Interesting story and not as predictable as I first thought. Reminded me a bit of Gone With The Wind. Enjoyed the characters and story. ( )

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Historical fiction/romance set in New Orleans, Louisiana and a plantation near New Orleans prior to and during the American Civil War.
Miriam's mother had been brutally attacked in a pogrom against Jewish villagers in a small German town, and tragically died moments after Miriam's birth. Her father left shortly afterward to make his fortune in American, leaving Miriam and her brother David with their grandfather and spinster aunt. Years later, he returned and took the children to his grand home in New Orleans. At the age of 16, as was the custom at that time, Miriam was given in marriage to Eugene, a man at least ten years older. Miriam and Eugene doted on their twins, a son and a daughter, but there was no love, no joy between them. They lived separate lives in the same house, even in the same bedroom.
These were perilous times; abolitionist feelings against the "peculiar institution" of slavery were mounting, and soon the storm of Civil War broke loose. There was a storm in Miriam's heart as well, as she dealt with guilt, loss, tragedy, and heartbreak. ( )

She was the stunning daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant. From an idyllic childhood in opulent New Orleans, Miriam Raphael would be swept up into the turmoil of the Civil War. Forced to choose between her duties as a Southern wife and mother and her love for a forbidden man and a forbidden cause, Miriam is at the center of a whirlwind of divided loyalties and divided hearts.

I really enjoyed this book. This was the first time that I have read this book, even though I love Belva Plain as an author. This is actually the first book that I've read that takes place during the American Civil War and give it a strong A+! ( )

Crescent City by Belva Plain has all the makings of a great historic saga: Jewish immigrants flee the poverty and persecution of 19th Century Europe for a life of luxury in the religiously tolerant boomtown of antebellum New Orleans; families are torn apart over the slavery issue and fight on opposite sides of the Civil War; there are loveless marriages, adulterous affairs, hoop skirts, burning plantations, and even blockage runners.

Unfortunately, the book is still boring. It only skims the surface of the major events of the plot and the conflicts the characters face. It lacks the details of the really good historic epics, like John Jakes’s Bicentennial Series. It lacks the smutty thrill of a good bodice ripper like that 1970s classic, The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. It lacks the emotional depth and pure entertainment of Gone with the Wind.

Despite being over 500 pages long, Crescent City comes up short.
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