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Great Chicago Fire Trilogy #1
The Hostage
A sweeping tale of love born from the ashes of revenge. . .
October 8, 1871 -- One small spark ignites the entire city of Chicago, sending its residents into panic. But amid the chaos, a chance encounter leads to an unexpected new love.
Unaware of the fire sweeping toward them, Deborah Sinclair confronts her wealthy, powerful father, determined to refuse the society marriage he has arranged for her. Suddenly, out of the smoke and flames, a stranger appears -- gun in hand, intent on avenging an unforgivable crime. As fire consumes the elegant mansion, the ruthless man takes the fragile, sheltered heiress hostage.
Swept off to mist-shrouded Isle Royale, Deborah finds herself the pawn in Tom Silver's dangerous game of revenge. Despite her horror at being kidnapped, she finds herself drawn to the people of the close-knit community and to the startling beauty of the island. As she engages in a battle of wits with her brooding captor, she begins to understand the injustice that fuels his anger, an injustice wrought by her own family. And as winter imprisons the isolated land, she realizes she's a hostage of her own heart. . .
October 8, 1871 -- One small spark ignites the entire city of Chicago, sending its residents into panic. But amid the chaos, a chance encounter leads to an unexpected new love.
Unaware of the fire sweeping toward them, Deborah Sinclair confronts her wealthy, powerful father, determined to refuse the society marriage he has arranged for her. Suddenly, out of the smoke and flames, a stranger appears -- gun in hand, intent on avenging an unforgivable crime. As fire consumes the elegant mansion, the ruthless man takes the fragile, sheltered heiress hostage.
Swept off to mist-shrouded Isle Royale, Deborah finds herself the pawn in Tom Silver's dangerous game of revenge. Despite her horror at being kidnapped, she finds herself drawn to the people of the close-knit community and to the startling beauty of the island. As she engages in a battle of wits with her brooding captor, she begins to understand the injustice that fuels his anger, an injustice wrought by her own family. And as winter imprisons the isolated land, she realizes she's a hostage of her own heart. . .
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
237 people are currently reading
1919 people want to read
About the author
Susan Wiggs
169 books7,434 followersSusan Wiggs's life is all about family, friends...and fiction. She lives at the water's edge on an island in Puget Sound, and she commutes to her writers' group in a 17-foot motorboat. She serves as author liaison for Field's End, a literary community on Bainbridge Island, Washington, bringing inspiration and instruction from the world's top authors to her seaside community. (See www.fieldsend.org) She's been featured in the national media, including NPR's "Talk of the Nation," and is a popular speaker locally and nationally.
According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with "refreshingly honest emotion," and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is "one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book." Booklist characterizes her books as "real and true and unforgettable." She is the recipient of three RITA (sm) awards and four starred reviews from Publishers Weekly for her books. The Winter Lodge and Passing Through Paradise have appeared on PW’s annual "Best Of" lists. Several of her books have been listed as top Booksense picks and optioned as feature films. Her novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages and have made national bestseller lists, including the USA Today, Washington Post and New York Times lists.
The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. Readers can learn more on the web at www.susanwiggs.com and on her lively blog at www.susanwiggs.wordpress.com.
According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with "refreshingly honest emotion," and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is "one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book." Booklist characterizes her books as "real and true and unforgettable." She is the recipient of three RITA (sm) awards and four starred reviews from Publishers Weekly for her books. The Winter Lodge and Passing Through Paradise have appeared on PW’s annual "Best Of" lists. Several of her books have been listed as top Booksense picks and optioned as feature films. Her novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages and have made national bestseller lists, including the USA Today, Washington Post and New York Times lists.
The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. Readers can learn more on the web at www.susanwiggs.com and on her lively blog at www.susanwiggs.wordpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews
March 13, 2011
Not many books leave me speechless, especially not books by authors I've never read before, but Susan Wiggs succeeded with this first book in her Chicago Fire Trilogy.
It started so slow I was convinced I'd be bored to tears only a few chapters in, but that's when things picked up pace and I was riveted until the very end. As a fellow reader mentioned in her review, this is a story you cannot help but call sweeping and majestic. Sure, it spanned only a few months, but it read more like a saga, due to so much going on.
It started with a chilling description of the Great Chicago Fire, the embers carried on the wind, the flames slowly licking at straw and wooden buildings, the fire slowly, inexorably picking up speed, the wind howling, carrying the golden devastation across the river into "rich" territory...The big fire made no exceptions, it didn't care about rank, wealth, family, it ate everything that crossed its path, gobbled up houses, mansions, earthly possessions of both rich and the poor, wiping out everything, creating a clean slate. Tabula rasa.
In the middle of the carnage we get to meet a pampered "Princess", a sheltered, naive, silly heiress with not much on her mind, besides trying to convince her father not to let her marry her fiancé. Apparently something happened between them the night before, something that shattered Deborah's (skewered) view of the world, though we don't exactly know what that was.
Of course, her father doesn't listen, what does a girl know of what is best for her. She would marry Philip Ascot and that's that.
Then, the fire intrudes on them, bringing with it a huge, wild man determined to kill Deborah's father, but who ends up taking Deborah hostage instead. Even though she escapes him in the melee of fleeing bodies, he manages to find her, snatches her from her fiancé's arms and carries her aboard his boat, heading for north...
Tom Silver wants revenge on the man whose mining enterprise resulted in fifteen dead, his foster son among them. When he fails to kill the man responsible, he decides to take his daughter hostage, holding her for ransom as retribution for all the grief the man has caused their community. Unfortunately, Tom's haphazard scheme doesn't go according to plan and...
That's as much as I'm going to say for fear of venturing too much into spoiler territory. Let me just say this book is comprised of four parts. Part one recounts the initial fire, Deborah's kidnapping, and the journey north to Isle Royale, Tom Silver's home. Part two tell the story of Deborah's sojourn on Isle Royale, her slow change from the sheltered, silly and pampered heiress, the slow change of her view on her life and one life and world in general. Part three is the best part, IMO, because in those few chapters the book takes a turn from historical fiction into historical romance, starting with a wild, gruff man crossing an iced-over lake in a blizzard to go rescue the damsel in distress (whom, according to him, he doesn't even like). And part four brings the story to full circle with Deborah's "rescue" and small rebellion against the "norms".
This book truly was a sweeping and majestic tale of a natural disaster creating a blank slate for people to create a new life or get a new and different view of the world and life. In the beginning of the story, as Deborah stands on the shore of the lake with Chicago burning behind her, she's thinking right along those lines. What would it feel like to disappear and be reborn someone else, to experience life as it was meant to be experienced...And her wish comes true in the form of a captivity that slowly, but surely reshapes her into a woman she could be proud of being.
She went slightly on my nerves in the beginning, due to her selfish, spoiled way of thinking, but she wasn't annoying as other heroines tend to be, because the author made it clear it was all due to Deborah's upbringing and Deborah herself admitted it repeatedly throughout the story and was determined to change. And change she did, but not so much as to seem out of character. She still retained some of her posh behavior, admitted to being a coward, tried her best to survive while admitting she had no idea what to do. The author didn't change her overnight into a fearless, capable Amazon, so thus retaining that much-needed sense of realism. Deborah was still Deborah, just a stronger, wiser, more capable version of the pampered heiress from the beginning of the story.
