Customer Reviews

The Bear Flag: A Novel of California

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How did the forts work with thousands of people enclosed within stone walls with the untamed wilderness all around? Why did some soldiers dress in rags with no shoes while the generals in charge rode horseback and ate delicacies? How did it feel to be alive during that time in history? How did the flag really become official? This story shows you all the events as if you were living through them. Where on earth did a woman fit into that type of life? Read this and you will have a plausible idea. Fill in the holes in your California or American history while you enjoy this book! I loved it!

If only the author could have stuck to the historical fiction she was writing. An interesting story I'd like to read more on and it could have carried a novel all by itself easily. The audience surrogate, Cat Reilly, is a 20th century woman shoehorned into a nineteenth century event, but she does get around into the compressed events and give a good accounting, not only of the confusing series of incidents that led to the capture of California from Mexico, but also of the day to day lives of the people of that time. For some reason, the author didn't trust this story and threw in a romance between Cat and a Russian spying for the Mexicans. For no reason that I could see, they jump into bed together and continue to lust after each other when they're not involved in the politics and warfare of the time. The book is reminiscent of Dana Fuller Ross' Wagon's West series, but with a fuller historical story. Too bad it had to include the romance.