America's First Daughter

As you will notice, I didn't include this book with my most recent post featuring the books I've recently read.  This is because, this book deserves a post of its own...great books always do.

This is one of those books I didn't want to end, yet, I refused myself to savor its chapters, staying up well into the early morning to finish it.

It took a few pages getting use to the format in which the authors used to write it. It's written as Patsy telling her story to the reader while she searches through her father's, Thomas Jefferson, lifetime of letters. These letters are in fact, the archives in which the authors used as their foundation of the book.

I find myself amazed at just how much I enjoy learning history through such types of historical fiction. One must read this book understanding that while the book is fiction it is written based on actual events recorded in history and in the case of this book also written based on actual letters written by Thomas Jefferson and several of his comrades and family.

One of the enjoyments of this book for me was the vocabulary and communication style used at the of Thomas Jefferson's era. The vocabulary is exquisite, even so, I benefitted from having read this book using my Kindle so to have immediate access to a built in dictionary.

Upon reading this book, you will see that the authors romanticize certain events and relationships. They admittedly do so in order to add assumptions to the characters and relationships that aren't clearly defined in research. However, I don't believe they comprised the history to the point of making the story a fabricated work of fiction and they tried as much as able to keep the story as truthful as possible.

The historical aspects I enjoyed were of course learning more about the culture, the society and the politics of the time. I learned that some things have yet to change but that others have progressed for the better.

This book will be a part of my all time favorites. In fact, I find myself wishing this could be made into a movie, if not for the theaters than maybe a fictional documentary to be enjoyed on TV.

5 Stars! Even the cover is beautiful.  It's one I would want to frame and hang in my personal library...if I had one.