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2012 Christy Award finalist, Historical category.
Camilla Fox is alive. The last thing she remembers is being lost in the snow after leaving her home to escape the Mormon faith she no longer calls her own. She’s been taken in by the 5th Infantry Regiment of the US Army and given over to the personal care of Captain Charles Brandon. As she regains her strength, memories of her two children she had to leave behind come flooding back, threatening to break her heart. Camilla is determined to reunite with her daughters. But when news of her father’s grave illness reaches her, she knows she must return to the family farm to reconcile with her father. As spring arrives, Camilla returns to Salt Lake City a changed woman, but nothing could prepare her for the changes to the city, to the Mormon church, and to the family she left behind. Tyndale House Publishers
Smoke. And darkness. And warmth.
"I think she's wakin'. Go fetch the colonel." A man's voice, one I didn't know. A momentary blast of cold air, and I remembered the storm, the roaring wind and swirling snow that carried me here.
"Ma'am?" Closer now. I felt a warm hand against my cheek. "You're going to be just fine."
I wanted to smile, but my lips felt dry, tight. When I tried to speak, they peeled apart, grating against each other like thin, dry bark.
"Don't you try to speak none. Just show me, can you open your eyes?"
I wanted to, if only to see where it was the Lord had brought me, but already the voice was falling away, like words being dropped down a well. Sight seemed too heavy a burden, so I contented myself with what senses I could muster—the soft sound of a crackling fire, the sweet smell of the wood burning within it, and the warmth, blessed warmth, covering my body from my toes to my chin. The weight of it pinned me down.
* * *
Time passed. How much, I couldn't know, but enough for me to develop an unutterably powerful thirst. I pried my lips apart, worked my tongue between them. Just that little movement brought the presence to my side again. A new touch to my temple, a new voice in my ear. Deeper, stronger.
"Ma'am?"
Of their own accord, my eyes opened. I saw nothing at first, but then he moved into my sight. Long hair brushed behind his ears, a full moustache covering his top lip. His eyes were closed at first, and the moustache bobbed as he said, "Thank you, Lord." Then they opened, and in the fire's light they shone warm and brown.
"Where—?"
"Shh." He held a finger to his lips. "Time enough for that later. I'm Colonel Charles Brandon of the United States Army. Outside of Jesus himself, you couldn't be in better hands. Now, how about some water?"
I gave no response, but I didn't need to. I tracked him with my eyes as he reached behind himself and produced a blue tin cup. He took a sip.
"Just testing. Don't want it too hot."
Then my head was cradled in his hand and he placed the cup against my mouth. The first sip burned, then soothed as I swallowed.
"Little more?"
I opened my lips wider in response, and I heard him whisper, "That's a girl," as he gauged just when to take the cup away. He must be a father, too.
"Now," he said, laying my head back, "if you'll consent." He reached into his coat pocket and took out a thin, silver flask. "I'm in no way a drinking man myself, and I don't want to lead you down the path of evil, but if you'll permit me to mix just a few drops of whiskey in that water, it'll toast your blood right up."
My first instinct should have been to say no, but speaking was still beyond my strength, and truthfully, my thoughts were still cloudy enough that his words had no impact. He took my silence as permission and twisted the lid off the flask. With caution and precision, he drizzled a bit of the amber liquid into the water remaining in the blue cup and swirled it.
"For this, you'll need to sit up a little straighter."
He moved behind me and, this time, put his arm beneath my shoulders. I could feel the brass of his cuff buttons against my skin, hitting me with the realization that I was fully naked beneath a pile of wool blankets and bearskin. I twisted my head, panicked, and he instantly interpreted my terror.
"I know and I'm sorry. But we couldn't have you wearing twenty pounds of wet clothes. Now I wish we'd had some old Indian woman to help us out, but we're just a bunch of soldiers. If it helps, I held a gun on 'em and kept 'em blindfolded."
I didn't believe him, but I cared a little less.
"When you're ready, drink this down."
Just the smell of the whiskey in the water brought new life to my senses. Sharpened them, somehow, opened me up to the thought of drinking it down.
"All one drink," he said behind me. "If you sip it by half, you won't drink the rest."
I nodded, braced myself, and closed my eyes. I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt only warmth. Heat was followed by clarity, and when Colonel Brandon lowered me once again to what I now recognized as a buffalo skin–covered cot, I was fully ready to speak.
"Thank you." My voice was hoarse, and then I remembered screaming into the storm.
