It seems to be harder and harder for me to find a historical fiction book that will be great or that I'll click with. Is it because I'm used to different books? I don't know. This book just wasn't for me and I couldn't finish reading it.

Long, slow and boring. Had to force myself to finish. Really didn't enjoy and I like reading history and historical novels.

Cathy Williams has a proud heritage; her grandmother was a Virgin Warrior and queen in an African kingdom. But Cathy's mother is a slave, and so is Cathy, until the Civil War breaks out, when Cathy runs away, leaving behind her mother and sister. A chance encounter with a dying black soldier in the Union Army leads Cathy to masquerade as a man, and join the Buffalo soldiers. It's a dangerous and deadly deception; if Cathy is found out to be a woman, she'd be raped and worse. But Cathy is the daughter of a daughter of a queen, and her grandmother give her courage and determination.

As William Cathay, she is sent to Texas to provide safety from the natives to a white town. The white leader of the local army unit is afraid and contemptuous of the black soldiers, who are far more capable than his white soldiers, making Cathy's life even more perilous.

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is the compelling, fascinating and amazing story of one woman's journey in the US Army. It's well written, suspenseful, and historically accurate.Cathy speaks to us in her own voice, making the story even more real to the reader. It's likely that Cathy was not the only woman to disguise herself and join the army as a man; Cathy's story speaks for the heroism and bravery of those women we may never meet.

I received an ARC of "DAUGHTER OF A DAUGHTER OF A QUEEN" from NetGalley for an honest review. I wish to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Sarah Bird for the opportunity to read this book.

This book was FASCINATING! I knew about the Buffalo Soldiers and their role in the West, but I knew nothing about the Black Seminoles or Cathay Williams. So even though this was a novel, it was a very good learning experience as I wanted to know MORE!!

I really enjoyed this book, but it was not an easy read or an easy topic. But, I think it is important to know about ALL periods of U.S. history including this time frame.

This is a definite recommend for lovers of history (especially U.S. history) and good writing/storytelling.

I took my time reading Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss this harrowing tale of a former slave woman posing as male in the army. It's women like Cathay Williams that have paved the way without recognition (or even belief), but more on that later.

We're introduced to the narrator Cathay Williams as she explains that she wants to tell her story to a reporter and hopes that he gets it right. She wants us to know that she is no southerner nor is she common. Cathay is a force to be reckoned with as she served in the United States Union army during a time when women weren't even allowed to enlist. Women really served as nothing more than the men's cooks, servants, or sex slaves.

After meeting and falling in love with a dying soldier, Cathay is inspired to continue on with the newly formed Union Army formed of black men after spending time as a cook for General Phillip Sheridan. When the Civil War ends, Cathay enlists under another name and embarks upon a journey that if both terrifying and inspiring.

Sarah Bird manages to bring to life a story that many aren't familiar with. I'd never even really considered the place of women during war times except in the periphery acquiring roles of servitude. And yes, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is inspired by Cathay Williams true-life story which I also found captivating because if it weren't for this title, I would have never come across someone like her.

In an effort to balance Cathay's rough edges, Bird provides a love story. I get the point but when I think about women and our place in life, our stories are coupled with some man that helps push it forward instead of allowing us the freedom to be our own powerful, strong selves. The love story does push this novel forward and offer it some girth since history would rather erase tales such as Cathay's. I guess the love story would be my one gripe with the story line. Yes it was interesting and well written, yet Cathay would have been great without the love story.

If the love story is in fact in the newspaper Cathay was interviewed in... then by all means... I still feel it was unnecessary. (LOL)

Suffice it to say Cathay Williams encompasses a brave I will never know. Sarah Bird's Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is a worthwhile read and I'm happy to have had the opportunity to read it. For those who read this and think there will be a Mulan feel to it, you will be pleasantly surprised. There's nothing pleasant about Private Cathay Williams.

Copy provided by St. Martin's press via Netgalley

I enjoyed Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen. I give it 4 1/2 stars and hope to read more by Sarah Bird in the future.

The story of a former slave woman starts very interesting. In her own original language, she tells her story of enlisting with the legendary Buffalo Soldiers. Her first encounter with the Yankees and the Yankee general Philip Henry Sheridan is very striking and humorous at the same time, “the white preacher had warned us that Yankees were minions of Lucifer.”

