liked best were Robert Boothe, his wife Magdalen, his daughter Susanna, and his brother Mitchell. The Boothe brothers were both Baptist circuit riders and preachers.

Robert was arrested and declared an outlaw with a price on his head. He and all the members of his church were forced to take up arms to defend themselves and their families. They all made the decision to flee to safety in the mountains. Multiple families in wagons traveled treacherous roads, trying to avoid the state militia. How they outwitted their pursuers was amazing and could only be considered as God’s providential protection.

This book was provided courtesy of the author through Interviews & Reviews.

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