Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Girl Called Samson: A Novel
    A Girl Called Samson: A Novel
    A Girl Called Samson: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    A Girl Called Samson: A Novel

    Written by Amy Harmon

    Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From New York Times bestselling author Amy Harmon comes the saga of a young woman who dares to chart her own destiny in life and love during the American Revolutionary War.

    In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that moment on, she yearns for a life of liberation and adventure.

    Twenty years later, as the American colonies begin to buckle in their battle for independence, Deborah, impassioned by the cause, disguises herself as a soldier and enlists in the Continental Army. Her impressive height and lanky build make her transformation a convincing one, and it isn’t long before she finds herself confronting the horrors of war head-on.

    But as Deborah fights for her country’s freedom, she must contend with the secret of who she is—and, ultimately, a surprising love she can’t deny.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 1, 2023
    ISBN9798400110450
    A Girl Called Samson: A Novel
    Author

    Amy Harmon

    Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times bestselling author. Her books have been published in eighteen languages—truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Utah. Harmon has written fifteen novels, including the USA Today bestsellers The Smallest Part, Making Faces, and Running Barefoot, as well as the #1 Amazon bestselling historical novel From Sand and Ash, which won a Whitney Award for book of the year in 2016. Her novel A Different Blue is a New York Times bestseller. Her USA Today bestselling fantasy The Bird and the Sword was a Goodreads Best Book of 2016 finalist. For updates on upcoming book releases, author posts, and more, go to www.authoramyharmon.com.

    More audiobooks from Amy Harmon

    Related to A Girl Called Samson

    Related audiobooks

    Colonial America & Revolution Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Secrets Of The Seamstress

      Apr 20, 2022

      Secrets Of The Seamstress
      8 min read

    • Article

      Home Before Dark

      Apr 2, 2020

      Home Before Dark
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      Now Is the Time

      Nov 24, 2020

      Now Is the Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Ayşe Papatya Bucak

      Dec 2, 2019

      I guess I believe reading generates empathy. I feel pretty sure it offers readers experiences they would not otherwise have. But does it change how we act? The post A Year in Reading: Ayşe Papatya Bucak appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane

      Apr 20, 2021

      Lane's memoir, which won the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, explores the author's ancestral history in order to give her future child a family history. The post ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane appeared first on The

      8 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Coven

      Oct 2, 2024

      The Coven
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Blake Morrison

      Sep 25, 2023

      Blake Morrison
      5 min read

    • Article

      Then Again, Maybe I Will: The Reads I Kept Hidden in My Youth

      Sep 25, 2018

      1. I found the paperback on a metal card table at my neighbor’s garage sale: Judy Blume’s Then Again, Maybe I Won’t. I was 8 years old and already loved the author for books like Blubber, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Superfudge. The well-worn

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robin Ince Is On The Road

      Dec 4, 2023

      Boarding the train at Taunton, I remember the last time I disembarked from here. Now, after 14 months, I am off to the final Bibliomaniac bookshop talk at Liskeard Books. Then, my final destination was Stoke Mandeville hospital. My father was dying,

      2 min read

    • Article

      No Apologies: On Writing About My Mother’s Life

      Mar 15, 2021

      I am halfway through a first draft. On bad days, I long for the comforts of fiction: the anonymity, the deniability. The post No Apologies: On Writing About My Mother’s Life appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Suzette D Harrison

      Jun 3, 2021

      One of the UK publisher Bookouture’s most recent signings is the bestselling African American novelist Suzette D Harrison, whose heart-wrenching family saga The Girl at the Back of the Bus is sure to be a hit with British readers. ‘I come from a long

      4 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      Day after Thanksgiving. I give thanks for Eveto beat the rush of appreciating hernext year and let her sleep inuntil three hundred o’clock.Thank you light on the mountainfor being my star on cloudy nights.Thank you all the guns I’ve never ownedand ki

      6 min read

    • Article

      Molly Green

      Nov 7, 2024

      Molly Green
      6 min read

    • Article

      Family Ink

      Mar 28, 2021

      Family Ink
      6 min read

    • Article

      Pozdnyshev’s Address

      Jun 8, 2021

      THE MURDER I COMMITTED—it wasn’t simply the strike of a dagger, at night, on the fifth of October, in a brightly lit living room. The murder I committed is a phenomenon of duration, akin more to slow poisoning than a flashing blade. I dare to hope th

      9 min read

    • Article

      A Letter To My Son

      Mar 5, 2020

      A Letter To My Son
      7 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Last Nomad’: Somali Refugee, Soccer Mom, And Everything In Between

      Aug 30, 2021

      Shugri Said Salh’s memoir strives for an accurate – rather than sensationalized or simplified – account of growing up in, and then fleeing, Somalia.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Q&A with Bonnie