But as the story progresses, it quickly loses its appeal. As she makes her way to the military camp, she meets a wounded soldier, and to easy his pain, she tells him African legend. I’m big on legends, but there is nothing engrossing about this one, at least the way it is presented. Once at the camp, there is nothing interesting about the story.

Gave up after 15% of the book.

Quite a remarkable novel based on the true story of an African-American slave who, after the Civil War, disguises herself as a man and serves with the Buffalo Soldiers (George Custer and Union General Philip Sheridan make cameo appearances).

The strength of the book is its unique subject matter, and many readers will be interested to learn more about the Buffalo Soldiers. The writing moves the plot along, but is not notable for its phrasing or expression (unusually for me, I didn't highlight any passages while reading).

For me, one of the weaknesses was that the book tried to do too much and so fell short of its potential. I would have enjoyed more details about the Buffalo Soldiers, about the Native Americans they were fighting, and about the Native Americans who aided the US Army. While I enjoy romance novels, the romance in this book seemed more of a distraction, with too many coincidences and too much foreshadowing for it to be fully convincing.

A tough book to rate (3.5 stars?), but I'm rounding up for its attempt to tell a fresh story, even if at times the plot lapses into cliches. This is one of the hardest reviews I've had to write in a long while, as the book is a page-turner that explores a fascinating subject. But in the end, it doesn't come close to the depth and beauty of Sebastian Barry's novel "Days Without End" (which also deals with gender and homosexuality in the military during the Indian Wars). Bird's book is good popular fiction -- but lacks the style and nuances of Barry's novel.

has written a most intriguing book with the Daughter of A Daughter of a Slave. Cathay Williams is based on a real woman, who started her life as slave in the American south. Her grandmother is the queen referred to in the book's title, she was captured in Africa and sold into slavery, like so many others during the early 19th century.

There is a lot to read in this book and even more to think about. The story starts during the American Civil War during one of General Sheridan's big burnings. (Yes, he did indeed originate the scorched earth tactic of warfare.) It was while the plantation on which she was enslaved is being razed by Sheridan's men that Cathay Williams is taken by the Union Army to serve as a cook's helper. This is the start of her big adventure and many times it is only by drawing on the strength of her grandmother's stories about how she became an African queen that Cathay is sustained.

As a privileged, white, Canadian woman I found this novel to be packed full of shocking incidents that sent me to knowledge bases and historical references time and again. Although this book is historical fiction it does indeed contain a lot of facts that are well documented. It gave me greater insight into the horrible intolerance and bigotry that Afro-Americans have faced, and continue to face, in the USA. I learned much more about how the American Civil War may have put an end to legal slavery but did not actually make the Afro-American population free. Example after example of mans' inhumanity to man are found throughout this novel. Just like real life no minority is spared; the Afro-Americans, the Native Americans, women; all are treated as less than human.

Sarah Bird has captured an important period in American history and described it through the eyes of an Afro-American woman who was on the frontlines, shoulder to shoulder with the men. Although this is not an easy read it is an important one.

I received a free copy of a pdf of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely amazing historical fiction that kept me glued to my seat. This book isn't set to be published until September, but I just couldn't wait any longer to crack open its pages. Well, it didn't disappoint

Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and then later, the involvement of the Union Army in the settling of the West, this historical fiction is absolutely spellbinding.

This is the story of a black woman who pretends to be a man to join the northern forces during the Civil War and her adventures. She is no ordinary woman and those were no ordinary times.

This was a fantastic story about Cathy Williams life as a slave and then a Buffalo Soldier. I knew very little about the Buffalo Soldiers and I am so glad that I was able to read this for a little bit of knowledge. Some of the content is a bit difficult to read, but well worth the effort!

My thanks to netgalley and St Martin's Press for this advanced readers copy.

This book troubled me from nearly the beginning. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.it but I could feel there was something wrong. I gradually came to realize that the problem lay in how the people of color were portrayed in the book. Not only were the voices problematic but they were written in cliche.

You know what this reminded me of? Gone with the Wind. That is NOT a good thing. African-Americans were consistently shown to be mulish, ignorant and backwards. The lead character was supposed to draw strength from her heritage. Her mother stressed her being the child of a strong warrior woman from Africa, but the actual connection to her heritage was written in such a way as to be purely tenuous and superficial.