I was a bit sad not to get more glimpses into Tom Silver, though, but since this was mostly Deborah's story that was to be expected. He didn't need to change, he was perfect as he was (crossing the ice in a blizzard, hello!), but it was Deborah's view of him that needed to change for her (and for the reader) to see under his gruff, wild man facade.
Well, I veered pretty off course with my rant, so I'll just keep it short and simple.
This was by far one of the best historical romances I've read in a while. Intelligent, deep, and insightful, it built its momentum slowly, but surely, brining the reader closer to the characters as their stories and psyches unfolded before us, as they get to know themselves and one another...
A beautiful, poignant story with wonderful imagery and characters. Unforgettable.
It started so slow I was convinced I'd be bored to tears only a few chapters in, but that's when things picked up pace and I was riveted until the very end. As a fellow reader mentioned in her review, this is a story you cannot help but call sweeping and majestic. Sure, it spanned only a few months, but it read more like a saga, due to so much going on.
It started with a chilling description of the Great Chicago Fire, the embers carried on the wind, the flames slowly licking at straw and wooden buildings, the fire slowly, inexorably picking up speed, the wind howling, carrying the golden devastation across the river into "rich" territory...The big fire made no exceptions, it didn't care about rank, wealth, family, it ate everything that crossed its path, gobbled up houses, mansions, earthly possessions of both rich and the poor, wiping out everything, creating a clean slate. Tabula rasa.
In the middle of the carnage we get to meet a pampered "Princess", a sheltered, naive, silly heiress with not much on her mind, besides trying to convince her father not to let her marry her fiancé. Apparently something happened between them the night before, something that shattered Deborah's (skewered) view of the world, though we don't exactly know what that was.
Of course, her father doesn't listen, what does a girl know of what is best for her. She would marry Philip Ascot and that's that.
Then, the fire intrudes on them, bringing with it a huge, wild man determined to kill Deborah's father, but who ends up taking Deborah hostage instead. Even though she escapes him in the melee of fleeing bodies, he manages to find her, snatches her from her fiancé's arms and carries her aboard his boat, heading for north...
Tom Silver wants revenge on the man whose mining enterprise resulted in fifteen dead, his foster son among them. When he fails to kill the man responsible, he decides to take his daughter hostage, holding her for ransom as retribution for all the grief the man has caused their community. Unfortunately, Tom's haphazard scheme doesn't go according to plan and...
That's as much as I'm going to say for fear of venturing too much into spoiler territory. Let me just say this book is comprised of four parts. Part one recounts the initial fire, Deborah's kidnapping, and the journey north to Isle Royale, Tom Silver's home. Part two tell the story of Deborah's sojourn on Isle Royale, her slow change from the sheltered, silly and pampered heiress, the slow change of her view on her life and one life and world in general. Part three is the best part, IMO, because in those few chapters the book takes a turn from historical fiction into historical romance, starting with a wild, gruff man crossing an iced-over lake in a blizzard to go rescue the damsel in distress (whom, according to him, he doesn't even like). And part four brings the story to full circle with Deborah's "rescue" and small rebellion against the "norms".
This book truly was a sweeping and majestic tale of a natural disaster creating a blank slate for people to create a new life or get a new and different view of the world and life. In the beginning of the story, as Deborah stands on the shore of the lake with Chicago burning behind her, she's thinking right along those lines. What would it feel like to disappear and be reborn someone else, to experience life as it was meant to be experienced...And her wish comes true in the form of a captivity that slowly, but surely reshapes her into a woman she could be proud of being.
She went slightly on my nerves in the beginning, due to her selfish, spoiled way of thinking, but she wasn't annoying as other heroines tend to be, because the author made it clear it was all due to Deborah's upbringing and Deborah herself admitted it repeatedly throughout the story and was determined to change. And change she did, but not so much as to seem out of character. She still retained some of her posh behavior, admitted to being a coward, tried her best to survive while admitting she had no idea what to do. The author didn't change her overnight into a fearless, capable Amazon, so thus retaining that much-needed sense of realism. Deborah was still Deborah, just a stronger, wiser, more capable version of the pampered heiress from the beginning of the story.
I was a bit sad not to get more glimpses into Tom Silver, though, but since this was mostly Deborah's story that was to be expected. He didn't need to change, he was perfect as he was (crossing the ice in a blizzard, hello!), but it was Deborah's view of him that needed to change for her (and for the reader) to see under his gruff, wild man facade.
Well, I veered pretty off course with my rant, so I'll just keep it short and simple.
This was by far one of the best historical romances I've read in a while. Intelligent, deep, and insightful, it built its momentum slowly, but surely, brining the reader closer to the characters as their stories and psyches unfolded before us, as they get to know themselves and one another...
A beautiful, poignant story with wonderful imagery and characters. Unforgettable.
June 2, 2017
"She had to warm him with her body heat. Like the two men under the moose hide in the campfire story. The men who had warmed each other with their body heat. Skin to skin contact."
Okay, I've considered myself a Susan Wiggs fan for a while now. Even though a couple of her books have provided me simply with mild enjoyment, rather than all-out shakes and shivers. But this book.
NO.
We begin with a rather long, desperately poetic description of the Chicago fire of 1871. I'm a pretty patient person, but I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty damn bored. But I powered through. Because I am patient. We're finally taken to our heroine, Deborah Sinclair, who Wiggs is apparently trying to pass off as deceptively simple-minded and spoiled, even though there is obviously something else going on. Something that is in fact very serious, but that I guessed within the first few pages of chapter one. Deborah is intent on cancelling her engagement to the fabulously well-connected Phillip Ascot, so off we go to Daddy's mansion to beg escape. We're then introduced to our hero... *looks askance around the room* Hero?... Yeah, hero, I guess - Tom Silver. He's in a very dark place because an explosion at one of Daddy Sinclair's mines killed his foster son, so has he come to demand retribution? Nope. He is set to flat out shoot the bastard in sleep. Will Tom be hanged for his crime? Who cares? Not Tom. Vengeance must be swift! Unfortunately for vengeance, the city-wide fire gets in the way.
Long story short, Tom misses his chance to become a murderer and decides instead to make pretty Miss Sinclair his hostage instead. Tom sails Deborah all the way to his home in Isle Royale, a journey that literally felt as long in book time as in real time, or possibly longer. The interaction between our hero and heroine mainly consists of "you're an annoying brat" "you're so cold" "stay in here with your hands tied" "you have no heart" kind of outbursts. Now this is all normal romance novel kind of stuff, except it lasts chapters and chapters. And I know what you're thinking! It must be leading up to something big. But, people, we're not even at the halfway point yet. No, no, excitement can't come until the last of these four hundred pages!
Once in Isle Royale, Tom and Deborah continue to bicker about her so-called helplessness, even though both of them can't help but acknowledge her usefulness as she helps people in the village do things like gut fish and sew. But then "ice-up" comes, and through a lot of somewhat ridiculous circumstances the two are forced to live in the same cabin together the entire winter. As a reader three hundred pages in, bored as stiff as that horse that died in the snow a couple chapters ago, this is the perfect opportunity to FINALLY have some of the intimacy and excitement build in this relationship.
I was still bored bored BORED. Even during - at last - the description of the horrible something that happened to Deborah that I already knew about the whole flipping time. I wouldn't have been so bored if there had just been more of a SIZZLE between these two, but it was more like an awkward...broil? Tom would say and think these things that were pretty hot, but of course it would fall flat because these characters have nothing to talk about besides the things they refuse to talk about that we already know about!
And after two lovely consensual kisses shared, Deborah asks simply: "Can we?"
