Review of The Last Full Measure by Ann Rinaldi

In the heart of Gettysburg in 1863, Tacy is learning to cope with the effects of war. She sees soldiers wounded every day and at only 14 she has already lost people. As two of her brothers and her Father are away fighting with the Union, she looks up to her older brother David, who is not allowed to fight due to a bad leg. David is bitter that he cannot fight and takes his anger out on Tacy often, wishing she was less spoilt so he could control her better until their Father returns. Close friends are killed, the free black community is captured as spoils of war and Tacy has to learn to grow up - fast.

~Add To Your Goodreads Shelf~ 

This is a cute little book, quite a quick read. Tacy, at the beginning, is an extremely likeable character but as the book progresses, instead of growing up like I'd expect her to, she seemed to grow more spoilt. Near the end of it I actually disliked her. David is an intensely dislikeable character for me, I hated him throughout most of the book. I would have liked Tacy to meet a soldier and fallen in love with him (properly, not the quick kiss that does happen, although I'm not asking them to like, have sex with each other) but that doesn't happen. Probably because she has such a young mind at times.
The Last Full Measure is an excellent piece of historical literature and I found myself learning a lot about Gettysburg, although I had never learnt about it before.

4/5 

Received free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review