Net Galley ARC
The story follows the lives of 4 main characters: Troy, Mick, Daisy and Tara. I didn’t realize this was the second book in series but I feel it can stand alone. Only caveat is maybe if I had read the 1st book I could have gotten a better sense of what makes the characters tick.
Historical fiction that gives you a good feel for the 60s: politics, war, drugs, etc. I love learning about times I did not live thru.
Troy is a Marine fighting in Vietnam, Mick travels the world to come home and lead anti-war efforts. Daisy dabbles in LSD while studying Neuroscience. Tara is a musician living the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle.
The writing is good, story flows well although ends kind of abruptly.
Some cringe moments with description of sex acts, use of drugs but I don’t trigger easily so did not ruin book for me.
Overall a solid read. IMHO.

I've read all the books in this series by Mike Bond - America/Freedom/Revolution. Even though I wasn't yet a teenager in the 60s - I thoroughly enjoyed these books. They are all well-written and expertly portray this very important era in our history. Kudos Mike Bond!

I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from Netgalley, Mike Bond, and publisher Big City Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am always ready for a Mike Bond look into our past. He sees with wise eyes what we have lived through.

The second of three in the series 'America', this is a book not to be missed. If you lived through the 1960s or know/love someone who did, you will understand a great deal better who and what they are, you can see how their world was influenced and changed by those tumultuous years of discontent and angst. And we Baby Boomers would like you to understand us, I promise you. I loved the first, America, which helped me understand better myself and my generation. and can't wait for the third in this series. The 1970s were hard to survive, in more ways than one. I remember...

I managed to lose this review before I posted - sorry for the delay...

American freedom is the second book in a series by Mike Bond and I felt at a total disadvantage for not having read the first one. Not that they referred to obscure events I knew nothing about but because Troy, Nick and Tara all made life changing decisions at the beginning of the book and I didn’t feel invested in those decisions at all but having said that by the time Troy was in love with the Vietnamese teacher and Lucy was in a quandary over what to study for her doctorate I was totally into it. I didn’t like Nick at all perhaps that’s due to my personal feelings about people who dodge wars but won’t freedoms but in any event I felt so bad for Tara and although I’m sure when Louise offered her heroin he may have really believed he was doing her a favor because when you’re young you feel invincible and if we knew how doing drugs ended no one would ever take them but having said that the things they visit in book 3 or things I am not familiar with and I cannot wait to read it I do find Mr. Bond blames the CIA for a lot of America’s problems and being someone who loves to read nonfiction about such subjects can only agree. I think the author of this book is highly intelligent has a great grace on the subject matter name so glad I already have the third book download it. Thoroughly enjoyed this! I will see this book from NetGalleyShelf and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review

Mike Bond’s “Freedom” is the second in a 7-volume series of historical novels about America beginning in the 1960s. It continues the story of Mick, Troy, Tara, and Daisy begun in volume 1, “Revolution.”

I have not read “Revolution,” which made the beginning of “Freedom” a challenge—kind of like being set down in a strange city without a map to guide you. For the first 15% of the novel, I seriously considered giving up because I had very little idea who these characters were or why I should care about them. Also, it did not help that the novel kept jumping from character to character and setting to setting, which made it seem erratic.

But the prose itself was so good that I kept going. Mr. Bond is a fine writer with great descriptive abilities. He takes his readers from the heights of the Himalayas to the jungles of South Viet Nam to the streets of Manhattan’s Harlem and Lower East Side, along with so many other places. No matter the setting—be it a Vietnamese village under attack, a perilous rock-climbing expedition, a drug-fueled orgy in a run-down tenement, or an anti-war protest meeting—through sight, sound, taste, and smell, Mr. Bond places readers right in the middle of it. It is in this way that we are immersed in 1960s America.

Mr. Bond is also quite good at creating “edge-of-the-seat” scenes of action and danger—the kind of scenes that have readers holding their breaths while quickly turning pages to find out what happens next.

Some notes of caution. “Freedom” is written from a “liberal” or “left-of-center” perspective. It assumes the Viet Nam War was wrong and that politicians’ reasons for waging it were ignoble. It does a pretty “deep dive” into some of the thinking and questioning of the anti-war movement and doesn’t give much credence to countervailing conservative opinions and positions. Also, “Freedom” contains scenes that are sexually explicit, contain profanity, and/or feature illicit drug usage.

Nevertheless, all in all, I found “Freedom” to be an absorbing, sometimes exciting work, well-suited for anyone interested in America during the 1960s.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an electronic ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

I really wanted to join this ARC! I tried reading it because I honestly love the time period it is set in and was hopeful that the lives and stories of the four characters would weave together a beautiful story. I could not get into the reading style and it also did not catch and keep my attention. I made it about 22% into the book and couldn't get into it. Maybe I will try again in the future however it's a DNF for me this year.