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is our build up.
And after weeks, months, who knows, of vigorous lovemaking we get this delightful little textbook conflict that still leaves great minds everywhere baffled:
"It can never work."
....Why not?
...Why the fuck not?
Luckily, even though it CAN'T WORK, and they're TOO DIFFERENT, Deb and Tom manage to tape everything back together within the span of twenty randomly life-threatening pages, without any verbal realization that it can in fact work. Good for them.
But, just, no
Needless to say, I was really disappointed by this book (and amazed by my own endurance). I'm normally very fond of Wiggs writing style, but this seemed nothing like her! Every single moment of the book, even fairly meaningless ones, were drawn out for pages. And reading from the heroine's POV meant paragraphs of reflections that were so elaborate and poetic they almost bordered on saccharine, all while she told us things we already know! We alllllll know, Deborah. In spite of that, all the novels "secrets" were treated as such, skirted around in all the narration. I felt like I was being told a story, rather than placed within one. And don't even get me started with the force-fed political and social inserts. I'm completely all right with an author subtly, sensitively tracing her plot line or character development with social commentary, if its applicable to the story. But to throw things like Darwin's Origin of the Species in right out of the blue?? Not to mention the constant repetition of Deborah's struggle with independence. "They always said I couldn't do anything, I was like a doll, I felt x, y, z, I couldn't do x, y, z" - EVERY - SINGLE - PAGE
A good romance requires tact, deep insight into the minds of the readers. And, dammit, you need a hero and heroine with flesh and blood. And you need to be willing to do some serious CUTS. What was with all the bear metaphor stuff? I don't know. I just know I WASTED. VALUABLE. TIME.
Rating: 1.5 Stars? 1 moose. 0.5 opera-singing bears. Asa would be ashamed.
Okay, I've considered myself a Susan Wiggs fan for a while now. Even though a couple of her books have provided me simply with mild enjoyment, rather than all-out shakes and shivers. But this book.
NO.
We begin with a rather long, desperately poetic description of the Chicago fire of 1871. I'm a pretty patient person, but I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty damn bored. But I powered through. Because I am patient. We're finally taken to our heroine, Deborah Sinclair, who Wiggs is apparently trying to pass off as deceptively simple-minded and spoiled, even though there is obviously something else going on. Something that is in fact very serious, but that I guessed within the first few pages of chapter one. Deborah is intent on cancelling her engagement to the fabulously well-connected Phillip Ascot, so off we go to Daddy's mansion to beg escape. We're then introduced to our hero... *looks askance around the room* Hero?... Yeah, hero, I guess - Tom Silver. He's in a very dark place because an explosion at one of Daddy Sinclair's mines killed his foster son, so has he come to demand retribution? Nope. He is set to flat out shoot the bastard in sleep. Will Tom be hanged for his crime? Who cares? Not Tom. Vengeance must be swift! Unfortunately for vengeance, the city-wide fire gets in the way.
Long story short, Tom misses his chance to become a murderer and decides instead to make pretty Miss Sinclair his hostage instead. Tom sails Deborah all the way to his home in Isle Royale, a journey that literally felt as long in book time as in real time, or possibly longer. The interaction between our hero and heroine mainly consists of "you're an annoying brat" "you're so cold" "stay in here with your hands tied" "you have no heart" kind of outbursts. Now this is all normal romance novel kind of stuff, except it lasts chapters and chapters. And I know what you're thinking! It must be leading up to something big. But, people, we're not even at the halfway point yet. No, no, excitement can't come until the last of these four hundred pages!
Once in Isle Royale, Tom and Deborah continue to bicker about her so-called helplessness, even though both of them can't help but acknowledge her usefulness as she helps people in the village do things like gut fish and sew. But then "ice-up" comes, and through a lot of somewhat ridiculous circumstances the two are forced to live in the same cabin together the entire winter. As a reader three hundred pages in, bored as stiff as that horse that died in the snow a couple chapters ago, this is the perfect opportunity to FINALLY have some of the intimacy and excitement build in this relationship.
I was still bored bored BORED. Even during - at last - the description of the horrible something that happened to Deborah that I already knew about the whole flipping time. I wouldn't have been so bored if there had just been more of a SIZZLE between these two, but it was more like an awkward...broil? Tom would say and think these things that were pretty hot, but of course it would fall flat because these characters have nothing to talk about besides the things they refuse to talk about that we already know about!
And after two lovely consensual kisses shared, Deborah asks simply: "Can we?"
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is our build up.
And after weeks, months, who knows, of vigorous lovemaking we get this delightful little textbook conflict that still leaves great minds everywhere baffled:
"It can never work."
....Why not?
...Why the fuck not?
Luckily, even though it CAN'T WORK, and they're TOO DIFFERENT, Deb and Tom manage to tape everything back together within the span of twenty randomly life-threatening pages, without any verbal realization that it can in fact work. Good for them.
But, just, no
Needless to say, I was really disappointed by this book (and amazed by my own endurance). I'm normally very fond of Wiggs writing style, but this seemed nothing like her! Every single moment of the book, even fairly meaningless ones, were drawn out for pages. And reading from the heroine's POV meant paragraphs of reflections that were so elaborate and poetic they almost bordered on saccharine, all while she told us things we already know! We alllllll know, Deborah. In spite of that, all the novels "secrets" were treated as such, skirted around in all the narration. I felt like I was being told a story, rather than placed within one. And don't even get me started with the force-fed political and social inserts. I'm completely all right with an author subtly, sensitively tracing her plot line or character development with social commentary, if its applicable to the story. But to throw things like Darwin's Origin of the Species in right out of the blue?? Not to mention the constant repetition of Deborah's struggle with independence. "They always said I couldn't do anything, I was like a doll, I felt x, y, z, I couldn't do x, y, z" - EVERY - SINGLE - PAGE
A good romance requires tact, deep insight into the minds of the readers. And, dammit, you need a hero and heroine with flesh and blood. And you need to be willing to do some serious CUTS. What was with all the bear metaphor stuff? I don't know. I just know I WASTED. VALUABLE. TIME.
Rating: 1.5 Stars? 1 moose. 0.5 opera-singing bears. Asa would be ashamed.
May 19, 2010
So beware romance fans...this book reads more like fiction than romance until the last 100 pages or so...but when it FINALLY morphs into a romance novel it is really really good romance.
I'm a sucker for the movie Overboard with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Spoiled rich girl is exposed to hard work, family, and true love for the first time and never looks back. The Hostage is like that. Deborah is a wealthy heiress who is supposed to marry a member of the peer in order to give her wealthy dad the "respect" that he desperately wants. When she rides into Chicago to plead with her father to stop the marriage, little does she know that Chicago is in flames...literally. This book takes place during the Great Fire of 1871 when the heart of Chicago burned to the ground. Tom Silver is also on his way to visit Deborah's dad, but for very different reasons. His is for revenge in the form of murder. He doesn't end up killing Deborah's father, but instead takes Deborah as his hostage, hence the title of the book.
That is a synopsis of Part 1 of this book. Part 2 takes place on the island in which Tom lives for a portion of the year. Tom hopes to secure a ransom to repay people who were wronged by Deborah's father, but ends up being sattled with Deborah instead..her father refuses the ransom. During this part of the book I almost gave up and stopped reading. Tom cannot stand Deborah and is distant and somewhat cruel to her, but gradually her willingness to learn, help out, and befriend people on the island begin to thaw his coldness.
