Born of Scots/Spanish parents in 1850s New Mexico and orphaned at a n early age, Fey is raised by poor neighbors. At 17, she hitches a ride out of town with Terry Dillon, a “special-elixir”-selling quack. While traveling the Santa Fe Trail, they marry and eventually arrive in Kansas with enough money for train fares to New York City. Predictably, Terry abandons Fey within days, just before Fey realizes she is pregnant. Alone, pregnant and without a source of income in the 19th-century metropolis, Fey must make some important decisions quickly.

I consider Seton to be one of my favorite authors, but I didn’t care much for this book. Seton’s prose is as usual superb, but there is something lacking in the appeal of the story itself. Fey’s financial aspirations didn’t ring true to me. I didn’t understand why she wanted money so badly, and then why she didn’t seem to care much about it when she did have it. This aspect of her personality felt like merely a plot device.

I recommend nearly all of Seton’s other works, especially Katherine. ( )

Not one of the recent reprints of Anya Seton's historical fiction, The Turquoise follows Santa Fe Cameron from an orphan of the Wild West to the robber baron boom of Ney York City in the nineteenth century.
There's a fair amount of emphasis on moralising in this novel; it seems more evident than in others, making it a somewhat less pleasant read. The characters are also stiffer and less vivid, and I found it difficult to care about them.
Not a hidden gem. ( )