One scene in particular was absolutely ridiculous. Cathy, as an enlisted Buffalo Soldier, has to hide her gender but her fellow soldiers are suspicious. As a trial she is forcefully put into a room with a prostitute, while her fellow soldiers listen at the door. What followed was a ridiculous farce. Cathy banged on the bed while encouraging an unfortunate, intoxicated sex-worker to pray loudly to “Hell Mary” for forgiveness for her sins. The ensuing noise convinced the soldiers that Cathy MUST be a man and hella good at sex besides. This was scene belonged in a Mel Brook’s comedy. It was demeaning, ludicrous and repellant.

I won’t even go into her depiction of First Nations people. They were props. Like the stand-in, life size cardboard figures you see in a movie theater.

This is not historical fiction. It’s just fiction. Loosely attaching your character to a real person’s history does not lend credence to your story. I found the entire book odious. I’m sorry I read it. The real life Cathy Williams deserved more. This is why we need more books written by people of color.

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen (click on the link to get your copy) by Sarah Bird is the incredible fictionalized story of the first female Buffalo Soldier, Cathy Williams. Growing up in Connecticut, I had a pretty thorough education of the history of America, however, my education did not include the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.

Cathy Williams was a slave born to a free father and an enslaved mother in Independence, Missouri. She was raised by a strong woman, whose own mother was taken as a slave from her home in Africa where she was a queen. Thus Cathy was the daughter of a daughter of a queen. Williams is the kind of woman that girls want to know and have.

When the Union army comes through the area early in the Civil War, she is taken as contraband to serve under Colonel William Benton as kitchen help. She serves until the war ends and she is given her freedom.

After seeing black men in uniforms as part of the Union army going to fight against the Native Americans in the west, Cathy decides to join disguised as a man under the pseudonym William Cathay for a three-year term and a pension once her service was over. This part of the story shows how Williams struggles to keep her identity a secret, never changing her clothes or bathing in front of her fellow soldiers and suffering the jeers and abuse from them.

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is an exciting, fictional story based on the life of a brave, former slave-woman who realized that she would have a future if she just took advantage of the opportunities given the black men of her time. I highly recommend this book. It’s available for sale in September 2018.

Epic story, set in the time past the American Civil War, following the life of Cathy Williams, born a slave, freed by the Union army and later disguised herself as a man to fight in the army with the Buffalo Soldiers.

This book is a that takes the few details known about Cathy Williams and turns them into a wonderful, believeable story of her life.

A powerful book based upon an African-American woman who served as a Buffalo Soldier in the United States Army disguised as a man. This fictionalized account of the life of Cathy Williams is fascinating. I have to admit, I was constantly worried she would be caught and I carried a sense of dread throughout the book. The descriptions of the life of a soldier, especially recently freed slaves' lives, are eye-opening and interesting. It was refreshing to read about an angle of the Civil War and post Civil War era that hasn't been written about frequently, it made the story fresh and interesting.

I read half of this book and although entertaining, I just could not finish it. I felt being forced to read it rather than looking forward to reading it. Maybe just not a “good fit” for me.

Cathy Williams has been mistaken for a boy, again. Yes, she is tall, strong and she chooses to were pants, but that isn't who she is. She is an African Princess. Her grandmother was strong African Queen. So if Cathy has to wear breeches to prove that she is strong and brave, well then she will. And that's what makes her special. She is an African woman who serverd in the Army for two years without being known as a women. She is awarded the sharpshooter medal. She is a Buffalo Soldier.
This is a work of fiction. The detail and imaginative storyline are genius. Loved the characters. There isn't anything about this book I didn't like. It was entertaining, surprising. Strongly recommended.
5 Stars

I really enjoyed reading this book. You almost feel like you are traveling with the soldiers. It has light-hearted moments as well as heart touching moments. I really cared about the characters and I really hated a few. I also felt relieved that I didn't live during the Civil War. Ms. Bird wrote an excellent book, this is the first book I have read by her, but it certainly won't be the last.

The idea of viewing the American Civil War through the eyes of a female slave brought a fresh perspective to one of the most important events in world history. Brave and bold this novel charted the events leading up to the end of the Civil War and it’s aftermath with a direct and authentic voice. I so badly wanted this novel to work, but for me it felt a little under written, lacking sufficient descriptive detail for me to fully submerge myself into it and envisage the events and settings. Perhaps in an attempt to tell such a bold narrative, some of the finer finessing was lost, which for me let it down.