A Historical Fiction Book Review

"An American Beauty"

Image from Amazon

An American Beauty by Shana Abe is a historical fiction book based on the life of Arabella Huntington.

Huntington was a real person and all of the characters surrounding her in this novel are based around research and diary entries of the notorious women.

Arabella was working in Richmond Virginia for Johnny Worsham when she met Collis Huntington and her life changed forever. She became Collis' mistress and most people including his wife knew all about her and her son that is not all Arabella is known for she is also famous for her smart investing and business sense that made her wealthy on her own apart from her famous suitor.

The book follows Arabella, her future stepdaughter Clara, and her family. The reader gets multiple perspectives and sees how Arabella's decisions impact everyone around her.

When I started the book I was interested and couldn't get enough of the story, but as the book went on I didn't like it as much and slowly lost interest. Toward the middle of the book the story started to drag out a bit and I found it a little mundane. It was an interesting read overall.

An American Beauty by Shane Abe was a slow but good book if you are looking for a historical fiction book.