The Raven's Bride

by Elizabeth Crook, Barbara Whitehead (cover&illustration)

The marriage in 1829 of Sam Houston, the thirty-six-year-old governor of Tennessee, to Eliza Allen, the twenty-year-old daughter of a prominent landholder, lasted only eleven weeks. The ensuing scandal caused Houston to resign his office in disgrace, leave Tennessee to live with the Cherokees in Arkansas, and eventually to go to Texas and mold its history.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical

418 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

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

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

After thoroughly enjoying Elizabeth"s Crook latest novel, The Which Way Tree, I decided to read this, her first novel. Based on a little know fact in American history, namely that Sam Houston, while the Governor of Tennessee at 36, married a young woman of 19, Eliza Allen, daughter of a well known Nashville family. The marriage only lasted eleven weeks and was so traumatic for Houston, that he resigned as Governor, renounced his US citizenship, and went west to live with the Cherokee Indians he grew up with.

Both Sam Houston and his wife Eliza, never ever revealed why their marriage broke up. Crook has done her research on this topic and has written a very believable story as to what may have happened. While the novel is not full of action and adventure, her well drawn out characters, from Sam Houston, to Eliza Allen to Andrew Jackson, come across as so real, especially in their dialog.

At the end of this book, Crook includes a well researched article that she wrote about this marriage. And it too is well worth the read.

To their deaths, both Sam Houston and Eliza Houston never discussed with anyone the specifics of why their marriage broke up. But it did cause Sam Houston to leave Tennessee and head out west, where he eventually went to Texas. And the rest is history. If their marriage had been a good one, Houston might not have gone west, and American history could have been very different.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much is known about the brief marriage of Eliza Allen to Sam Houston before he resigned as the Governor of Tennessee and went off to Texas. He was 36 at that time, she 21. The author does a very good job of interpreting Houston's character and also that of Eliza. It is an interesting take on what could have actually happened in this very brief time in Houston's life. Dialogue seems true to the age and in character. His Cherokee background seems faithfully portrayed and is believable, though I know nothing of Cherokee beliefs.

Crook, very cleverly, is able to insert a paraphrase of Davy Crockett's famous "You may all go to hell, and I will got to Texas" quote by advising Houston to say that when confronting his angry constituents.

Having read all but one of Elizabeth Crook's books, I would rate this book a close second behind my favorite, The Which Way Tree.

[Sam A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading my 4th novel by Elizabeth Crook. While this book was historical fiction there was still a good bit of information about Sam Houston and Eliza Allen, their families and Houston's relationship with Andrew Jackson. Most of my knowledge of Sam Houston centered around his life in Texas and the Battle of San Jacinto. This carefully researched book brought a better understanding of Houston's character, his life in Tennessee and his relationship with the Cherokees and the events that eventually led him to Texas. Crook gives us an interesting account of one of the most complex and unique characters in American history.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Sam Houston's first marriage has always been one of the great mysteries. Neither party would talk about it and no journals or dairies were saved. The author has done extensive research as evidence with the section following the final chapter. This section was much appreciated so that the reader can separate fact from supposition.

As a historical fiction, it was well written but could have used more editing. Some of the details could have been left for the factual section.

That being said, I did learn a little more about one of my heroes, even with having read "The Raven: a Biography of Sam Houston" by Marquis James.

[Libby · Rating 2 out of 5]

The true story of Sam Houston and Eliza is unknown, as neither party would disparage the other. Society’s constructs were quite different, thankfully. I had a difficult time with this fictionalized account of these two people, who were not really very likeable. I appreciated Eliza’s spunk, even though she seemed misguided in her attempts at independence. She could possibly have accomplished more through communication.

The last chapters were so dense that I could hardly read them. The drunken Irishman story was particularly distasteful and I couldn’t determine why the author thought it should even be included.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of historical fiction, this book is very well thought out. The author references all sorts of events during this time period (disputes with Native Americans, Irish and German immigrants, industrialization, Andrew Jackson becoming president, etc.). She also consistently establishes themes that relate to Eliza and Sam Houston / move the story forward. My more detailed review is below (potentially contains spoilers).

Pros:
- great characterization. Eliza, Sam, and even side characters like Andrew Jackson and John Allen felt very real and authentic. Their behavior also aligned with their beliefs, which is always really satisfying to read in plot development
- worldbuilding. The Tennessee setting from towns to countryside felt very convincing, as did descriptions of plantation homes and urban areas
- plot. In terms of the actual story, it seemed incredibly real -- almost like it'd be in a history book. The situation between Eliza and Sam Houston was complex and multi-layered.

Cons:
- pacing. There's definitely a lot of sidetracked discussion of Texas in this book, which is somewhat relevant, considering Sam Houston's involvement with this region. However, sections of it definitely could've been trimmed, mainly the dialogue and conversations between characters. I'll admit that I skimmed over some of these parts since it wasn't as engaging
- prose. I should start off by saying the diction is perfectly appropriate for the historical time period this takes place in. My biggest gripe is that the author uses telling instead of showing for a wide range of scenes. (Or stating the obvious when it doesn't need to be mentioned). That being said, I was still able to enjoy this novel. Telling is also fairly common in historical-based books, for understandable reasons, so this isn't a major complaint.

