Customer Reviews

Seventrees

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Three different generations of women that overcome many opstacles, from losing family and friends to almost losing themselves along with their homes and businesses. These women aren't your normal idea of the "regular" woman out in Seventrees, Kansas in the 1800's. This book is the best book that I have ever read. At first I didn't think that I would like it, but it became the #1 book on my list. I don't usually read historical books because they are boring. I could barely put this book down. It just goes to tell you you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. It made me have a different perspective of HISTORY. "We can't ever go back, Maggie, my love. Too much has happened. But do you think we can go forward together?"(pg.223) This was the quote that changed the whole story. If it wasn't for this sentence the whole story would have been different. I picked this quote to show that one sentence of the book changes the whole book. It set the feeling for the rest of the story, which I loved. I was surprised to hear this sentence and I am glad that I did. There is nothing more that I can say except that I LOVE this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Seventrees is the story of three generations of strong women, beginning with Maggie Halleck. Her parents dead, Maggie is passed from one relation to another and spends several years with Amish relations before returning to her uncle's household in Germantown, Pennsylvania. While unwelcome as a dependent child, he's now mighty happy to have a *cheap* servant to look after his sickly wife. Maggie eventually marries schoolteacher Gerald Freiler, but he spends too much time chasing rainbows and can't hold a job so they decide to try their fortunes in Santa Fe (still Mexican territory). Circumstances along the trail force them to delay Gerald's dreams of riches and winter in Kansas - but Maggie's taken one look and decided this is home. Maggie uses her brain and common sense and over the years builds a thriving business in the growing town of Seventrees while Gerald resents the loss of his dreams.

The story continues with that of their daughter Schooner (a nickname reflecting her birth in a prairie schooner), as tensions between north and south continue to heat up over the slavery issue. Schooner loves the one man she can't have, and ends up making two ill-advised marriages to weaker willed men - will providence finally make the one man she wants available to her? Or will she wake up and smell the coffee and realize who is the right man for her?

Victoria, the result of Schooner's second marriage to an English Lord (it's too complicated and spoilerish to explain), thinks herself too well-born for the simple, dull life of Kansas and is thrilled when her mother sends her to England and her father to be made into a proper lady. Will Victoria realize that there's more gold to be found with home and family in Kansas than in the tarnished glitter of the English nobility? Is there truly no place like home?

(sorry, couldn't resist)

While not an action packed page turner, this was still a highly entertaining read for me. I loved watching Maggie and her family literally carve a business and town of not much of anything but a small settlement by a missionary school. The author does a great job of blending her fictional characters into history, and I was blown away at what a hot-bed Kansas was prior to and into the Civil war . Out of print and rather rare from the prices the used sellers are asking (!!), but I was able to snatch a copy from Paperbackswap and from the Worldcat listings it appears there are libraries in the US that have copies - so don't forget to try for an ILL.

This work ranks very high among my extensive collection of fiction. This author takes us on a colorful journey into America's distant past with vivid imagery, well crafted, memorable characters through the mid 1800s, the Civil War and post war years through the eyes of Maggie and her daughters. It is indeed the story of three generations of American women, the matriarch of which carved a pharmaceutical empire out of very meager beginnings.

I cannot say enough good for this book.

Seventrees is a wonderful book that tells the saga of three generations of women in the 1800s. Historically it has the facts correct, but the main appeal of this book is its characters. None of these women are saints - they are fully three dimensional and therefore are more interesting. I owned this book until about 8 years ago, when I loaned it to a person who never returned it. So far, I have yet to find another copy. It is a tribute to the lasting impression that this story had on me that I will continue to search until I find it again. This is a great book for young girls to read in that it emphasizes independence in women.