This was a darker book than the previous one, but featured Amanda, possibly my favorite character in the entire series. We follow her from the Alamo to NYC where things are heating up for the Civil War. As usual, Jakes does a great job showing both sides of the conflicts from a personal view. He drops a lot of historical information in well connected threads throughout, too.Handling the feelings on both sides of the argument that would become the Civil War was particularly masterful, especially since the South's side was seemingly indefensible. It wasn't from their point, though. Their entrenched economy, fears, & opinions were well represented. The division among the North was also well shown. Immigrants couldn't find enough work to feed their families & the city was bursting as more flowed in. Any competition for the few jobs couldn't be born & that included freed slaves, yet it was obvious that blacks weren't subhuman, simply raised & treated that way - all this while those of the North treated factory workers & servants in much the same fashion. Jakes makes the point in a particularly poignant way when hours go by before (view spoiler)[ Amanda casts the deciding vote as to whether to provide medical care for workers injured in an accident. She also has to fight to get free schooling & 'limited' hours for the child-workers. Which made me think back to the gin-soaked 8 & 10 year olds that Phillipe met in the first book of the story in London. (hide spoiler)]
Moving forward in the Kent Family Chronicles, we meet Amanda Kent. A woman who was abducted and raped before she was a teenager. She lived with Indians, married a Spanish trapper, survived the massacre at the Alamo, loved a Mexican soldier and watched his death. Some months later she bore his child. She'd been homeless and broke but managed to turn adversity into success using sheer determination and raw bravado. This is how history should be taught...from the viewpoint of individual Americans rather than just reading dry facts and dates in a textbook. Even though this is historical fiction, it helps to bring alive individual dreams and failings as if we were there witnessing history as it's happening. I highly recommend this series but read them in chronological order so you can appreciate the story of one family and all its varied kin.
Do You like book The Furies (2004)?
I read books 2-7 of this series in the last weeks of Feb 2013. While I liked the continuation of the family name through each generation, I could have done without every single important female of the Kent family being raped, sometimes repeatedly. They no sooner got power and money than they lost it, and family members ran the gamut from good to brilliant to corrupt to sleazy to fierce to insane to bloodthirsty. Lots of historical info, also, which made the story more real and interesting. But I would not recommend this series, save book #4, which was excellent. I loved the heroine of Amanda more than all of the rest of the family combined, and I was rooting for her all the way.
—Tara Hall
The fourth book of the Kent Family Chronicles. This is mostly Amanda Kent's story. Starting in 1836 at the Alamo, to the gold rush of California, to 1852 New York. While a strong woman that survived much that most people couldn't handle, she was obsessed with her goals that will leave you with the question of the price paid for her goals.I personally didn't care for Jephtha Kent's diary entries but they were a significant part to introduce Jephtha and give a feel for the views in this historical time period.It is a good read.
—Tammy
