As you’ve often seen on our blog, your literature ladies love a Lisa T. Bergren series. The Sugar Baron’s Daughters – a trilogy consisting of three books entitled Keturah, Verity, and Selah is no exception.
The series follows three sisters, named above by their book titles, as they leave England to manage their deceased father’s failing plantation in the West Indies, the Double T. What unfolds is a mix of romance, drama, a hint of intrigue, and warm stories of faith and redemption: a delightful combination for a historical fiction read. Bergren tackles some tough topics such as the slave trade, the cost and toll of war (as the Revolutionary War takes place during the story), and ethical plantation management in a time when the plantations were sustained by people treated utterly horrifically.
Bergren does a wonderful job painting the world of a tropical island, from the scenery to the heat, to the animals, to the nature of the people living there and the relationships they have with each other. I loved this glimpse into that world. We also do voyage to a few different off-island locations as well, but the shining jewel of the setting takes place on Nevis Island.
As with most Bergren books, each story has a romance plotline. While sweet and enjoyable to read, I didn’t feel like they broke out of any of the standard romance tropes you often see in light/clean historical fiction. I don’t have much to say one way or the other on how they unfolded – at least Selah’s romance was pretty vanilla to me.
Overall, this is a sweet, wholesome trilogy filled with characters that weave in and out and recur throughout the three books, creating a nice world to get lost in for a little while. I didn’t feel like the series was anything extraordinary, but I didn’t have any complaints either. It’s a nice journey into Revolutionary War-era history, but I enjoyed the different perspective of how that war affected people on both the American and British sides who lived neither in America nor in Britain. The characters are likable, and the stories move at a fast enough pace. If historical drama is your thing, give it a read!
Meredith
Copyright Lisa T. Bergren and Bethany House Publishing. Image from Amazon.
One thought on “THE SUGAR BARON’S DAUGHTERS by Lisa T. Bergren”