Promised Lands: A Novel of the Texas Rebellion

by Elizabeth Crook

Crook's accomplished second novel, a sweeping saga of the Texas Revolution, tells the story of two families - one Tejano Mexican, one Anglo - whose fates become intertwined in the midst of the bloody conflict. Crook retraces the movement of General Santa Anna's Mexican Army in 1836 as it sweeps north to quash the Texas Rebellion, led by Sam Houston. Among Houston's ragtag militia are Dr. Hugh Kenner and his two sons. As the rebel forces make a desperate stand at Goliad, the Kenners and Adelaido and Crucita Pecheco find they have much to teach each other about loyalty and betrayal, sin and retribution.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

517 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

About the author

I grew up mostly in San Marcos, Texas, (with a brief time away in Washington D.C and Australia) graduated from San Marcos High School, attended Baylor and Rice, moved for a while to New Braunfels, Texas, and now live in Austin. One of the great blessings of my childhood was having a mother who read to my brother and sister and me for hours every night, long after we could read for ourselves. Those nights of listening transported us to foreign places and other centuries and allowed us to connect with characters living lives in stark contrast to our own. This was a great gift my mother gave us.

I've written six novels, including The Night Journal, which received The Spur Award from Western Writers of America and the Willa Literary Award from Women Writing the West, Monday, Monday, which received the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was named a Best Fiction Book of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews, and The Which Way Tree, which received The Willa Literary Award and is currently in development for film. The Madstone will be published in November of 2023.

I'm a slow, slow reader (one of those people you see in public places staring at pages and moving their lips,) and I'll be giving most books on Goodreads a rating of four or five stars, because that many hours spent together creates a certain loyalty. If a book doesn't capture me I usually set it aside; mostly what you'll see here are books I've loved.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A splendid, gratifying, compelling, and heart-breaking piece of historical fiction. A grand piece of work - in scope, scale, and size - but well worth the investment. I wish I'd read this years ago, particularly when I was living in Texas (but, alas, it hadn't been written yet). This simple review can't do justice to the book, but - quite simply - I'm glad I read it.

Where to start? I admit I couldn't stop drawing parallels to James Lee Burke's House of the Rising Sun, which I read recently. Much of the same ground is covered (trodden, ridden), albeit with a very (very) different focus and, of course, at a later date. But in grandeur, craft, tension, and pathos ... the experience seemed all too familiar.

So many things to recommend about this book. Lots of fun perspective on the history of Texas (which is a rich and varied and sordid tale unto itself). But the history lesson is well concealed in an epic drama which could be described as an extended family torn asunder by the harsh realities of war. No spoiler here. War is messy, innocent people suffer, and nothing ever gets put back together the way it was before.

Extra points for a slightly disorienting, but extremely effective opening sequence. It's hard not to buy in from the first few pages, and the author does a nice job slowly piecing together the pieces of the puzzle that will assemble the wildly diverse, colorful, and intriguing cast of this sweeping and frequently depressing drama, diaspora, disaster....

But through all of this, the book literally sings. While it's easy to shelve this one under historical fiction, I think I appreciated it more as literary fiction, and I could easily see action/Western readers shying away from what I found to be the comfortable, aesthetic lyricism of the work. In other words, sprinkled throughout the chaos and desperation and destruction and loss is a resonance, a pervasive grace, that makes many a passage worth re-reading.

And now... an arguably irrelevant perspective on the publishing/book industry..... I'm so glad that I happened upon the author's recent, and pleasantly surprising, Monday, Monday, which led me to this book. When I read a book like this, I'm always amazed - and oft-disappointed - by what books become commercial successes, let alone NYT bestsellers, and the wealth of quality literature that fails to gain wide exposure to the broad community of readers (or reap greater remuneration for the deserving authors). Frankly, this is one of the things I've most come to love about Goodreads and, in all fairness, the Kindle generation, which has brought to greater exposure stuff worth reading that the increasingly failing big box bookstores (think Borders and Barnes & Noble) never placed on those featured tables in front of the doorway. So, in this case, I'm grateful that, with a keystroke, I could find and download (OK, buy with one-click) a pristine e-version of the work which, only a generation ago, I never would have found, and I could only have procured by trolling used bookstores. One last thing, at the risk of digressing further, kudos to a university press (here Dallas' SMU) for originally seeing the promise of this excellent take on Texas history. (Which reminds me - the Naval Institute Press originally published The Hunt for Red October, and look how that worked out....)

Critic's lament: This is a lengthy book, and, given the quality of the prose, it's worth savoring - in other words, this is decidedly not a thin page-turner. Unfortunately, I picked it up when I was rather busy at work. The result being that I've not enjoyed sufficient sleep all week, and I plan to hold the author personally accountable. (But, as they say, that's a personal problem....)

Goodreads geek trivia. Don't miss the Easter egg buried in the Acknowledgements: the book was edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, placing the author in a unique community with, among others, the celebrated Naguib Mahfouz and the eccentric but entertaining George Plimpton.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Texas War of Independence. Didn't like any of these characters and the whole thing felt like a land grab. At least I learned something more about Texas history besides "Remember the Alamo!" Goliad Massacre was suitably gruesome and should be better known.