Overall, I'd rate this book four stars. The story is captivating and has a clear intention: recount the marriage of Sam Houston and Eliza Allen (and why it didn't last). I took off one star for the pacing. Otherwise, a pretty quick read.

[Haley Montoya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars because I liked the writing so much. Elizabeth Crook is an obviously extremely well educated and practiced writer.
The story was somewhat interesting in parts, but it lost me in others. The read was just okay, if only because I didn't care much for any of the characters. I couldn't say why, but this is just another one of those strange reading experiences for me where a book just didn't work. I wanted to like it more than I did, for sure.
Still a nice written work, though! Definitely not my favorite historical story by far.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more to the story than I could have imagined. And thanks to my favorite author, she sure can fill in the blanks, with a great gift for dialogue and historical detail. This story covers plausible explanation for one very well known complex figure, a survivor historical battles, who nearly loses himself in marriage to a lesser known character with her own complexities.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crook did an amazing job of bringing these characters to life and making this story feel like real-life events. I appreciated the ending which told the little bit more we know about Eliza Allen Houston.
It made me want to learn more about Sam Houston so I went and checked out a half dozen books about him before he was President of Texas, during and after and that's the highest praise I can give.

[Beth Goldstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit slow but lots of great characterizations of Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston.

[Sally Atwell Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first novel Elizabeth Crook wrote. It is about Sam Houston and Eliza Allen attraction to each other, and eventual short lived marriage. They separated after three months, and neither ever spoke to anyone about what had happened. Their secrets went to their graves.

Crook did an incredible amount of research on the pair, with Sam Houston's history the easiest, because he was such a famous person in the history of Tennessee, Texas, and several wars. Eliza is an entirely different story, as very little is known about her, and she left no letters, diary, etc. for historians to read. What Crook has done, based on friends' comments, testimonies, conversations, letters, and her own extensive research, is to fill in where there are blanks, with what she thinks was said and occured.

If you decide to read this book, make sure you read her comments in the back, as well look over the footnotes gathered there.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explores a very interesting time in American history, from Jacksonian politics, to the expansion westward to Texas, mainly thru the character of Sam Houston, legendary frontiersman, governor of Tennessee, and eventual president of Texas. His first wife, Eliza, scandalously left him after 11 weeks of marriage, leaving much conjecture and his eventual resignation of Tennessee's governorship. What really happened? Neither one ever spoke of it (at least that we know of) leading to even more speculation. Crook fictionalizes their romance and comes up with as reasonable an explanation as anyone can, but I found the pacing of the novel extremely slow and often not interesting. Still, I am glad I read it, and I will admit that I never knew anything about Houston, despite being stationed for a summer at Fort Sam.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

How scintillating to take a colorful historical figure and the fact that his marriage lasted only 11 weeks, and weave that into a work of fiction as to why the marriage failed. Brilliant. After all, no explanation was ever given for the separation, so all we can do is speculate. If you don't like the book, you can make up your own story. LOL. Okay, this wasn't the best book I've ever read, but I did find it interesting how many historical events, characters, meetings, and plans took place during this period when the nation was expanding, which gave an authentic framework to the story and built up the case for it being true. Sam Houston was a wild, powerful man. The fact that a woman would marry him and then leave him so quickly raises real suspicion, especially when she lived to a ripe old age and never asked to annul the marriage. Hmm, cause for thought.

[Kristal · Rating 3 out of 5]

While starting out a little slow and bogged down in politics at times, this was still a very interesting story of the infamous Sam Houston and his relationship and marriage to Eliza Allen. While the author makes it perfectly clear in the beginning that there is so little information concerning the real Eliza, most of more of a fictional story about what the author thinks happened. It is still a fascinating and tragic love story, with a little bit of history thrown in.

[Ken Bickley · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a novel, this book isn't terrible (by modern 'standards'). As history, well ... nobody really knows much about Eliza Allen Houston's reasons for leaving her husband after 11 weeks of marriage. The reasons Crook puts forth don't jibe with the only known explanation supposedly given by Eliza. So read it if you will, and enjoy it if it's your cup of tea. But don't take it too much to heart.

[Ron Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading "The Raven" . The book was an interesting insight into the daily life of days gone by. Maybe a simpler time but relationships were just as complicated as they are now.
I especially liked the references to Cherokee mythology. "It is a good day to die ."
Thanks Elizabeth Crook, just awesome!!

[Jan Innes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great book, but a very good read. It's hard to tell how much is fictionalized, but the book does give an excellent and personal view of Sam Houston and a turbulent time in Texas. (Has there ever *not* been a turbulent time in Texas??)

[Nancy]

I love books about the history of Texas since I am a native Texan. Sam Houston is a fascinating and mythical figure in Texas. Interesting book, but some of it conjecture.

[Susan Reyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting peek into the possible personal lives of historical figures.