Francis Lightfoot Lee is known in the annals of Virginia history as one of the colony’s signers of the Declaration of Independence. Yet little is known of Lee’s personal life, a void which novelist and long-time Virginian Suzanne Hadfield Semsch set out to fill with extensive research and a healthy dose of creativity without distorting historical fact. The result is The Lees of Menokin, a biographical novel documenting Lee’s career as well as his courtship and marriage to Rebecca “Becky” Tayloe. A descendant of one of Virginia’s “first families,” Lee was a staunch patriot and reputed ladies’ man serving in the colony’s House of Burgesses when he fell in love with Becky, who was half his age. From the early days at Menokin, their plantation home, through the turbulence of the Revolution, to the lean post-war years, readers will enjoy a glimpse into this formative period of early America. The Lees of Menokin is an engaging love story set against the chaotic backdrop of revolution. Romance, slavery and the American Revolution roil this engrossing historical novel, based on the life of a minor Founding Father.... Semsch has done an enormous amount of research on (Francis Lightfoot) Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and it shows in her fine-grained study of Virginia's planter aristocracy at a cross roads in history. Theirs is a world of elegance and refinement whose rituals of courtesy don't quite hide the hierarchy and coercion that underlie them, especially in the fraught relationship between masters and slaves....The clashing currents of freedom and imprisonment that course through the saga make for a compelling read. A gripping, richly textured portrait of colonial life in crisis. ―Kirkus Discoveries --Kirkus Discoveries Romance, slavery and the American Revolution roil this engrossing historical novel, based on the life of a minor Founding Father.... Semsch has done an enormous amount of research on (Francis Lightfoot) Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and it shows in her fine-grained study of Virginia's planter aristocracy at a cross roads in history. Theirs is a world of elegance and refinement whose rituals of courtesy don't quite hide the hierarchy and coercion that underlie them, especially in the fraught relationship between masters and slaves....The clashing currents of freedom and imprisonment that course through the saga make for a compelling read. A gripping, richly textured portrait of colonial life in crisis. ―Kirkus Discoveries --Kirkus Discoveries Suzanne Hadfield Semsch's lifelong interest in writing and literature and her insatiable curiosity inspired her to explore history and complete her debut novel, The Lees of Menokin. Raised in a military family and married to a career army officer, she has traveled extensively and lived in Europe and thirteen of the United States. More than half her life, however, has been spent in Virginia. Today, she resides in Charlottesville and considers herself a "Virginian by choice." She has been writing both personally and professionally for many years, and is currently at work on her next project, a multi-generational saga of an American military family.