[Sally Atwell Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book of Elizabeth Crook that I have read. It is also her second book. At first I wasn't sure that I was going to relate to this book. However, I was captured after the first two chapters. The time period Crook wrote about was less than six months, and tells the story of Santa Anna's mission to completely bring the Texas area into Mexico once and for all, and Sam Houston's determination to seize it for the USA. However, this on-going battle plays second to the families affected by the war. The American families who settled in Texas. The Tejanos for whom the land is everything. The Mexicans, some of which are part of Santa Anna's army, some of which lived and farmed in Texas, and the native Americans, who both sides were trying to convince to spy for them. However there were three families most prominent - the Kenners, Senor De La Rosa, and Adelaido and Maria de las Cruz.
Crook has done an amazing job of giving the reader a great read, historically correct for the most part.
I highly recommend this book.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is massive - 511 pages!!! - and it took me a while to work my way through. While it was a bit of a slow starter and it took me a while to get all the characters straight, it was truly a rewarding read. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Set in Texas during the time of the rebellion (think, The Alamo), this story follows a number of characters as their paths criss-cross during this tumultuous time. We follow the trials and tribulation of Tejano horseman Adelaido Pacheco and his disillusioned sister, Crucita. There is also ranch owner Domingo de la Rosa, the Kenner family, British transplant William Mullins, and the grieving Callum Mackay. Because this is a story of war, there is heartbreaking loss, and the horrible waste of both human and animal life. There are bad decisions and betrayal on both sides of the conflict, but there is also, love, loyalty, bravery, and human kindness. I knew very little about Texas history, so this was a bit of a primer for me, as well as just a wonderful, epic, well-told and well-researched story.

[Vera Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Promised is a one-of-a-kind book. I usually do not read historical fiction because I think it’s boring, but this book changed my entire perspective. It was over the Texas Revolution from the start of the war to the end. The book included a lot of characters which made it really engaging and interesting because people’s lives were so different in the 1800s than they are now. The ending was really sad and emotional, but still amazing and made me wish there was a second book. Some chapters were a little too much like a textbook and a bit boring, so it took a long time to get through, but overall, it was interesting. I read this book along with a Texas history textbook and Promised Lands was so accurate it made me understand the textbook a lot better. I recommend this book to anybody who wants an awesome historical fiction.

[Cole Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

V and I read this book to accompany our study of the Texas Revolution (7th grade Texas history - using the McGraw Hill textbook primarily). It was clear that the author did her research - the novel lines up with the history we were learning through the textbook nearly exactly.

At times, the book was a little dry and did indeed read like a textbook, but mostly it brought color and detail to the history that made both the book and the textbook far more enjoyable. If it weren't for the two (VERY tame) sex-scenes, I would say this book should be required reading for every Texas History class!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, a novel of the Texas Rebellion. Texas was pretty rough at that time, not to mention primitive and brutal. Learned some more about Texas history and how it became a nation. Of the historical figures, Sam Houston was the best. Fannin the worst.

I would have liked to have known how some of the non historical characters faired in the end. What happened to Rose after the Runaway Scrape? And the Scot who was scalped in the opening scene?

Perhaps a sequel to come??????

[Debdanz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written and no doubt well researched, but if I had known it was about the Texas revolution I would have skipped it. Texas has been racist since its inception as a Republic, and that is hard to face and hard to read, and even close to 200 years later, even harder to fix. Depressing as hell.

[Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishing. Crook's gift of evocation is stunning, and her keen perception of those displaced people whose real story underpins this novel is remarkable.

[Ken Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book. I loved The Which Way Tree and Texas history in general. I just finished Brian Kilmead’s book about the revolution and Sam Houston. Although good for simplifying a complicated story, overall disappointing. Crook’s work, done so many years ago, is the opposite. It’s as if she were there, and she clearly knows and understands the harsh environment of Central Texas. It’s all so very real, so unrelenting. Not a particularly fun read, just the best about how very gritty it must have been.

[Jill Farrar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a long and unrelenting book. Now know a lot more about this war and how horrible it was. So hard on all. Now I need to read something silly and fun, though that is not to be. Really like her book Night Journal much better, but learned more from this book. Also, needed a map to help understand.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book when referenced in newspaper article re Texas history. I couldn't stop reading her writing is so rich and multi-dimensional. I cried multiple times as the lives she wrote about were so real to me. I recommend this book and will now read her other the Ravens Bride. Does she only have these 2 books?

[Sargent · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely great read! I'm not a history buff, so reading was tedious for me but the story along the way was amazing: Elizabeth Cook did an outstanding job in keeping to factual events while creating a fictional in between.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Crook has become one of my favorite writers. Having lived in Texas as a 5th grader, I remember enjoying the state's history. I am amazed by her details for battle scenes and vivid scenery. As heartbreaking as war can be, I admire how she really gets into the minds of her characters.

[Partridge Public]

Crook, Elizabeth

[Aggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, couldn't put it down.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Especially, if you're a Texas history fan. Parts of this book moved me to tears.