eBook More Precious Than Gold epub

This review is of “More Precious Than Gold” by Elaine Barbieri.

The Story: In the Black Hills of South Dakota, a trespassing wagon train is attacked. The lone survivor is a young, pregnant woman who doesn’t remember who she is. She takes the name “Carolina Brand” from a bag of rice she sees. “Carolina”is rescued by gold prospector Drake McNeil, the hero of the book, who resents having Carolina and her newborn daughter underfoot.

There are also two subplots: the first involves Rosie Blake, a former prostitute, now saloon co-owner, and Tag Willis, Rosie’s partner, lover and a professional gambler. The other subplot involves Dr. Jerome Fitz, Deadwood, South Dakota’s primary doctor, and Miriam Higgins, a prim widow who who engages Jerome in frequent verbal battles.

All of the above characters meet up in Deadwood, South Dakota, where Drake takes Carolina. It is here that most of the important moments take place. Slowly, Carolina learns about her past. Rosie breaks up with Tag as she is pining for her “dream man”; when she meets him again, he doesn’t reciprocate her love for him. When Rosie drops Tag, another woman tries to make a play for him. Drake leaves Carolina in Deadwood, and she leaves as well, but eventually they return to each other. Drake and Carolina get married, and for a spell, they are happy. However, a person from “Carolina’s” past re-enters her life and things get complicated again.

Later, a tainted water epidemic sickens many and claims many lives. However, it also succeeds in bringing Drake and Carolina together, and they have their Happily Ever After.

Upside: I can pretty much cut and paste this: the strength of “More Precious Than Gold”, like all of Ms. Barbieri’s books that I’ve read, is her ability to make her characters emotions very deep and very real. I definitely felt, understood and empathized with her characters emotions.

Downside: The fact that I understood and empathized with her characters, however, doesn’t mean I liked them. I have stated this before and I’ll say it again: in any book-or television show or movie-that I like, I have to like the characters or people in the production for me to like the production in general. Ms. Barbieri never made me care about these characters. In particular, the first half of the book was very bad in this regard. By the time the characters began to feel in the second half of the book, I didn’t care what happened to them or how they felt about anything. The storyline between Rosie and Tag is left unanswered.

Sex: The love scenes are typical Barbieri: mild and unimaginative.

Violence: Carolina dreams about the wagon train she’s on being attacked by Indians. She also relives her attack. Drake ends a fight between two miners. It is not described how he does it.

Bottom Line: While I appreciate the depth of emotion Ms. Barbieri writes about, her inability to make me care about her characters or their actions makes “More Precious Than Gold” closer to bronze for me.

I had read this book years ago, and getting it again ensured that it was just as memorable as the last. Unlike many books from recent years, the characters you read about are not 2D but have personality, issues that are easy to understand but aren't completely out there, and the love happens slowly, rather than instantly and unbelievably. It's a wonderful read, and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys a timely romance with angst thrown in.

The Black Hills of South Dakota, 1876. Caroline Brand is the only surviving member of a wagon train attacked by Indians - she's ready to give birth now, and suffering from the brutal head injuries she received. Miner Drake McNeil stumbles onto her in the nick of time, and takes her and the baby back to his remote cabin and nurses her back to health - but her memory of her life before the attack is gone.

That's the gist of the story, and all you need to know going in. Drake has a load of drama from his past, and despite his attractions to Caroline, he's not ready to let go and trust another woman just yet. There's also a couple of side-stories of Drake's old friend Rosie, half-owner of one of Deadwood's saloons, who pines after Drake and dumps on the man who loves her; as well as the local doc who drinks too much and the widow who might be able to tame him.

The good: I loved that big bear of a man Drake and how gentle he was caring for Caroline and the baby - more, more, more. There were lots of twists and turns at the end with the big reveal on Caroline's past that kept me on pins and needles until the last pages. The not-so-good: while the secondary characters/storylines were OK, they weren't that engaging and way too many pages were spent on them (YMMV). I ended up skimming a lot of that just to get back to Drake and Caroline's story, and I really don't feel like I missed much doing that.

Four stars for Drake and Caroline's story, three stars for Rosie & Tag and Doc and Miriam's stories, rounded out to 3.5.

This story is set during the 1870s when the Black Hills of the Dakotas were given by treaty to the Indians, but whites discovered gold and went anyway. Caroline's wagon train is attacked and all are killed but she manages to drag herself out on to the prairie. Drake finds her there and tends to her injuries, but she is unable to remember who she is.

The story has a wonderful set to supporting characters that add richness to this wonderful romance. The plot is well thought out and includes realistic living conditions, hardships and tug at my emotions from the start. I would recommend this book to all of those that love a good historical western.

More Precious Than Gold was a good audiobook, it is from romance book author Elaine Barbieri, I wouldn't say it's a fantastic romance story but it was good and the character's Carolina and Drake were good. I listened to the audiobook and If I saw the regular book in a used book store I might buy it and read it but it's not a must have book!

It was alright I guess but I've listened to better and it's not a keeper at all, well at least in my opinion it isn't!

I have read the other 2 reviews and don't understand them. I picked this book up at the library, quite by accident. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the characters were well written and that it wasn't your usual formula romance. This is one of those rare books that you pass along to friends.