Early America comes to life in A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie.
A Founding Mother by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie is a historical fiction book that was published in 2026.
One of the signs of a great historical fiction book is that it makes you want to learn more about the real version of the story.
That is exactly what happened for me after I finished A Founding Mother. I now want to read more about Abigail Adams, John Adam, and John Quincy Adams.
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States. She was also the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States.
She lived through the American Revolution, the founding of America, and the War of 1812. She held her family together while her husband fought to keep a new nation together.
John and Abigail Adams were not perfect. No one is. But their love of freedom and the desire for the success of the United States ran deep. Their family sacrificed so much for the freedoms we still enjoy today.
A Founding Mother brought Abigail Adams and the early days of America to life.
The women of early America were tough and resilient. They had to be. They lived in a difficult time.
It was a very different time than today. Everything was more difficult.
Everyday life things that we take for granted were much harder for them.
They had no electricity. No indoor bathrooms or showers. No modern travel. There was also no modern medicine or modern machinery for farming.
Everything took so much longer to accomplish than it does today.
Abigail Adams and those living in early America had to live their everyday life while trying to start a country and win a war for independence.
I learned so much about Abigail and what she and her family went through reading A Founding Mother.
Abigail Adams and her family sacrificed a lot so that John Adams could fight for the country and freedoms he believed in.
In the early days of her marriage, Abigail Adams was often alone at home with her children, dealing with sickness, farm life, financial issues, and the trials of living during the American Revolution.
She did this not because she wanted to, but because she knew what John Adams was fighting for. In her later years, though, she realized just how much those sacrifices really cost her family.
One of the things that I especially enjoyed learning about was her son John Quincy Adams, and the foundation John and Abigail Adams gave him that helped him become president.
After I finished reading A Founding Mother, I went and got John Adams by David McCullough off my bookshelf. We have owned it for years, but I have never read it. I am now inspired to finally pick it up.
I also have the nonfiction book Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton on Kindle, and I want to read that one too. Both books are mentioned in the authors’ notes, so I think I will enjoy them.
My husband and I have talked about watching HBO’s John Adams, which was done in 2008, but we never have. After reading this book, I decided it was finally time to start watching it. This weekend we watched two episodes and have really enjoyed them.
I am also now looking for a book on John Quincy Adams.
A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie has definitely made me want to learn more about John Adams and his family.
There were a few times in A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams when the conversations, thoughts, and events seemed more modern than they would have been in the 1700s, but the notes from the authors at the end of the book were so well done and helped clarify some of the fact vs. fiction. If you don’t mind a few spoilers, I would recommend reading the authors’ notes before reading the book, or at least after reading the first half of the book.
At 450 pages, this is not a quick read, but it is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.
Have you read it?
