Daughters of the Summer Storm

by Frances Patton Statham

Marigold and Maranta are the beautiful twin daughters of a privileged plantation family, raised to be gracious and modest. Marigolds dazzling golden tresses and Marantas gorgeous ivory skin and deep dark eyes give the two young sisters a high value in the marriage market, and they find themselves sold into loveless marriages they did not choose. In this spellbinding tale of passion and cruel fate, love will not be held prisoner as Marigold and Maranta fight to be together with the men they truly desire

Genres: Historical Romance, Fiction, Romance

Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1979

Reviews

[T from Istria 💛💚 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old-fashioned drama/BR light in the “hero rapes because needs heir” way and “heroine faints because pregnant” and “heroine runs away blindly into unknown woods, shredding dress and gets bloody because thorns” way.
BR light because heroes (there are two!) are not cruel alphas.

2 H/h set of couples (twin sisters, the usual dark/blond and bold/timid etc etc) and two sagas that actually had me reading til the end so there was something that kept my interest. Really weird way of writing, set in 1800-something but reads like something by Teresa Denys (but not as good, no Silver devil here).

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book however there are some issues I have with it. First, the story line is a bit forced, things could have been easily avoided if characters had just communicated. It's an old fashioned bodice-ripper set in the 1800s but I still found it very frustrating how women, sex, and relationships are treated in the book. Several instances of abuse and rape which I personally found hard to read at times. It's filled with lots of drama which kept it entertaining throughout. You root for characters and as I mentioned, it was frustrating for me learning their fate and how things ended up. I also didn't like the ambiguous ending, didn't feel like loose ends were tied up. Overall though I really enjoyed it and have read it a few times because I loved the characters so much.

[Meredith is a hot mess]

Note to self: I own a pb of this published in 1979. I want to check to see if she neutered the version on Amazon or not. This author was alive when she republished her works to Amazon, so there is a chance she edited them. Her website is up and working, but no one responded to my inquiry.

[Jeannine Duke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

I really enjoyed rereading this book that I first read as a teenager. Now 30 years later it was wonderful to find it on Kindle!

[Deanna]

Loved it when I read it in high school, still love it now.

[ANGELIA · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay, but not as good as the first book in the series. This book is about the twin baby girls from the first story, grown up and living their separate lives. And I mean separate, with one in North and the other in South America, and they don't meet again! I didn't like the way the one sister, Maranta, is sent to Brazil for an arranged marriage and her whole family seems content to forget about her. That took away a star rating from this book.

Both Maranta and Marigold end up in unwanted marriages (in Marigold's case, she's manipulated by her adopted cousin, a real crummy creep who had been obsessed with her for years and wanted her for a possession while his perverted tastes lay elsewhere). He was cruel and had a sadistic streak and later plotted her death (and that of the man she really loved) but it sure backfired on him!

There's a similar situation with Maranta, who finds herself on a Brazilian coffee plantation, manipulated by her mother-in-law, who was desperate for a grandson to carry on the family name. Her eldest son was married to a mentally ill young woman (beautiful, but with the mind of a child, and who could also be dangerous), her youngest son was confined to a wheelchair and impotent, a marriage was arranged between Maranta and the youngest son for appearances sake, and as for a baby??? Well, I think you can guess!

As with Marigold, Maranta's life is endangered, as she's accused of murdering her mad sister-in-law, (the real murderer comes as a surprise), and the girl's brothers want revenge, and her husband-in-name-only wants some vengeance of his own.

Both sisters have babies under strange circumstances, with Marigold in love with one man and pregnant by another that she despises, and Maranta bearing the child of the man she loves while legally bound to one she fears.

What a mess!!

Things work out in the end, but it takes a while for that to happen, but it just bothered me that Marigold is reunited with her parents and brothers while Maranta is so far away and although Marigold thinks about her, no one else even mentions her.

I also thought there would be a third book, with their children growing up, but looks like I was wrong about that.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this novel as a young lady before I was twenty years of age. The twin sisters, one blonde and the other brunette, were forced into unwanted marriages. Both sisters suffered ill fates at the hands of their husbands. Their marriages were so compelling that I could not put the book down until I finished it. If I had to describe this book in one word it would be: bittersweet.