Pursuing Gold
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Third Person • Multiple Points of View • Fiction • 308 Pages
About the Book (Backcover Blurb):
With his father dead and his business partner incapacitated, Peter Chandler inherits the leadership of a bank in economic crisis. With only a newly-minted college degree and little experience, Peter joins his partner’s daughter, Mary Beth Roper, in a struggle to keep C&R Bank afloat while the Civil War rages around Chattanooga. Political pressure for unsecured loans of gold to the government stirs up trouble as tempers and prices rise. Their problems multiply when Mary Beth discovers counterfeit money with Peter’s forged signature. Can they find the forger before the bank fails? The two friends must pursue gold on behalf of their business, as they learn to pursue their heavenly Father to find hope and peace.
Why I Choose this Book:
I rarely comment about covers, but this book pretty much dictates I do so. When I received an email asking if I wanted to review this book the cover hadn’t been released yet. The premiss looked interesting because Historical Fiction without too much romance is pretty much my favorite. So, after reading the blurb several times and deciding that there weren’t any red flags, I excitedly signed up.
Then the book arrived with the above cover. And, well, I kinda lost interest in the book. (Sorry!) I’m sure there are some people who would find that cover promising, but to me it made the book look boring. It was with reluctance that I finally settled down to read the story. Then, crazily enough, the book was really interesting and drew me in right away. So, this is one book I wouldn’t have signed up for if I had seen the cover, but happily I hadn’t.
What I Thought about this Book:
I enjoyed it a lot – it wasn’t what I expected, and that’s a good thing. The book felt very well researched but without too many details to bog the story down. At the end of the book I felt like I understood some of what happened during the Civil War better, so yay.
I especially enjoyed Peter and Mr. Roper’s interactions. Mr. Roper was probably my favorite character even though his scenes were rather brief. The characters were fairly different from each other, and for the most part their actions were believable.
Peter and Mary Beth had a some romance intertwined with their character arch (obviously), but it was done in such a way that, although it wasn’t always completely believable, I actually appreciated it. I hate it when the romance in books is founded on misunderstandings and non-communications, and that was blessedly absent (from what I can remember) in this story. So yay, Miss Cynthia! I applaud you.
The book held my interest and made me want to find out what would happen next. The plot wasn’t incredibly unique, and there were a few things that made me go riigghhhhtt, but for the most part it was well-written.
Conclusion
The book takes place during the Civil war and there’s some violence and threats and people killed (although no direct war scenes). It wasn’t too graphic though, so that was nice. There were also several places in the book that weren’t edited as well as I would have liked, but nothing too horrible.
Overall I appreciated the book, and would like to read more from this author in the future.
Rating
I’m giving Pursuing Gold 3 out of 5 stars, and 7 out of 10.
*I received this book free from Litfuse*
Noveltea 