In My Father's House

The Shiloh series is the best of the Thoene's work, but all of it is excellent. What really stood out to me, reading this book, was the experience of the black soldier. He served many more hours on the front lines, fighting in the most dangerous positions. He was honored while overseas for his service. Then he went home, proudly wearing the uniform in which he served his country, and was condemned for being uppity. Who did he think he was?These black men were beaten, accused of crimes they didn't commit, and lynched.As a white woman, I could never live that experience. But I lived it vicariously along with Jefferson Canfield. The characters are real, with strengths and flaws, just as the people we meet every day. They experience good things, but they also experience horrible, awful things too. That's life.It isn't light reading, but it IS riviting. And it is educational, because you experience things along with the people in the books, things that really happened at the time. I loved the love story between Birch and Trudy and the biding friendship that developed between Jeff and Birch.This ties in with the Zion books, too, because Max Meyer and Ellis Warne were the fathers of two of the main characters in the Zion Chronicles, I believe, David Meyer and Ellie Warne.They are worth reading. The only drawback is that once you've read the first, you HAVE to read them all, and they are LONG books!

I read numerous books by numerous authors, and Theone is by far the best I have ever read. I have read her Zion Chronicles and Galway Chronicles and Shiloh Autumn. But the Shiloh Legacy is definantly the best one. Theone defines hisorical fiction and makes it real to life. She is a master in descriptive writting. Her characters come alive and you find yourself becoming a part of them and their joys and struggles. After reading one of her novels I learn and understand so much more the events and places in history that she is writting about. I haven't read the second book in this series but I know that it will be just as good as the first book or even better.

In My Father's House got me started on Thoene books. Then I read the whole series of Shiloh Legacy. After thatI read Shiloh Autumn (which I think is the best book I ever read.) I have kept going on Thoene books and never regretted buying one of their books. Anything the authors write is a cut above. No wonder they dominate all the awards for Christian writing.

I highly recommend Bodie Thoene's novels. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Shiloh Legacy, the Zion Chronicles, the Zion Covenenant, and the first two books of the Galway Chronicles. My only frustration with Thoene is that I am now at the point where she is still writing the series I am reading! Oh, well, just have to wait until July...