Part 3 is the gem of all gems. Read this book if for nothing else just to have the pleasure of this final portion. Through an unfortunate event, these two get holed up together for and entire winter. (I love a good cabin romance)! The romance takes root, buds, and then blooms into a beautiful relationship. I was moved deeply by Tom and his concern and thoughtfullness when it came to Deborah. The romance was believeable, poignant, and very touching. I can recommend this book, despite the slow start, for Part 3 and the epilogue alone.
Stay patient...Wiggs truly saves her best for the end of this book.
I'm a sucker for the movie Overboard with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Spoiled rich girl is exposed to hard work, family, and true love for the first time and never looks back. The Hostage is like that. Deborah is a wealthy heiress who is supposed to marry a member of the peer in order to give her wealthy dad the "respect" that he desperately wants. When she rides into Chicago to plead with her father to stop the marriage, little does she know that Chicago is in flames...literally. This book takes place during the Great Fire of 1871 when the heart of Chicago burned to the ground. Tom Silver is also on his way to visit Deborah's dad, but for very different reasons. His is for revenge in the form of murder. He doesn't end up killing Deborah's father, but instead takes Deborah as his hostage, hence the title of the book.
That is a synopsis of Part 1 of this book. Part 2 takes place on the island in which Tom lives for a portion of the year. Tom hopes to secure a ransom to repay people who were wronged by Deborah's father, but ends up being sattled with Deborah instead..her father refuses the ransom. During this part of the book I almost gave up and stopped reading. Tom cannot stand Deborah and is distant and somewhat cruel to her, but gradually her willingness to learn, help out, and befriend people on the island begin to thaw his coldness.
Part 3 is the gem of all gems. Read this book if for nothing else just to have the pleasure of this final portion. Through an unfortunate event, these two get holed up together for and entire winter. (I love a good cabin romance)! The romance takes root, buds, and then blooms into a beautiful relationship. I was moved deeply by Tom and his concern and thoughtfullness when it came to Deborah. The romance was believeable, poignant, and very touching. I can recommend this book, despite the slow start, for Part 3 and the epilogue alone.
Stay patient...Wiggs truly saves her best for the end of this book.
October 27, 2016
More between a 3.5 and a 3.8 than a 4.
I liked the book the plot, I loved how several situations were described and developed, the HEA was great too... but some descriptions were too lengthy and other things not as interesting.
The next one seems to be better, let's hope so.
I liked the book the plot, I loved how several situations were described and developed, the HEA was great too... but some descriptions were too lengthy and other things not as interesting.
The next one seems to be better, let's hope so.
October 1, 2022
This book started out strong, then Deborah began to be annoying af. I liked the premise, the plot was intriguing and the characters ruined it. I did enjoy the dog Smokey however and a lot of this was fascinating and it was a very fast paced read that I easily crammed it j before the end of the month. 4 ⭐!
January 2, 2009
It's 1871 and with the Great Fire of Chicago raging in the background, Tom Silver of Isle Royale takes advantage of the chaos and slips into Arthur Sinclair's home, intent on killing him. Arthur Sinclair's business interests have destroyed many lives on Isle Royale, including Tom Silver's foster son and he's come for his reckoning. Instead, Arthur escapes, leaving behind his only child to face Tom alone.
Deborah Sinclair knows her father's wishes and has always tried to obey. He wants her to marry a Chicago princeling and up until her carefully nurtured and cosseted life was destroyed by her scumbag of a fiance, she was content. Her life is in shambles and that was before Tom Silver kidnapped her and dragged her off to Isle Royale on Lake Superior.
Tom drags her away from Chicago and brings her to Isle Royale. Isle Royale is a poor fishing town but rich in culture and spirit. The townspeople don't know what to make of Deborah. Some are intrigued but most are indifferent, too busy with their day to day survival to care. Tom is a little cold and distant with her. He's transferred a little bit of his anger towards her father onto her but gradually Deborah's natural charm and willingness to help wins him over. Winter settles on the isle and a mishap occurs and by a twist of fate, Deborah is stranded while everyone leaves. Tom immediately braves the deadly winter and goes back for her. Now both of them are stuck on the isle and here is when the romance kicks in. Stuck in close proximity, Tom is forced to acknowledge how special Deborah is and how rare. They build a friendship first, a lasting and intimate friendship that one rarely finds nowadays in romance and it was a realistic and beautiful partnership. As sweet as their time was, winter comes to an end and the world once again intrudes upon their romantic interlude. Deborah's father and her fiance comes for her and Tom must find a way to let her go, just as Deborah is fighting for a chance to stay.
This was a slow moving, but ultimately gorgeous romance. The type where you use words like sweeping and majestic. It's sensual, rather than sexy and it has a dignified air about it. Tom is a brooding, gruff man. He's intense, rather than menacing and Deborah is sheltered, rather than flighty. There is no silliness or Big Misunderstandings in this book. Both of these wounded creatures heal each other and learn to trust and to love. This is a story about a chance encounter from which out of great tragedy came a great love.
There are some funny moments in the book. Reading about Deborah's attempts to settle her father's debt were amusing and reading about Tom's gradual thaw was also lovely. The ending is a little abrupt, but it all works out well, so I was happy.
This was a gentle, gorgeous and sweeping romance and best of all, there's three more books in this series to enjoy!
Deborah Sinclair knows her father's wishes and has always tried to obey. He wants her to marry a Chicago princeling and up until her carefully nurtured and cosseted life was destroyed by her scumbag of a fiance, she was content. Her life is in shambles and that was before Tom Silver kidnapped her and dragged her off to Isle Royale on Lake Superior.
Tom drags her away from Chicago and brings her to Isle Royale. Isle Royale is a poor fishing town but rich in culture and spirit. The townspeople don't know what to make of Deborah. Some are intrigued but most are indifferent, too busy with their day to day survival to care. Tom is a little cold and distant with her. He's transferred a little bit of his anger towards her father onto her but gradually Deborah's natural charm and willingness to help wins him over. Winter settles on the isle and a mishap occurs and by a twist of fate, Deborah is stranded while everyone leaves. Tom immediately braves the deadly winter and goes back for her. Now both of them are stuck on the isle and here is when the romance kicks in. Stuck in close proximity, Tom is forced to acknowledge how special Deborah is and how rare. They build a friendship first, a lasting and intimate friendship that one rarely finds nowadays in romance and it was a realistic and beautiful partnership. As sweet as their time was, winter comes to an end and the world once again intrudes upon their romantic interlude. Deborah's father and her fiance comes for her and Tom must find a way to let her go, just as Deborah is fighting for a chance to stay.
This was a slow moving, but ultimately gorgeous romance. The type where you use words like sweeping and majestic. It's sensual, rather than sexy and it has a dignified air about it. Tom is a brooding, gruff man. He's intense, rather than menacing and Deborah is sheltered, rather than flighty. There is no silliness or Big Misunderstandings in this book. Both of these wounded creatures heal each other and learn to trust and to love. This is a story about a chance encounter from which out of great tragedy came a great love.
There are some funny moments in the book. Reading about Deborah's attempts to settle her father's debt were amusing and reading about Tom's gradual thaw was also lovely. The ending is a little abrupt, but it all works out well, so I was happy.
This was a gentle, gorgeous and sweeping romance and best of all, there's three more books in this series to enjoy!
