Review: Bank on This Book--It's a Great Read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2013
The saga of the Fitzpatrick siblings continues in Becky Lower's third book in her series about a family in westward-expanding 1850's America.Once again, Lower manages to interweave rich historical details with the story of siblings of a large, loving family.Here we meet their second oldest son, Basil, who is running the St. Louis branch of the family's bank.We've met Basil before...he's been the rakish devil-may-care brother who prefers dancing girls and going without his shoes to settling down.Temperance literally falls into Basil's life--well, at least her father does. Traveling West to Oregon as conscientious objectors, her family's wagon stops with her ill father and he collapses in Basil's bank. Basil reaches out to help, feeling an instant bond with her family (it reminds him of his own large, loving family) and of course he notices the oldest daughter, his perfect foil, with the name of Temperance.That is just one subtle tongue-in-cheek nuance Lower works into her heartfelt story.Of course, Basil has a heart of gold underneath his rakishness and manages to find the family shelter for the winter in a soddy, and gives the proud, hard working, gun- shooting Temperance a job cleaning the bank and his apartment. But marrying her and taking responsibility for all those siblings,,,and her pregnant mother? Um, no thanks!Temperance fights her attraction to Basil, understanding he's not the kind of man to settle down. She is awaiting her beau to come West to help her family finish their voyage. And Basil is fighting his growing attraction and admiration of this very brave, responsible woman even while he can't help himself falling in love with her.The hard life (the cold! the snow! the hardships!), tragedies, and difficulties of life in the expanding West as well as the big heart of this book made it a great read. You'll enjoy reuniting with Basil's sister Ginger from Lower's first book as well as catching up with the Fitzpatrick family.If you haven't read the stories of Basil's two sisters, Ginger and Heather, you'll be itching to read those when you finish this one. And there are fortunately more Fitzpatrick siblings' stories ahead from the talented Ms. Lower.If you've enjoyed this story, you'll also love Lower's first contemporary book, Blame it on the Brontes, about three sisters forced by the terms of their mother's will to live together for a year after her death in a charming seaside town in New England.I'm so glad Lower's imagination is boundless and her pen fast because I can't wait for her next story!