The vast majority of characters introduced in the books are taken from real life incidents, and her re-telling of the events of their lives is done thoroughly and with style. Kirkpatrick writes beautiful dialogue and her characters are believable. And even though I'm not keen on saga-style writing, she does it well. Her research and the bibliography at the end of the book are impressive.
The books tell of the life in the 1800's of Emma Wagner, who at a young age marries a rising star in, what appears to be, a cult. She marries for love at the beginning of the series, suffers a loss and in the second book (which I found a bit disturbing) has to recover from that loss and, as a result, makes some very bad decisions.
For anyone who enjoys fiction/non-fiction set in the days of America's early days of the frontier, this is the series to read. And for those who like to see books well-written, you'd be pleased as well.
(i received this book free to review from waterbrook/multnomah)