August 19, 2011
Action. Adventure. Suspense. Murder. Mayhem. Kidnapping. Isolation. Desolation. Near Death. Introspection. Rape. Romance. Compassion. Empathy. Self-Reinvention. All of this and more set against the backdrop of The Great Chicago Fire.
When Deborah Sinclair experiences one life-changing event, she is unprepared for a chain-of-events that is set in motion on the night of the Chicago Fire. Returning to her father's mansion to confront him with a decision she has made about her engagement, she thwarts a would-be killer who then takes her hostage to the north woods of Isle Royale. While being held captive for ransom, Deborah is forced to shed her society girl image and confront the way 'real' people live. Forced by winter blizzards and an icing of the lake that surrounds Isle Royale, she becomes aware of the atrocities that her father's businesses have committed all in the quest of climbing society's golden ladder.
This story, the first in Susan Wiggs' Chicago Fire trilogy is captivating. I was caught from page one and enthralled until the final page. The characters are multi-dimensional and real. The setting is fabulous - I could almost feel the cold of the blizzard's snows and the bleakness of a deserted winter settlement. THE HOSTAGE is not to be missed. Thankfully I still have book three - THE FIREBRAND to read.
When Deborah Sinclair experiences one life-changing event, she is unprepared for a chain-of-events that is set in motion on the night of the Chicago Fire. Returning to her father's mansion to confront him with a decision she has made about her engagement, she thwarts a would-be killer who then takes her hostage to the north woods of Isle Royale. While being held captive for ransom, Deborah is forced to shed her society girl image and confront the way 'real' people live. Forced by winter blizzards and an icing of the lake that surrounds Isle Royale, she becomes aware of the atrocities that her father's businesses have committed all in the quest of climbing society's golden ladder.
This story, the first in Susan Wiggs' Chicago Fire trilogy is captivating. I was caught from page one and enthralled until the final page. The characters are multi-dimensional and real. The setting is fabulous - I could almost feel the cold of the blizzard's snows and the bleakness of a deserted winter settlement. THE HOSTAGE is not to be missed. Thankfully I still have book three - THE FIREBRAND to read.
May 25, 2016
Buying this book was an easy sell. Finishing it is not.
I enjoy historical fiction set in the United States, and the backdrop for this one is fascinating. Set during the great fire in Chicago (and Peshtigo, WI, which gets a mention), there’s a lot of potential. Class clashes, a city in chaos. But I just can’t do it.
Our heroine, Deborah Sinclair, is a poor little rich girl. Her mother died when she was young, and her father, albeit a robber baron, is devoted to her and has high hopes for marrying her off well. Deborah’s engaged to Phillip, a poor member of the Astor family, but for a reason not yet disclosed wants to call off the engagement. The protagonist (whom I can’t bring myself to refer to as a hero), Tom Silver, sets out to murder Deborah’s father, but when Sinclair escapes, he kidnaps Deborah in the hope of a hefty ransom. He drags her off to his boat and they set sail for Isle Royale. I couldn’t make it past Milwaukee though.
I’m not a fan of alpha males who push women around, and the women ignore and still feel a strong attraction. Yes, she’s spunky and can hold her own, but it’s already feeling like Stockholm syndrome is setting in. Bleah. Fall in love with someone who hasn’t kidnapped you.
I enjoy historical fiction set in the United States, and the backdrop for this one is fascinating. Set during the great fire in Chicago (and Peshtigo, WI, which gets a mention), there’s a lot of potential. Class clashes, a city in chaos. But I just can’t do it.
Our heroine, Deborah Sinclair, is a poor little rich girl. Her mother died when she was young, and her father, albeit a robber baron, is devoted to her and has high hopes for marrying her off well. Deborah’s engaged to Phillip, a poor member of the Astor family, but for a reason not yet disclosed wants to call off the engagement. The protagonist (whom I can’t bring myself to refer to as a hero), Tom Silver, sets out to murder Deborah’s father, but when Sinclair escapes, he kidnaps Deborah in the hope of a hefty ransom. He drags her off to his boat and they set sail for Isle Royale. I couldn’t make it past Milwaukee though.
I’m not a fan of alpha males who push women around, and the women ignore and still feel a strong attraction. Yes, she’s spunky and can hold her own, but it’s already feeling like Stockholm syndrome is setting in. Bleah. Fall in love with someone who hasn’t kidnapped you.
July 25, 2016
Initially I wanted to give this a 4 stars but towards the end, the revelation of the heroine's circumstance made me feel a bit annoyed.
While I didn't have qualms about the hero, but I hated how STUPID AND NAIVE the heroine turned out at the end. We were misled that she is pure virginal but she was raped by her fiance?! It was so fucking random I just dropped a star then. Who the fucks let her fiance rapes her and then take the blame?
How can anyone be that dumb?! Well yea...the pacing of their love story was abrupt. More of bantering and then wham sudden love affair?
As this is my first Wiggs Book, I don't think it made a good impression but I would like to give the rest a chance.
While I didn't have qualms about the hero, but I hated how STUPID AND NAIVE the heroine turned out at the end. We were misled that she is pure virginal but she was raped by her fiance?! It was so fucking random I just dropped a star then. Who the fucks let her fiance rapes her and then take the blame?
How can anyone be that dumb?! Well yea...the pacing of their love story was abrupt. More of bantering and then wham sudden love affair?
As this is my first Wiggs Book, I don't think it made a good impression but I would like to give the rest a chance.
October 19, 2020
3.5 Stars
Deborah Sinclair is a beautiful debutant and daughter to the richest man in Chicago. Raised to be useless and ornamental, attended to all her life, with no will of her own, she didn’t realize just how much of shallow, controlled life she lived.
Tom Silver is a half Indian, long-haired mountain man who has suffered a loss so devastating that he is willing to go through great lengths to exact revenge.
“He’d suffered a loss she couldn’t understand, yet she could feel it, a soft ache in her heart, where her mother was supposed to be.”
Susan Wiggs is a new author for me. Set during and after the 1871 Chicago Fire, this story is a great mix of American history, beautiful landscape, wilderness survival, and slow burn romance. The nightmare scenes she painted of the fire and the horror depicted of the fleeing residents was just haunting. The travel on the Great Lakes in Jack’s boat and the description of Isle Royale was beautiful. If a novel gets me online researching locations and history, to me that is a great story. It may seem your typical rich, spoiled woman being held captive by rough brute story, but it felt like an original storyline to me. I enjoyed experiencing Deborah’s discovery of the beauty and simple pleasures of the land and people of Isle Royale. I loved how both characters were good, smart people and their growth and appreciation of each other was well done.
My favorite part was when Deborah crashed on top of Tom while ice skating:
“Do it,” he said softly, holding her spellbound with a look.
“Do what?” she whispered, feeling an inner warmth that made a mockery of the weather.
“Kiss me,” he said. “That’s what you were thinking about.”
When Deborah and Tom finally get down to it, I was a little disappointed at the lack of romance involved, and I didn’t much care for the unrealistic ending, but I liked Wiggs’ characters and writing style overall and look forward to her other romances.
Deborah Sinclair is a beautiful debutant and daughter to the richest man in Chicago. Raised to be useless and ornamental, attended to all her life, with no will of her own, she didn’t realize just how much of shallow, controlled life she lived.
Tom Silver is a half Indian, long-haired mountain man who has suffered a loss so devastating that he is willing to go through great lengths to exact revenge.
“He’d suffered a loss she couldn’t understand, yet she could feel it, a soft ache in her heart, where her mother was supposed to be.”