He cocked his head. "Doesn't sound to me like you're quite up for telling your story."
He was right. I couldn't. But it had nothing to do with my throat.
"If it's all right, though, I'd like to ask you just a couple of questions." He set the cup down on the ground next to him and took a small piece of yellow paper out of the same pocket where he kept the flask. "Can you tell me who Missy is?"
The name shot through my heart. "My daughter. Her name's Melissa. And Lottie."
He checked his paper, and the pleasant expression he'd worn since my eyes opened to him disappeared, replaced with a fur- rowed, worried brow. "Are they—were they traveling with you?"
I shook my head as tears gathered in my eyes.
"They're safe at home?"
"Yes."
"Well, thank God for that."
And I did as my head filled with visions of them, cozily tucked into their bed or sitting on the braided rug in front of the stove, happily playing with their dolls at the feet of—
"Nathan? Is he your husband?"
"Yes." I tried to sit up. "Is he here? Did he come for me?"
"Shh ..." Again his warm hand soothed my brow, and exhausted, I lay back. "No, ma'am. Nobody's come for you."
"Then how do you know?"
He showed me the paper. Three words—Missy, Lottie, Nathan—and one letter: K.
"Kimana."
He smiled. "Private Lambert wasn't sure of the spelling."
"She's taking care of my daughters."
"I see." I could tell he wanted to know more, but I hadn't the strength. It wasn't the time. "You've been sleeping on and off for close to twenty hours, and that's just since we found you. Now, for me you've been nice and quiet, but I guess when Private Lambert pulled his shift, you decided to talk a little bit. He picked out a few names."
"Oh."
"And he said you seemed to do a lot of praying."
"Yes."
"The way I figure, those prayers brought my scouts out to find you. Nothing but unbroken snow, they said; then there you were, hanging on to that horse. Why, that animal herself is a miracle."
"You have to send her back. To my husband."
"Time enough for that. We'll get you feeling better, and then we'll get both of you safely home."
More tears, and now they fell, sliding straight down into my ears. "I don't have a home."
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Now, don't be silly. Everybody's got a home."
"Not me. I had one, and I left it. I had to."
His voice dropped to a whisper, even though as far as I could tell, the two of us were quite alone. "Are you one of them, then? A Mormon?"
"Yes." Then quickly, "No. I mean I was, for a time. But not really, not in my heart. And now—God, forgive me ..." Whatever else I meant to say disappeared in the drought of my throat. I mustered what strength I could and turned on my side, my back to Colonel Brandon, and curled up with my regret.
Taking a liberty I could have never imagined, he put his hand on my shoulder, tugging me to face him. As I complied, he smoothed my hair from my brow and brought his face so close to mine I could feel his breath.
"Now you listen to me. I don't want you to be frightened for one more minute. Not for yourself and not for your girls. I'm here for you. The United States Army is here for you. And as I've sworn my life as a sacrifice for freedom, I will make it my promise that you'll have a home."
"How?" I'd brought the blanket up to my face, and it muffled my question. Still, he heard.
"You leave that up to me. Another drink?"
As an answer, I sat myself up on my elbows, holding the covers nearly to my chin.
Silently, he filled the cup with water from a pot sitting on a grate by the fire and added a little from a clay pitcher. Then he lifted the flask, holding it like a question. Remembering the pleasant warmth, I nodded, and as before, he measured in a tiny stream and swirled the cup. I continued to hold the covers as he tipped the cup against my mouth, and this time I took the drink in several satisfying gulps.
"That's the last of that for you."
"That's fine," I said, lying back down.
"Now sleep. And don't worry. When you wake up, I'll be here."
"And then?"
"And then, it sounds like we might have a bit of a battle on our hands."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from FORSAKING All OTHERS by ALLISON PITTMAN Copyright © 2011 by Allison Pittman. Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Faye_reviews
Posted October 17, 2011
A riveting novel that was hard to read, yet hard to put down.
Forsaking All Others is the heart-rending tale of Camilla Fox, a strong woman who leaves the Mormon faith and finds truth through the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the process, she is forced to leave her children behind. Determined to rescue her children from the false teachings of the Mormons, she relies on her new found faith in Jesus Christ, to see her through. When faced with the option of going back, will her faith stay strong? And will she ever see her beautiful daughters again? And what about the honorable Colonel Brandon?
