The Monmouth Summer

f God could see into my heart, would He be a rebel too? 1685. King Charles II dies unexpectedly, and his illegitimate son, the handsome young duke of Monmouth, rises against his uncle in armed rebellion. And the penalty for treason is death. The rebellion turns young Ann Carter’s world upside down. Eighteen years old, she is betrothed to a strict Protestant shoemaker; but secretly loves an officer in King James’s army, who offers to take her to London as his mistress. Ann such a love is wicked; her father is a rebel soldier, like all the men of her village. So who should she pray for, when musket balls start to fly? What matters most – love or loyalty? If God could see into my heart, she wonders, what would He tell me to do? Her father, Adam, is a brave man tormented by fear. He has two fears: first, that he may be a coward, and run from the enemy; and second, that he is not one of God’s Elect, and will go to Hell when he dies. But like all the men of Colyton, ‘England’s most rebellious town’, he marches to war, risking his life for what he believes. When England’s most notorious judge, Judge Jeffreys, is sent to punish the rebels, Ann and her father are faced with the hardest choices of all.