Susan Wiggs is a new author for me. Set during and after the 1871 Chicago Fire, this story is a great mix of American history, beautiful landscape, wilderness survival, and slow burn romance. The nightmare scenes she painted of the fire and the horror depicted of the fleeing residents was just haunting. The travel on the Great Lakes in Jack’s boat and the description of Isle Royale was beautiful. If a novel gets me online researching locations and history, to me that is a great story. It may seem your typical rich, spoiled woman being held captive by rough brute story, but it felt like an original storyline to me. I enjoyed experiencing Deborah’s discovery of the beauty and simple pleasures of the land and people of Isle Royale. I loved how both characters were good, smart people and their growth and appreciation of each other was well done.
My favorite part was when Deborah crashed on top of Tom while ice skating:
“Do it,” he said softly, holding her spellbound with a look.
“Do what?” she whispered, feeling an inner warmth that made a mockery of the weather.
“Kiss me,” he said. “That’s what you were thinking about.”
When Deborah and Tom finally get down to it, I was a little disappointed at the lack of romance involved, and I didn’t much care for the unrealistic ending, but I liked Wiggs’ characters and writing style overall and look forward to her other romances.
February 23, 2011
* Must love big strong half Indian mountain men, who will walk through miles and miles of life threatening blizzards to save his woman*
Deborah Sinclair is an heiress who is engaged to be married to a man from an aristocratic family mainly because her father wants this marriage. Something happened with this fiance' and she goes to her father to tell him she will not marry this man. Her father ignores this and next thing you know all of Chicago is on fire and they are getting ready to flee. In comes Tom Silver, (Big strong mountain man)whose intention is to kill Deborah's father in an act of revenge. Instead of killing the father, he takes Deborah hostage to his home, a remote island/fishing village.
A great story which Deborah discovers herself and how unfulfilled her life really was. And of course there is the love story... ~sigh~
Deborah Sinclair is an heiress who is engaged to be married to a man from an aristocratic family mainly because her father wants this marriage. Something happened with this fiance' and she goes to her father to tell him she will not marry this man. Her father ignores this and next thing you know all of Chicago is on fire and they are getting ready to flee. In comes Tom Silver, (Big strong mountain man)whose intention is to kill Deborah's father in an act of revenge. Instead of killing the father, he takes Deborah hostage to his home, a remote island/fishing village.
A great story which Deborah discovers herself and how unfulfilled her life really was. And of course there is the love story... ~sigh~
October 10, 2018
An interesting story of a pampered rich daughter of a very rich man. Mr. Sinclair was of new money and his greatest wish was to marry his daughter into a man of old money, so he would be included in the lives of the proper families of the wealthy. While Chicago caught fire, Deborah confronted her father determined to refuse to marry the man he has arranged for her. A stranger appears with a gun and intends to kill Mr. Sinclair revenging a crime Sinclair had committed years ago. But the Deborah slides down the bannister hitting the stranger and ruins his plans. As the fire overtakes them he grabs Deborah and they rush to Lake Michigan. To make a long story short, he takes her to Isle Royal as a hostage. There she learns to find her real self. Of course, being a romance story, there is the fairy tale ending. A good read.
January 6, 2013
Starts out as a typical regency romance but becomes a bit more interesting as the story evolved and adventure followed adventure. I liked the development of the heroine Deborah but Philip and Tom were not as well-rounded so I found I had a much harder time relating to them, Tom especially. Interesting twist at the end but a bit abrupt. I guess that was the intention, but it left me unfulfilled. This is my first Susan Wiggs book, and I've liked it enough to read some more.
August 24, 2014
Interesting story. On the night of the Great Chicago Fire, an heiress confronts her father, refusing the society marriage that he has arranged for her. Suddenly a stranger appears, intent on killing her father. The heiress stops the murder, but ends up getting kidnapped herself.
This is the first story in Wiggs' Chicago Fire Trilogy. It just makes me want to read more.
This is the first story in Wiggs' Chicago Fire Trilogy. It just makes me want to read more.
October 7, 2024
Such a great book!! Not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it !! I love her writing need to read more from her !!
March 19, 2019
This first book in the series tells a complete story and can easily stand alone. The other books in the series are about characters we meet early in this book and then go one to have their own stories apart from this one. I haven't read them, but I strongly suspect it doesn't matter what order they are read.
I have a hard time deciding how to rate this book. On the one hand, there are aspects of it that are brilliant. On another hand, it is too long and parts drag. On the third hand, there is an aspect of the book I truly hate.
Last point first. I hate revenge driven romance stories. In this case, as it develops early, Tom ruthlessly abducts Deborah. While he doesn't in any way abuse her physically, he is mentally cruel. At one point, not too far into the book, Deborah is close to being totally demoralized. Only her indomitable spirit prevents that. In my mind, Stockholm Syndrome is not a good basis for a romance story. And even Deborah acknowledges symptoms of that in her mind a couple of times. The abduction leads to some hypocrisy on Tom's part later on, which is too quickly acknowledged and then slid past. Subtract one solid star.
The book might not drag if Deborah were not so useless. She remarks that she is not stupid but inexperience. She may not be intellectually stupid, but she has the common sense of an amoeba. No that really is an insult to amoebas. She is pathetic. The book tries to pass this off as a result of her extremely sheltered upbringing which is accentuated by society's tendency to reinforce that kind of stupidity in women, especially rich ones. It partly succeeds in drawing sympathy for her with her having thoughts like Now Tom Silver, taking her against her will to this strange new world, had dealt her another blow. She was a useless ornament. Not needed. Not wanted. Barely tolerated. The only saving grace is that Deborah is incredibly optimistic and incredibly courageous. And despite everything she has not achieved the arrogant spirit of total entitlement which is normal for her class.
Tom is exceptionally disciplined and principled, except for wanting to murder Sinclair and then abduct Deborah. He could have easily taken advantage of Deborah in so many ways, but instead treated her fairly generously except for his attitude.
I shelve some books as "Mature Themes". Why I say this book is brilliant is related to that, but it is also definitely a spoiler. There are momentous revelations toward the last third of the book, but they are terrifically foreshadowed. It deals with a sensitive topic which is dealt with unusually well. ***Warning major spoiler***
In the first third, I was totally ready to give up on the book, which I try not to do. But it is well worth pushing through past that.
Other Mature themes: there is very mildly explicit consensual sex. There is murder and some brawling.
I have a hard time deciding how to rate this book. On the one hand, there are aspects of it that are brilliant. On another hand, it is too long and parts drag. On the third hand, there is an aspect of the book I truly hate.
Last point first. I hate revenge driven romance stories. In this case, as it develops early, Tom ruthlessly abducts Deborah. While he doesn't in any way abuse her physically, he is mentally cruel. At one point, not too far into the book, Deborah is close to being totally demoralized. Only her indomitable spirit prevents that. In my mind, Stockholm Syndrome is not a good basis for a romance story. And even Deborah acknowledges symptoms of that in her mind a couple of times. The abduction leads to some hypocrisy on Tom's part later on, which is too quickly acknowledged and then slid past. Subtract one solid star.
The book might not drag if Deborah were not so useless. She remarks that she is not stupid but inexperience. She may not be intellectually stupid, but she has the common sense of an amoeba. No that really is an insult to amoebas. She is pathetic. The book tries to pass this off as a result of her extremely sheltered upbringing which is accentuated by society's tendency to reinforce that kind of stupidity in women, especially rich ones. It partly succeeds in drawing sympathy for her with her having thoughts like Now Tom Silver, taking her against her will to this strange new world, had dealt her another blow. She was a useless ornament. Not needed. Not wanted. Barely tolerated. The only saving grace is that Deborah is incredibly optimistic and incredibly courageous. And despite everything she has not achieved the arrogant spirit of total entitlement which is normal for her class.