      Apr 21, 2023

      ◗ Elizabeth Zott is a character we would all love to know or even become. Where did such a personality spring from? Fury! I started Lessons in Chemistry about seven years ago. I’d just come out of a meeting, irritated by some garden variety sexism, a

      6 min read

    • Article

      Shelf Life

      Mar 2, 2023

      Shelf Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      Perfection

      Jun 9, 2020

      For years I could barely write a page. I thought I was becoming a virtuoso of smallness while the grief, which is wordless, occupied an ever-greater volume. My friend lived in the estates on the bad side of town. Let’s go to the forest, she said when

      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Girl Called Samson

    4.5/5

    141 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Sometimes I feel guilty leaving a good story three star rating. I enjoyed this story and I particularly enjoyed the fact that the novel is based on a real story. Overall, the writing of the love story just didn’t work for me.
    • 5/5
      This wonderful book based on a true story is beautifully written and touching. The discourse at the end talking about the actual history was also wonderful. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book . Very interesting read and very entertaining.
    • 5/5
      Ok that’s it… Amy Harmon you are officially my all time favorite author. I’ve enjoyed so many of your books and I did not want this one to end! What an amazing story about an impossible time for women! This story hits even harder listening to it in the tumultuous time that our nation is in. Get this book…you will not be disappointed!!
    • 5/5
      I laughed and cried and cheered for the girl called Samson! A truly remarkable novel based on a truly remarkable woman in American history. The story comes alive and I feel as though I'm there with Debrah. I find myself swooning over the good General as well!
      I applaud the author and voice artist. Well done!
    • 5/5
      My new favorite! Whether it is my fascination for history, my feminist nature, my love of a good romance or a little bit of all of these I can’t say, but this book was extraordinary! Full of a variety of interesting characters, a world I had never imagined, yet found compelling, and a strong desire to see the heroine who had always lived her life with a passion for anything she did,despite everything being stacked against her, this story drew me in and delighted to the very last page. I was also very grateful for the author’s note and the excellent dedication which she invested in both researching and telling the real Deborah Sampson’s story.
      Finally I must commend the performance artist! Her contribution to the story was spectacular and much appreciated-especially having heard a few performances that rather than enriched the story and brought it life as hers did, have almost made a book unbearable to listen to. The emotionally charged performance reflect both her skill and dedication to her craft.
      A MUST read for anyone who loves historical fiction or simply a triumphant“underdog” story!
    • 5/5
      Beautiful written with a great story line that keeps you interested
    • 5/5
      I’d give it more stars if I could! The characters and the reading are something that must be heard. Thank you both.
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful story, well written as always. I loved every part of it.
    • 5/5
      How do we not learn about amazing women like this in school? Beautiful, well written. Just pulls you in and doesn’t let go. Another ?? for Amy Harmon.
    • 5/5
      When I started reading this i did not realise that this was a fictional account of the real life Deborah Sampson which makes it even more extraordinary. The author Amy gives a brief history lesson at the end of the book. Amy has an extraordinary gift and draws you in to the characters quickly, i read / listen to this over 24 hours so good the narrator was easy to listen and had great voices for the different characters. A must read Deborah and the other people in this story deserve their lives to be remembered for the great sacrifices they made!
    • 5/5
      This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.Many wonder what it is all for. I wonder what it is all for. And yet that truth, the truth of the ages, is that it is not for ourselves that we act. It is not our lives we are building, but the lives of generations that will come.IntroductionA Girl Called Samson is a standalone historical fiction novel by Amy Harmon. This is also a new to me author and I am completely speechless on this one. I know y'all have been trying to get me to read this author for what seems like years and I finally bit the bullet and picked this one up and it blew my mind! I personally want to say a thank you to Sophie @ Beward of the Reader because her beautiful review sold me on this one. I doubt I could bring this book justice but I am certainly going to do my best! Because this story deserves all the love and more. This book is a historical fiction set in the time of the revolutionary war. This is a story based on a young woman who forges her own path and finds faith, a path into freedom and love along the way when she least expects it...Great miracles were wrought on their journey, but miracles do not make life easy. Most often, miracles just make the next step possible.SummaryIts year 1760, and Deborah Samson was born in Massachusetts. When her father abandons them for a life on the seas, and her mother is not able to support her children, then Deborah is put into child servitude to a family but the family that becomes her own in a special unique way. Now its twenty years later, and the Colonies are fighting for their independence and freedom against the British. Deborah is determined to forge her own way and fight for independence along with so many others. She has a hunger to defend this land and her people and so she disguises herself as a teen soldier and makes a transformation that is fierce and strong. Where she finds her faith, her will of iron and her strong heart that is as loyal and fierce as the flag she fights for and a love worth fighting for...