Amanda Maclean

Back in the '90s, I found this third book in the Westward historical ChristFic romance series at the library and checked it out. I didn't get far enough into the story to remember anything specific about it before I had to return the book. But I never forgot the look of the romantic, illustrated cover art that drew me to this novel. Years later, I wanted to find it again.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember the title or author name. I did vaguely recall seeing a mountain or something on the publisher's logo on the book, and I later guessed that it must have been the publisher Multnomah. (Though it turned out that the logo I saw was from Palisades, a romance imprint.)

The two logos from the '90s:
https://prismaticprospects.files.wordpress.com/2024/04/multnomah-palisades-logos...

(The Multnomah logo has a black and white mountain while the Palisades logo has purple riverside cliffs.)

Two years ago, while I was browsing through listings of older novels and came across the first book in this series for the first time—eureka!—this third book, Everlasting, was listed with it, and I recognized the cover! Especially the heroine pictured in the center.

So, my nostalgic side decided to finally go back and try the series from the beginning.

Now, I'll admit that given my experience with other books from Christian fiction's earlier days, I figured I'd probably have some issues with this series' style, the romantic development, and the general plot execution. And now after reading, I also have issues with the depictions of the enslaved characters and the use of the Underground Railroad in the series. (I already addressed that in my reviews of the previous two books, so I won't rehash those details.)

Even so, as a longtime lover of historical fiction, I hoped I'd still enjoy the series on the level of comfort reading. And on the whole, I did.

Moreover, I'm still amazed at how the cover of Book Three stayed with me—the recognition of it being what drew me back to this series after all that time, even when I couldn't remember anything else about this book. It goes to show that cover art really does matter.… (lisätietoja)

As far as entertainment quality goes, the overall plot and suspense kept me interested through most of this older historical ChristFic novel, Book Two in the Westward series. While I intentionally don't read much fiction with Old American South plantation settings, I read this book because: 1) it's in the middle of a series that doesn't center on plantations in the other books, and 2) I knew ahead of time about Callie's underground plans.

At the same time, even as the read kept me interested, it reinforced to me why it's important to have diverse authors and perspectives in this genre, and also to have historical stories with significant Black characters who aren't enslaved. There's so much more to Black Americans' place in history than slavery, and besides, reading narration that refers to a person as "the slave" multiple times makes me cringe these days. Concerning a particular character at one point in this novel, I thought to myself, "He's a man. The narrator should stick to calling him a man, rather than 'the slave did this, the slave said that.'"

Along that vein, the plot went downhill for me in the last quarter as it followed a certain trend that too many stories do, when the key purpose of characters of color is to help a white protagonist along their journey, sometimes at whatever risk or cost to the characters of color. It seems to me that even this story's tie to the Underground Railroad is ultimately there for Callie's benefit, for the growth and development of her character and her heroism and also to help her on the way to salvation. But when she doesn't need the Railroad's cause anymore as she heads toward her Happily Ever After elsewhere...

Anyhow. I enjoyed the first book in this series, and it's still the third book, Everlasting, that I've really wanted to get to. I didn't finish it when I borrowed it from the library back in the '90s, and for years, I couldn't remember the title, author's name, or what the story was about. But I stumbled upon the book cover online recently and was like, "Wow! I remember that pretty cover art."

So, this historical fiction fan will still be continuing on to that last novel in the series.… (lisätietoja)

Back in the '90s, I found the third book in the Westward historical ChristFic series at the library. I didn't get far into the story (sometimes I feel weird jumping straight to the middle or end of a series), but even though I forgot that book's title and author, I never forgot the look of the romantic, illustrated cover art that drew me to the novel.

So, when I recently came across this first book in the series for the first time (Westward), and I recognized the cover of the third book listed with it (Everlasting), my nostalgic side wanted to finally go back and try this series from the beginning. Admittedly, given my experience with other books from this genre's earlier days, I wasn't necessarily expecting superb writing but rather overall entertainment value.

I found the writing style in this novel to be rather basic and sometimes repetitive in its descriptions, with much about the plot being too obvious and predictable for me, and the plot points meant to lead to the evangelistic/salvational lessons are common and conspicuous. Also, the characters would have needed more dimension for me to find the romance compelling, and in light of the love triangle, the heroine switches from nearly "all in" with one man to "all in" with the other far too quickly.

On a different note, I inwardly cringed during the parts where Juliana and Callie longingly view their family's plantation through privileged eyes, the story making passing mentions of "slave quarters" without ever showing any of the enslaved people, as if to keep those people essentially invisible, despite their being the ones whose forced labor made the sisters' plantation lives so luxurious and comfortable.

Yet, as it seems there's more about the plantation to come later in the series, the larger story arc might address the enslaved people there. Also, knowing that indigenous people would likely play a role in this tale of westward travel, I was glad to see that they're not all treated as figures only there for the sake of Western danger and violence. Granted, I did a little additional cringing at the seemingly adventurous tint painted over the issue of wagon train members killing buffalo for sport, but again, the plight of indigenous peoples may be addressed further as the series continues.

In all, Juliana's determination to forge a new life, the rigors of wagon train travel, and the thread of political intrigue in this easy read did indeed give me the degree of entertainment I was looking for.… (lisätietoja)

This is book three (and the last one) in this series, and I must say I was impressed with the whole series. This story is about Callie's good friend, the young Irish lady Sheridan O'Brian. You will have met her in book 2, so I highly recommend you read these stories in the order in which they were written. This story will take you to the California gold fields and you will experience the dangers, the greed and the lifestyles of those who only wanted to make it rich. You will also discover though those whose hearts are good and who delight in doing good.

Sheridan begins her quest to California in search of her twin brother who has gone missing after he supposedly struck gold. She writes to the editor of the newspaper in town and requests a detective to help her find her brother when she arrives. Marcus Jade takes on the detective assignment, even though he actually owns the newspaper. He wants to discover what is going on with the miners who are suddenly disappearing. It will be an exciting and perilous journey and these two will eventually find themselves taking on two orphans to watch over. Sheridan will have to learn to guard her tongue and her temper and Marcus will learn how to show himself faithful and trustworthy. Together, with the help of the Lord, they will discover a love that is "Everlasting".… (lisätietoja)