Tom is exceptionally disciplined and principled, except for wanting to murder Sinclair and then abduct Deborah. He could have easily taken advantage of Deborah in so many ways, but instead treated her fairly generously except for his attitude.
I shelve some books as "Mature Themes". Why I say this book is brilliant is related to that, but it is also definitely a spoiler. There are momentous revelations toward the last third of the book, but they are terrifically foreshadowed. It deals with a sensitive topic which is dealt with unusually well. ***Warning major spoiler***
In the first third, I was totally ready to give up on the book, which I try not to do. But it is well worth pushing through past that.
Other Mature themes: there is very mildly explicit consensual sex. There is murder and some brawling.
November 5, 2024
2.5 stars
The pan on the stove caught fire at the precise instant that Tom Silver came into the house. He looked tired, his face and hands chapped by the wind, but he moved swiftly toward the blaze. Deborah was quicker, dumping some of the hot water from the potatoes onto the fire even as Tom shouted, “Don’t do that!” In a split second, she understood why. Some alchemy between water and burning fat made the flames flare even higher, licking black tongues of soot onto the ceiling. Swearing, Tom grabbed the frying pan and rushed outside with it. She heard more cursing, then silence.
He returned, holding the pan with the charred fish in it. “I take it supper’s ready,” he said.
Look, I'm a goofball for scenes like this, fish out of water trying because they like the person they're trying to impress/show value to.
Anyway, I didn't plan on writing a review for this but I play enough bingo games that I can't let the chance to call this one out go by, there are a good amount of little additives that could help someone for a hard to find square.
The gist is Deborah is a spoiled Gilded Age princess living in Chicago. She grew-up with her clawed his way to the top father, her mother dying when she was young. She's engaged to a low level aristocrat, which is the one thing her father's money can't buy and he's ecstatic that he's going to get into those societal rooms through Deborah's marriage.
Except, Deborah's fiancé rapes her (there is a scene at the end where Deborah has a flashback to the moment as she works through her guilt, blame, and understanding that yes it was rape, for content warning), and she goes to her father to tell him that she won't marry him. Unfortunately, for Deborah, she picks the night that Tom comes for revenge.
Deborah's father owned a mine that with poor regulation, ended up killing a bunch of people, one who was Tom's adopted son, and he's decided to come kill the dad.
Unfortunately for Tom, he picks the night of the Great Chicago Fire.
The first 25% of this was Deborah and Tom trying to escape the fire and I liked a book that delved a decent amount into the, beginning, of the Chicago Fire. Unfortunately, the first half of this was kind of rough getting started, Deborah the spoiled “princess”, Tom the big meanie, and a smoke smelling doggy. Fortunately, the second half came on better with Deborah's fish out of water learning and trying and Tom's reluctant liking of her gumption and falling for her. The latter ending half where Deborah is working through her pain about the rape also has Tom being supportive in a good hero way, too. But what really made this stand out was the possible different bingo square elements I mentioned.
The Chicago Fire
Sault Sainte Marie, and going through the Soo Locks
Mostly, takes place in the Greak Lakes region on an island
Tom does kidnap her
President Grant!
Pinkerton's detecting around
Tom runs his own Trading Post
He also fought for the Union and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
But also importantly, While he worked at his bookkeeping, he wore delicate gold wire-rimmed spectacles. He wears glasses to read!
Deborah learns how to gut a fish
The Soo Locks and a heroine gutting a fish, not something you read everyday
The pan on the stove caught fire at the precise instant that Tom Silver came into the house. He looked tired, his face and hands chapped by the wind, but he moved swiftly toward the blaze. Deborah was quicker, dumping some of the hot water from the potatoes onto the fire even as Tom shouted, “Don’t do that!” In a split second, she understood why. Some alchemy between water and burning fat made the flames flare even higher, licking black tongues of soot onto the ceiling. Swearing, Tom grabbed the frying pan and rushed outside with it. She heard more cursing, then silence.
He returned, holding the pan with the charred fish in it. “I take it supper’s ready,” he said.
Look, I'm a goofball for scenes like this, fish out of water trying because they like the person they're trying to impress/show value to.
Anyway, I didn't plan on writing a review for this but I play enough bingo games that I can't let the chance to call this one out go by, there are a good amount of little additives that could help someone for a hard to find square.
The gist is Deborah is a spoiled Gilded Age princess living in Chicago. She grew-up with her clawed his way to the top father, her mother dying when she was young. She's engaged to a low level aristocrat, which is the one thing her father's money can't buy and he's ecstatic that he's going to get into those societal rooms through Deborah's marriage.
Except, Deborah's fiancé rapes her (there is a scene at the end where Deborah has a flashback to the moment as she works through her guilt, blame, and understanding that yes it was rape, for content warning), and she goes to her father to tell him that she won't marry him. Unfortunately, for Deborah, she picks the night that Tom comes for revenge.
Deborah's father owned a mine that with poor regulation, ended up killing a bunch of people, one who was Tom's adopted son, and he's decided to come kill the dad.
Unfortunately for Tom, he picks the night of the Great Chicago Fire.
The first 25% of this was Deborah and Tom trying to escape the fire and I liked a book that delved a decent amount into the, beginning, of the Chicago Fire. Unfortunately, the first half of this was kind of rough getting started, Deborah the spoiled “princess”, Tom the big meanie, and a smoke smelling doggy. Fortunately, the second half came on better with Deborah's fish out of water learning and trying and Tom's reluctant liking of her gumption and falling for her. The latter ending half where Deborah is working through her pain about the rape also has Tom being supportive in a good hero way, too. But what really made this stand out was the possible different bingo square elements I mentioned.
The Chicago Fire
Sault Sainte Marie, and going through the Soo Locks
Mostly, takes place in the Greak Lakes region on an island
Tom does kidnap her
President Grant!
Pinkerton's detecting around
Tom runs his own Trading Post
He also fought for the Union and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
But also importantly, While he worked at his bookkeeping, he wore delicate gold wire-rimmed spectacles. He wears glasses to read!
Deborah learns how to gut a fish
The Soo Locks and a heroine gutting a fish, not something you read everyday
August 18, 2018
3.25 Stars. As a kid I loved finding novels about other kids surviving through historical disasters (the Survival! Series from the late 90s thru Simon & Schuster's Aladdin branch immediately comes to mind) and though I don't read that genre now (unless there are zombies) I never stopped liking the concept. In particular, the Chicago Fire, and the Chicago World's Fair have always been fascinating for me so I was more forgiving than I would've been otherwise (blaming that undergraduate degree in history super hard right now...)
