Patricia Stoltey

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Historical Fiction Takes Many Forms: Mini-Reviews

September 25, 2017 By: Patricia

Many of the books I’ve read over the last year have been historical fiction worthy of four or five stars, and a large percentage of those have been set during World War II. Mischling by Affinity Konar was gripping and poignant—a tragedy. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was a testimony to human suffering and the will to survive. Finding Safehaven by Beverly Marquart was a fictionalized tribute to her father and his contact with the pregnant French girl who escaped from her captors and led the Americans to one of the great Nazi stashes of art and gold.

Recently, I stretched my historical reads into different times and different countries.

I won a copy of One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus in a Goodreads giveaway. This novel is set on the American Frontier in 1875 and is written in the form of May Dodd’s journals and letters.

Author Janet Lane was kind enough to give me a copy of Etti’s Intended, a story of a feisty young gypsy woman who survives against all odds and wins the man of her heart. Much of this story is set in the South of France, a bonus for me as I especially love that part of Europe.

What did I enjoy about these novels?

One Thousand White Women is a story that could have happened in real life, but did not. I think some readers might even call it alternative history. In 1854, a Cheyenne chief requested the government provide one thousand white women to marry Cheyenne men to facilitate the Cheyenne integration into the white man’s world. The program never got off the ground, but author Jim Fergus asked the question, “What if?” The result is a wonderful as well as tragic story about a group of women from diverse backgrounds who were recruited to travel west. For some, the marriages worked out well. For others, not so much. May Dodd, now free of the insane asylum where she’d been incarcerated by her parents for the crime of falling in love and bearing children out of wedlock, writes down everything that happens in her journals and in letters she writes to her children and her sister.

The novel in trade paperback is 434 pages long but seemed much shorter because I couldn’t stop turning the pages. Highly recommended.

Etti’s Intended is a novel of romance that leans heavily on the history and culture of the gypsies who traveled across Europe. The author’s research on the cultural norms, expectations of tribe and family, and the mistakes that cause one young woman to be threatened with expulsion lead the reader to dig deeper into the story. The addition of one very attractive Spanish Gitano Gypsy from Spain pulled me in to the love story as well. Recommended especially for readers of historical romance.

Different periods of history, very different protagonists, but a remarkably similar vein of strong, rebellious females looking for a better way of life with more freedom and more say in their own futures. Jim Fergus does a great job of writing the female point of view in One Thousand White Women. Janet Lane creates a fine figure of a man who has respect for women, especially the sunky Etti, in Etti’s Intended.

Depending on which period of history and which part of the world attracts you the most, you’re bound to find a historical novel that will propel you back in time. If you’re interested in 15th century southern France and Spain, try Etti’s Intended. If you love tales of the American West in the 1800s, go for One Thousand White Women.

Better yet, read both. You won’t be sorry.

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Category: Books and Authors Tag: Etti's Intended, gypsy history, historical fiction, Janet Lane, Jim Fergus, mini book review, One Thousand White Women, strong women in fiction

Comments

  1. Nick Wilford says

    October 1, 2017 at 1:55 am

    Thanks for the recommendations! I need to read more historical novels. Alternate histories are particularly interesting, wondering what could have been.

    • Patricia says

      October 1, 2017 at 8:03 am

      Hi Nick! I read such a wide variety of genres that I have a hard time keeping my “To Be Read” list manageable. It just keeps growing and growing…

  2. Madeline mora-summonte says

    September 27, 2017 at 7:50 am

    I LOVED One Thousand White Women – read it years ago then recently for a book club. There’s actually a sequel/companion novel out now, but I’m not sure I want to read it. I kind of like leaving things the way they are. 🙂

    I got my hands on an ARC of Susan Meissner’s As Bright As Heaven (Feb 2018) and am throughly enjoying it. It’s got a different twist on the time period of The Great War, focusing more on the Spanish flu in Philadelphia and what comes after for one particular family. (I’ve read a few of Meissner’s novels and enjoyed them all – the rest are on my To Read list!)

    • Patricia says

      September 27, 2017 at 8:54 am

      I love recommendations, Madeline. I have not read anything by Susan Meissner so I’ll add her to my list. Do you ever think about how many books we want to read …when I was a kid, I had a plan to read all the books in the world in my lifetime. I was devastated when I discovered that was not possible.

  3. Margot Kinberg says

    September 26, 2017 at 12:32 pm

    I like historical fiction , Pat, and it’s always nice to have new ideas for books in that category. And it’s nice, too, to read about strong female characters. Thanks for these suggestions.

    • Patricia says

      September 26, 2017 at 12:37 pm

      These days I get most of my book recommendations from blogs like yours, from Facebook, and from Goodreads. And also from one of my cousins who always seems to find gems I’ve never heard of. 😀

  4. L. Diane Wolfe says

    September 26, 2017 at 6:57 am

    I just finished reading a historical fiction manuscript set in the 1800’s and it was a page turner, too.

    • Patricia says

      September 26, 2017 at 7:21 am

      Hi Diane! I’ve been reading more novels of the American west lately as well. If you want to read an excellent story with a strong female main character, try Michael Zimmer’s The Poacher’s Daughter. I loved that one.

  5. Alex J. Cavanaugh says

    September 25, 2017 at 2:59 pm

    I don’t believe I’ve read many historical novels.

    • Patricia says

      September 25, 2017 at 3:23 pm

      You’re missing a lot, Alex. Of course, I read almost everything, so recommending just one genre would be hard.

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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