“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’” I began. He huffed under his breath, like I’d surprised him again, and I paused in my recitation. “You’ve memorized it?” he asked. “Yes, sir.” “Why?” “Because I believe in it.”My OutlookA Girl Called Samson was such a magical story and I am so grateful that I took the courage to actually pick this up. Its been so long since I read a historical fiction and I fell so hard for this one here. I am so happy that I was able to grab this one up here and indulge into this beautifully crafter story. This story is packed with so many elements that I fell in love with.THE CHARACTERSSo we have so many wonderful characters that just steal your heart. The primary figure that we follow of course is Deborah/Samson. From the beginning you can see how loyal her heart is to America. Seeing her memorize the declaration of Independence (WOW I need to follow that example because I only have the first paragraph memorized haha) and her thirst for freedom and the way she incorporates faith into her well being was so resonating. She is such an inspirational character that we should all mold ourselves after. She has such strength and grace and love in her little body. The way she feels every moments and keeps going no matter what is so admirable.In no place on earth can a man or woman who is born into certain circumstances ever hope to truly escape them. Our lots are cast from the moment we inhabit our mothers’ wombs, from the moment we draw breath. But perhaps that can change here, in this land.”Then we have our hero of the story (and yes there is a delectable hero) General John Patterson is a man of honor and integrity and the way that he defends his men and will do whatever it takes to hold true to his promises just made me heart ache for this incredible historical figure. I just wanted so much for him to find his happy ending. But seeing his tenacity in the battle field and the way in which he fights for his soliders including our lovely Deb, was so epically portrayed. He is the perfect match for such a fierce spirit we have in Deborah. I not only loved him for how he is with her (before and after he finds out the truth about her identity) but also his own character and his personal struggle to finding purpose in this long war, a purpose that Deborah instills in him.I had never considered it a privilege to be a woman. Not even once. I had struggled at the bit of my sex, at the reins of society, at the saddle of tradition. It had not occurred to me that men had their own burdens, that they were bridled too. It was not women who died on the battlefield. I had been denied and barred entry to a world I wanted to experience, but had I been barred because I was disdained or because I was valued? I suspected it was both. Even so, I was less inclined to complain about my lotHISTORICAL CONTEXTSo this story was so rich and breathtaking in all the intricate details involving the Revolutionary War. This is a book so captivating in the little moments that it will literally take your breath away....and I am completely serious on it. I love the time of the revolutionary war, it means so much to me as a American and a Patriot. So to have this story written in such a way that emboldens the truth spirit of America and our history being so portrayed so well just left me humbled to the true struggled of those pioneers that fought with everything they had and gave up so much so that we could have the precious freedoms we take for granted way too much. Amy Harmon did an incredible job in really showcasing the truths of the Revolutionary War and the pains and hardship but also the fighting spirit against tyranny and being able to win against a machine that many other countries weren't able to do.THE ROMANCEThe relationship that builds between Deborah and John was so beautiful! I definitely feel like their story needs to be talked about. I would say that their actual story together is a bit of a Mulan retelling in a way. There was so many connections to the animated film in how these two come together that it was just so wonderful to see how the author took a creative license on this to bring these two together. These two compliment each other so well and seeing what they are willing to sacrifice for each other and their country was so endearing. I just was on board with their story from the moment they meet and those "letters" *sigh* just loved it. And I will say that there is very little steam in this book. Do not expect anything steamier than some good kissing haha but seeing these two in their silent moments together fascinated me so much. And even though their romance is a backstory, I loved every single second of it.I am convinced nothing is so intimate as a kiss, not even the joining of flesh or the taking of vows. When mouths commune, there is little that can be hidden, and I had no desire to hide anything any longer. Not from himI do think that what I loved so dearly about this book the most though is the way that the author portrayed the emotion and struggle of what these soldiers and families suffered. You feel it with every moment, every chapter and every tear and sweat and blood sacrificed. I am not sure how the author wrote this story but I guarantee you will feel the sacrifice in your heart and deepest parts of yourself.Overall ViewI found A Girl Called Samson to be a delectable historical novel that brought together the beauty of the past, the essence of the American spirit and captivates the human soul in a satisfying read that will stay rent free in your heart for years...“It is not for the man who has everything and wants more that we fight, but for the man that has nothing.”“But as long as you draw breath, as long as your heart beats and the sun rises, you must stay in the fight.”Rating Evaluation:Plot: 5World Building: 5Cover:5Hero: 5Heroine: 5Steam: 5Heart & Feels:5Ending:5Overall View: 5

      1 person found this helpful