I found the lead up to the fire and the description of the fire itself pretty interesting (even if Deborah's 'problem' was super obvious from the get go.) The romance itself is a very slow burn (no pun intended) and therefore I think of it as more of a historic novel with romance, rather than a historical romance... I will probably try another book by Wiggs to see if that's her style or this was unique in that Tom/Deborah were so different that they required a longer setup. Two gripes on the back end:
I found the lead up to the fire and the description of the fire itself pretty interesting (even if Deborah's 'problem' was super obvious from the get go.) The romance itself is a very slow burn (no pun intended) and therefore I think of it as more of a historic novel with romance, rather than a historical romance... I will probably try another book by Wiggs to see if that's her style or this was unique in that Tom/Deborah were so different that they required a longer setup. Two gripes on the back end:
June 24, 2018
From Susan Wiggs:
If everything were taken from you in one night, how would you begin again? If you lost all you hold dear, what is the one thing you would fight to keep? These are the questions faced by the people of Chicago on the night of October 8, 1871, and by the fictional characters in my novels, The Hostage, The Mistress and The Firebrand. Why does the Great Chicago Fire live on in memory? Other disasters have been more devastating, but they’ve been forgotten while the Great Fire endures. By destroying the heart of a city, it took away lives, property, even identities. Condemned men were set free that night. Unhappy wives left their husbands. Children were separated from their families. People reinvented themselves. When fire sweeps everything away, the stage is set for one of the most enduring fantasies in the human imagination—Who would you become if you could start all over again?
*******************
I have looked forward to starting this series by Susan Wiggs for a long time. I lived in Chicago for three years of my life so reading a Chicago based story sounded wonderful. And it was very good.
I look forward to #2 The Mistress.
If everything were taken from you in one night, how would you begin again? If you lost all you hold dear, what is the one thing you would fight to keep? These are the questions faced by the people of Chicago on the night of October 8, 1871, and by the fictional characters in my novels, The Hostage, The Mistress and The Firebrand. Why does the Great Chicago Fire live on in memory? Other disasters have been more devastating, but they’ve been forgotten while the Great Fire endures. By destroying the heart of a city, it took away lives, property, even identities. Condemned men were set free that night. Unhappy wives left their husbands. Children were separated from their families. People reinvented themselves. When fire sweeps everything away, the stage is set for one of the most enduring fantasies in the human imagination—Who would you become if you could start all over again?
*******************
I have looked forward to starting this series by Susan Wiggs for a long time. I lived in Chicago for three years of my life so reading a Chicago based story sounded wonderful. And it was very good.
I look forward to #2 The Mistress.
August 14, 2020
I honestly feel like I deserve a medal for finishing this book. Thank goodness I read The Mistress (book 2) first, b/c I loved it and if I had read this book first I definitely would never have read another book by Wiggs again. This is beyond slow and boring. The characters had no chemistry or spark at all. They had very little personality, just sad life stories. There is no attraction and little conversation or interaction between them. There's large chunks of the book spent on the heroine finding herself by gutting fish and learning to quilt. I understand wanting to develop her character but it was NOT INTERESTING AT ALL. Deborah and Tom don't even get to somewhat know each other until about 80% into the book! And then all of a sudden they're in love. It was stupid frankly. She never even said she thought he was attractive until that point. I held on b/c I loved book #2 so much I was certain this one would improve at some point but it never did. I can't ever get the time back I wasted on this book, so if you're on the fence, skip this one and read The Mistress. I wish I had DNF, there's too many good books out there to be wasting time on this.
November 23, 2018
THE HOSTAGE
This book was originally to a bunch of us who were part of a telephone book group. I resolved to have my library send it to me so I could read it myself. I ended up downloading it, which was even better.
It is partly set in upper MI during the after the great Chicago fire of October, 1871. I really enjoyed the development of the heroine from this spoile daughter of a rich, hard industrialist to a woman discovering her own likes and desires. All of this occured while being held hostage by a man who originally went to Chicago to kill her father for causing the death of a young boy he was caring for.
Since I'm not that experience at submitting reviews, I won't give away too much more of the book. Lets's just say if you like historical romances with just a bit of focus on the intimate stuff, you'll enjoy this one. On a final note, this book marked a return to something I hadn't done in a long time. Thanks to borrowed, then purchased technology, I read an entire Braille book. There will defintely be more to come.
This book was originally to a bunch of us who were part of a telephone book group. I resolved to have my library send it to me so I could read it myself. I ended up downloading it, which was even better.
It is partly set in upper MI during the after the great Chicago fire of October, 1871. I really enjoyed the development of the heroine from this spoile daughter of a rich, hard industrialist to a woman discovering her own likes and desires. All of this occured while being held hostage by a man who originally went to Chicago to kill her father for causing the death of a young boy he was caring for.
Since I'm not that experience at submitting reviews, I won't give away too much more of the book. Lets's just say if you like historical romances with just a bit of focus on the intimate stuff, you'll enjoy this one. On a final note, this book marked a return to something I hadn't done in a long time. Thanks to borrowed, then purchased technology, I read an entire Braille book. There will defintely be more to come.
January 24, 2022
The best parts were the descriptions of Isle Royale itself, which is why I rated this book generously (three stars as opposed to two.) The ending was very abrupt and the tacked-on epilogue didn't help much. Pacing was definitely an issue with this book. For all that I was able to envision Isle Royale as if I were standing on its shores, the rest of the book didn't captivate me in the same manner... Since the following 2 books appear to take place in Chicago only, I don't think I'll be continuing with this series.
August 22, 2017
This was a good book to start a trilogy. It took me awhile to read it, only because I began another series right after I began this book and that was more interesting to me. Once I returned to The Hostage, I got into it and read it quickly. I knew that Deborah and Tom would fall in love, I was so worried at the end that her father really had had him killed. So glad when I found out he hadn't!! I look forward to the rest of this series.
November 30, 2020
A lovely book for anyone wanting to escape for an afternoon into the beautiful landscape of northern Michigan, and it’s brutal winter climes.
The character development follows a similar pattern to romance novels of a woman thrust into a situation where she must learn to fend for herself. Along the way she gains the confidence and self respect long lacking. Thankfully, there is no damsel in distress, and she rises to the occasion, proving to everyone she is not the doted on princess.
The character development follows a similar pattern to romance novels of a woman thrust into a situation where she must learn to fend for herself. Along the way she gains the confidence and self respect long lacking. Thankfully, there is no damsel in distress, and she rises to the occasion, proving to everyone she is not the doted on princess.
April 7, 2024
It was ok. I didn't feel like they had great chemistry, but parts were sweet. It was nice to see the heroine become more independent and believing in herself, but i also don't understand how she had such little self esteem in the first place to blame herself as if she was flawed when something horrible happened to her. And falling for your captor can be done right, but this didn't feel like it to me.... Loved the dog though!
April 18, 2019
I liked the characters in The Hostage. As the story unfolded, it seemed like reality. It was an easy read, but I do like Susan Wiggs style of writing. I had to look up several words throughout the book, because I was unfamiliar with them and knew they were important to the meaning of the passage. I plan on reading the other two books in this series. It had an interesting ending.
April 1, 2021
Really enjoyed this book. Classic romance but with lots of action. Part of the story involves a mine explosion so our main character Tom is acting on his pain and sadness. Takes place in the time of the Chicago fire so the different time and place helps with the escape I get from reading. Fast easy enjoyable read!
April 6, 2019
The version I read had 441 pages, not 400 as listed here.
This was a very good book, the first of a trilogy of books set during and after the events of the Great Chicago Fire. I look forward to reading the next two books of the trilogy.
This was a very good book, the first of a trilogy of books set during and after the events of the Great Chicago Fire. I look forward to reading the next two books of the trilogy.
September 6, 2022
I can't imagine a fire that swept through Chicago. How terrifying not knowing where your family and friends were. Susan Wiggs used the History of the Chicago fire, and wrote a story around the event. Deborah and Tom are the characters in the story and you won't be disappointed.
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