Cain's Daughters

by Doris Shannon

Jemma Ealing -- the daughter of a rich Northern capitalist. Feeling the wanderlust of youth, she fell with love with David Sevendor, a handsome and wealthy Georgian. Suddenly, Jemma was drawn into a world where she would become a pawn in other women's ambitions...

Celeste Sevendor -- Jemma's mother-in-law. Her gentility barely concealed her lust for power. All she wanted from Jemma was an heir to the idyllic Georgia estate she had saved from the ruins of war...

Merlin -- the black slave educated as a white lady. Her calm exterior hide a resourceful and vengeful nature...but she didn't try to mask her strange visionary power. To her, Jemma was a passport to safety in the north...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War, Fiction

445 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Doris Giroux Shannon was born in Elmira, New York, daughter of Edwin Giroux and Elizabeth Graham. Married Frank Shannon in 1947. They had two children.

She also wrote under the pseudonym 'E.X. Giroux'. Under that pseudonym she created 'Robert Forsythe', a retired barrister in London.

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

The same as my prior experience with this author: boring, droning conversations that do nothing to advance the story; unnecessary and/or annoying characters in a contrived tangle of family trees; ridiculously overcomplicated plot; 3 teaspoons of good scenes blended with 4 cups of dry tedium.

…It’s the Doris Shannon way, I guess. But it’s not MY way, so I won’t be bothering with her books anymore. Oops. 🤭

Sidenote: Not only was Jemma dumb as a stump, but her nickname “Jemmy Reb” is one of the most annoying things about the whole book. Clearly the author thought it was such an endearing + clever play on words—echoing a northern heroine’s name from “Johnny Reb” is so adorbz, right?! Not really. 💀 It just made me want to punch everyone in the face for saying it all the fucking time. Jemmy Reb this, Jemmy Reb that, hello Jemmy Reb, what stupid thing did you do now, Jemmy Reb?! 😱 It’s not even cute, so STFU.

Sidenote #2: The resolution of the psycho husband was unbelievably anticlimactic. Seriously, that’s it? Yawn. 😴 Hero Ben was one of the better characters, but he’s given little to contribute besides providing an excuse to set a few chapters in Andersonville (*wince*), & he didn’t have any reason to love idiot Jemma other than the author saying so.

Anyhoo…a couple decent scenes, but mostly blah. Tepid 2.5 stars, rounded down due to long sections of skimming.


{Note: This book is part of my ongoing quest to pluck tomes I’ve had unread for 7+ years & either love-and-keep or DNF-and-donate.}

[Misfit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jemma is the daughter of a northern arms manufacturer Henry George Ealing, and in 1861 decides she's in love with love, and marries southerner David Sevendor, although David doesn't seem to be much interested in sex with his beautiful wife. They travel to Europe where he's working to drum up political support for the Confederacy, but he's eventually recalled and they return to Camelot, his family's plantation and Jemma is soon caught up in a swirl of complex family relationships, dirty deeds, treachery, and the mysterious slave Merlin (birth name Rose) who was the pampered pet of the former mistress of Camelot - but now bears a strong grudge against all Southerners. Can Jemma carry her latest baby to full term and provide the much-needed heir to avoid the entailed property falling into the hands of the English side of the family? Will Merlin help or hinder Jemma when the south collapses?

Yes, there's a lot more to it than that but I have better things to do today. I've read two other books by this author that I enjoyed a great deal, but this one fell a bit flat. Both the Ealing and Sevender families are just too big and there are too many sub-plots and I seriously could have used a score card (or better yet a family tree). Good, but not great and I'd only recommend for die-hard readers of all things Civil War. 3/5 stars.

[Amina Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story starts with Jemma and ends with Merlin. Jemma was definitely a pawn and one would wonder if she would get out of the situation she found herself alive. Beautiful Celeste is a devil in disguse and the equally beautiful slave, Merlin is cold and calculating, determined to see her plans fall into place.
The book, has more realism than the romanticised 'Gone With the Wind', raw and graphic most of the time but is a page turner.