America's First Daughter: A Novel

This book is so well written. It brings to life so much history and makes one believe they are witnessing these important figures in our past come to life. The complicated interaction of one of America's most important families is fascinating. The narrator did a superb job bringing this story to life. These characters became so real that I must admit I cried in some parts of the story. So well done!

I loved this book! It was well researched (as much as it could be given the edited nature of Thomas Jefferson's collection of letters) and very well written. A beautiful historic novel. For me, Cassandra Campbell's narration was a very integral part. She was perfect as the voice of Patsy Jefferson Randolph. Her accent was spot on.

I learned so much about this family and the time period from this book, I enjoyed the excerpts from actual letters it added such an authenticity to this fiction novel. As to the time period first and foremost there are slaves, and secondly the women are such second hand citizens, even though Thomas Jefferson did treat his daughters better than some. The abuse towards women was horrifying, that it was just commonplace made it worse to me. You could be hanged for stealing a horse but beating up your wife or mother in law or daughter was fine.

Of course we all know about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings relationship and I do feel like that’s what it was, I think Sally truly helped the Jefferson out of his deepest despair and I believe he was grateful for that. It did make me mad that he didn’t free her and their children upon his death. I think that is the least he could have done for all she went through.

I really like Martha’s husband Tom at first but boy oh boy as this book went on he became just like his own father. This woman had 11 children in an age where a lot of women died in childbirth including her own mother and her sister. But the alternative to not doing your wifely duties was to have your husband bed a slave so I guess if you wanted to keep your husband you just kept popping out babies.

The hardships and losses she went through were tough but they made her a very tough woman and I was very impressed with her.

I was also fascinated with the fact that the women were much more “political” than their husbands they were the ones that got the right people to the right dinners and parties and advanced their men’s careers, but of course got no credit for it


Cassandra's narration was fabulous will be surprised if this doesn't get an earphones award and possibly a Audie nomination next year so very well done! I enjoyed that Patsy’s (Martha) voice aged with her and became stronger as she became sure of herself. So well done! This book was 23 hours and I was never bored or distracted and was sad when it ended.

We read this for book club and there were some that felt the Paris section in the beginning was a little romancey but don’t let that put you of, she’s a young girl at the start and this section sets up events later in the book and also shows the lengths she will go for her father.

I see these two authors are writing another book together and I look forward to reading it! I highly recommend this book and even higher recommend it on audio!

4 ½ Stars

The readers accent is particularly awful. Everybody in the car (4 of us) wanted me to turn it off. We tried it for about two hours at all agreed it was just terrible. You know it's pretty bad when everybody starts making jokes about the characters and their ridiculous accents.

Oh my! Ah could haahdly get past the shugga coated suuthhun accent. And ah live in the south! Puulease! Too much melodrama for me, and my favorite movie is "Gone with the Wind"! This one is just "wind".

I agree that this sounded like a young adult book. I thought there would be more history and that there would be more Thomas Jefferson. I could not finish it because I kept falling asleep

Entertaining from the start, learned a lot, couldn't get through it fast enough. Amazing book. I can't wait to see what these authors do next!

No.

I know from the reviews that it is very heavily based on the letters of Jefferson and probably "Patsy". It "read" like a run of the mill romance novel. Other than the main story line, I often questioned what was fact and what was embellished fiction. One example: Mr. Short snuck into Patsy's room and stole a lock of hair. Was that in her letters? I had no way of knowing, and it was frustrating.

Someone who had a little less of a southern accent. I am from Georgia, and it was distracting.

It made me go online and try to figure out what was true and what was fiction.

I appreciate the research that went into this, but I just never knew whether I was reading fiction or a biography.

...I HAD to review this book.....It was simply AMAZING...SMH . In order to really enjoy a book like this. you must love history first of all. second be curious about who Jefferson was as a man and want to understand his relationship with his family and how Sally Hemmings fit in this tight circle. The story starts off So slow that It killed me at first but I eventually couldn't stop listening. it was beautiful and worth the wait...I might listen again in the future :)

Fascinating subject matter is simplified into what reads like a "young adult" romance novel. Superficial rather than subtle, and thin as opposed to dense historical detail, the prose disappoints. Too many words wasted in drawing out imagined romantic encounters, and long descriptions of mawkish sentimentality. Rich, multileveled historical information might have been added and written in such a way to challenge, and intellectually stimulate.