Titans

February 15, 2016
Lies, betrayal, and black gold seep through this epic saga of separated fraternal twins who are reunited at the dawn of the oil boom in early 1900s Texas. Nathan Holloway and his sister, Samantha Gordon, are living on separate cattle ranches after their narcissistic mother, Millicent, gave Samantha away at birth. The sudden appearance of their birth father, oil tycoon Trevor Waverling, just as they turn 20 brings them both to the same drilling site with an opportunity that will more likely reopen old wounds than uncover riches. It's hard to feel sympathy for any of the parents involved--adoptive father Neal is childishly jealous of his daughter's curiosity about her birth parents; Millicent's husband, Leon, won't consider the possibility that Trevor raped her; Millicent resents Nathan for being born; and Trevor's mother is convinced he killed his own brother for control of the family's drilling equipment business. The romances are also thorny--Millicent and Leon are chillingly mismatched, and even Samantha disapproves of the way her love interest, Sloan Singleton, treats his supposedly progressive older sisters like children. The secrets that the characters keep from each other, whether out of kindness or selfishness, often seem unjustified and are glossed over too easily when they're revealed. But Meacham's deep probing into the lives of early-20th-century cattle ranchers-turned-oil barons--from what they packed for lunch to the cameras they used--is breathtakingly rendered, bringing to life the hopeful and colorful history of the American Southwest. Emotions bubble up to the surface, but Meacham doesn't quite drill to the source, making an impressive dig into turn-of-the-century Texas come up empty.

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Starred review from April 1, 2016
When Millicent Holloway gives birth to twins in 1880, she directs her husband to give one away. Because they are not hisMillicent was pregnant when they marriedhe does so, albeit reluctantly. Flash-forward 20 years, and the son, Nathan, is visited at his farm by a man who claims to be his father, offering the opportunity to join him in the family business. So begins Meacham's latest sweeping historical novel, set in preoil boom Texas. Nathan's twin, Samantha, was given to a ranching family in Fort Worth. She grows up wanting to be a paleontologist but puts aside her dreams of an education in favor of remaining on the family ranch, the land she loves. The two are brought together when their father, oil magnate Trevor Waverling, brings Nathan to Samantha's ranch to prospect for oil, without knowing Samantha's true identity. The finest historical fiction not only entertains but teaches readers something about an era not their own, and this novel offers a stellar crash course in Texas history. Meacham lovingly paints the lush and grassy farms that once existed before the industrial revolution and oil drilling changed the landscape forever. The novel has it all: a wide cast of characters, pitch-perfect period detail, romance, plenty of drama, and skeletons in the closet (literally). Saga fans will be swooning.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2015

Roses best-selling author Meacham takes us to rapidly changing early 1900s Texas, where cattle ranch heiress Samantha Gordon and farm boy Nathan Holloway find love, then lose it through bitter betrayal. With an 80,000-copy first printing.

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