Winds of Promise

I curled up for an afternoon with a good book and read all weekend without hardly looking up! Full of adventure, twists, a new bit of California gold rush history I had never heard of, I was completely caught up by the story. It was well worth the time! Better than a good movie, I would recommend this book to everyone from age 8 to 80!

The Thoenes have done it again! Just like their Saga of the Sierra series, this book pulled me in and hooked me good. I love tales of the west and this was one I have never heard of or imagined! (Steamboats used to sail up and down the central valley of California? WOW! Suddenly the floods near Sacramento last year begon to make sense!) The story is told in such a wonderful personal way. Anyone who loves the west will love this book! More, please!

A great story! Ought to be made into a movie. True to their origins as writers for John Wayne, the Thoene's have crafted a tale which took me by storm. Winds of Promise is written in first person which is a departure from many other Thoene books, but I really liked having the story told to me like I was sitting around a campfire hearing an old timer tell it. Different from their Zion books and cannot be compared, but still great story telling for anyone who loves an exciting western historical.I'm going to read them all!

I just finished reading Winds of Promise and book 2, To Gather The Wind. FANTASTIC STORIES! The one thing that kept me entertained during hurricane Georges! Winds of Promise and To Gather the Wind are as exciting as a hurricane. I read them both to my sons by candle light. It was just like telling stories while camping. They were enthralled. I don't know what book USA was reading to give this a bad review because I could not put either book down. Just like Saga of the Sierra novels which the Thoenes wrote several years ago, these stories made the west come alive for me. It's been a long time since I could find a great story about the west and I intend to keep reading if they'll keep writing them! Readers of every age will enjoy the images and personal memoir style of these books. They are nothing like the big Thoene historicals, but still marvelously fun reads! Perfect for hurricane season.To the Thoenes I say...You're a million miles ahead of every other writer out there! Your books are not only fun and exciting and full of history, they are books I can read to my kids without worrying about what's in them. BRAVO! Keep writing!!!

The book is short in a fashion akin to the Saga of the Sierras series. The Thoenes offer great detail in scenery and in activities which offer the reader wonderful imagery in addition to placement in the midst of the action. There is plenty of tension sailing from New York around the Horn to the Golden Gate on a river steamer. Enjoy no holds barred steamboat racing on the Sacramento River which today appears to be not much wider than a ditch. The story features romance, white hats versus black hats and is in many ways reminiscent of the stories of Zane Grey.