Full Circle: Book Three of the Juniata Iron Trilogy

Juniata Iron Trilogy #3

by Judith Redline Coopey

Sarah MacPhail has everything going for her. A well-to-do heiress of the Mt. Etna Iron Company, she is pretty, bright, and in love with Phillip Chamberlain, a handsome, talented poet and professor at Juniata College. All looks promising until--one by one--her dreams come crashing down, her illusions fade, and she is left with responsibility for both what remains of the once thriving iron plantation and for her younger brother, Ned, whom people describe as in their kindest way as "odd". Haunted by the fear that she won't be able to hold the plantation together and keep her willful brother under control, Sarah goes to great lengths to stave off the slow but inexorable decline. Her efforts on both fronts meet resistance at every turn as Ned struggles for respect and dignity as valiantly as Sarah works to control him. Through it all, her childhood friend, Richard Trethaway--yes, one of those Trethaways--stands ready to help, support and defend her. This last generation of a once proud family suffers loss on a grand scale, but love--patient, enduring love--finds a way to last.

187 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2016

About the author

Judith Redline Coopey, born in Altoona, PA holds degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and Arizona State University. A passion for history inherited from her father drives her writing and a love for Pennsylvania sustains it. Her first book, Redfield Farm was the story of the Underground Railroad in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The second, Waterproof, tells how the 1889 Johnstown Flood nearly destroyed a whole city and one young woman’s life. Looking For Jane is a quest for love and family in the 1890s brought to life through the eyes of Nell, a young girl convinced that Calamity Jane is her mother. Her most recent work, The Furnace: Volume One of the Juniata Iron Trilogy, is set on an iron plantation near where she grew up and tells the story of an ill conceived marriage of convenience as it plays out over a lifetime. As a teacher, writer and student of history, Ms Coopey finds her inspiration in the rich history of her native state and in stories of the lives of those who have gone before.

Reviews

[Alice Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This final addition to the Juniata Iron Trilogy was not as good as the first two, in my opinion. It carried on the story of the McPhail family but included very little historical detail, (which is one of the things that inspired me to read the series originally.) While engaging, in terms of character development, it seemed to me that the author was encouraged by someone to include more sex and romance. That’s pretty much what this story was about. But, you know what? The tales of these characters from a very rural area aren’t a whole lot different than ancestors in my own family from a similar area geographically close to the setting of this story. So maybe...this is historical fictionn too!

[Marjorie Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful historical experience

I really enjoyed this trilogy. I've just finished the third book, and I felt compelled to write a recommendation. The books are historically accurate, well researched and the MacPhail family stories are well told. From pre-Civil War years to post WWII, this family comes to us as real, running the gamut of true emotions. Ms. Coopey instructs us in the baby steps of the iron industry in Pennsylvania and the growing of a family whose foundations are built on that industry. I learned a lot about an area and an occupation I wasn't familiar with through the lives of a family I grew to love.