Well written and emotionally engaging, Forsaking All Others is a book that I enjoyed immensely and I think others will too. The first person narrative made Camilla's struggles really come to life, in an understandable and heart touching way. The characters were so well done. Ms. Pittman showed how many Mormon really just wanted to please God, but were tragically mislead by a fallible human. And how terribly lost they were, yet they didn't realize it. The side characters are what really made this book feel real, and how they all reacted differently to the situations.
It was so heartbreaking to read the chapters where staunch Mormons were defending their religion, and how the characters geniunely believed the lies that they had been told countless times. And that's why it was so hard to read. But in the other hand as things went from bad to worse, and back again, I keep the pages turning steadily because I simply HAD to find out what happened to Camilla next. Because I couldn't possible leave her where she was!
Overall this book was emotionally strong, and so well-written. The characters came alive in my head, and the story gripped me to the end.Though I think that Forsaking All Others would be more meaningful if its prequel was read first, I had no problem just jumping into the second book :)
Final Rating: 5 out of 5
I received this book for free in return for an honest review.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 2, 2012
Very educational regarding Mormonism!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.kristen4mk
Posted June 15, 2012
This is the sequel to "For Time & Eternity", continuing the story of Camilla Fox. A young girl desperate for love from the father who doesn't understand her, she is drawn to Nathan Fox and marries him almost immediately. Set in the early days of Mormonism, they are madly in love and soon have two little girls but when tragedy strikes and their third child, a boy, dies, things begin to unravel. Her husband brings a second woman to their marriage, a "sister wife", and Camilla truly cannot live with it. She literally escapes and "Forsaking All Others" begins with her rescue from a snowstorm, by the United States Army.
In "Forsaking All Others", we follow Camilla as she tries to reconcile her deepened faith and relationship with God to surviving the separation from her children and husband. One of the main takeaways I got from this book is that God had to be most important to her, and at times her sole source of courage and strength. I thought she was inspiring.
This book is beautifully written and all of the historical aspects, the rules, the faith ring so true. At the end of the book Allison shares that her husband is a former Mormon, which I thought was so interesting to have the perspective while writing this amazing book.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Forsaking All Others is the sequel and conclusion to For Time and Eternity and I both books are amazing to read. This book being a sequel I highly recommend reading the first one before it as this one picks up right where the first left off. In all reality they could be one book. It would be very confusing to try to read this book by itself.
Camilla Fox who had just left home in the first book was caught in a snowstorm, the good news is that she is alive and currently with the US Army under Colonel Charles Brandon. After many months of healing from the affects of being in the snowstorm the Colonel helps her return to Salt Lake City to see her children she left behind while waiting for spring to be able back to her parents home in Missouri.
While back in Utah, things are harder then she was expecting but eventually finds a way to escape and head to Missouri, again with the help of the Colonel. Finally back home she builds her strength and her case to legally divorce Nathan and claim her children. Will Camilla find the freedom she needs? Will she be able to bring her children home and raise them in her faith, not the Mormom faith?
I loved this book, as well as the first, and found myself not wanting to put the books down. They are such a great story of standing for your faith and not backing down. I would recommend this book to everyone. Defiantly a 5 star book, if not higher!
I received this book from Tyndale through the Tyndale Blog Network
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 18, 2011
I just finnished the first book and cannot wait to read this one. Very inspiring to read about her struggles as she tries to return to Christ. WOW is all I can say about these books.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Prolificreader
Posted October 2, 2011
I Also Recommend:
Few characters and the authors who create them upon the page, ring my emotions and drive me to escape within the pages of a well-written novel. With tension, a flair for the dramatic, an ability to build the emotions until I felt the pull of heartache or the joy of rejoicing, "Forsaking All Others" was a novel I dreaded giving up.
I first met Camilla in "For Time and All Eternity", the story of a woman deceived into Mormonism and then desperate to escape. The second novel in the series had me at the throat the entire way through. The beauty of the prose paints a fascinating picture. One of desperation, but hope. Love and yet loss. And the unquenchable hold of faith once lost, but now found.
I can't get over how much I loved the writing. The story is fantastic, the writing makes it sing. While many readers might become tired of the style, I found it freeing and gripping. I wanted to drink each word in and let it resonate within me.
The story battles between two faiths. One a religion and the other salvation in Christ. I never once felt preached at.
Camilla is a character I fell completely in love with, but I also loved hers and Nathan's love story and I longed for the right resolution for their marriage. I believe that was given, but there is still a part of me that is saddened when I closed the book.
So many dynamics in this novel, a 200 word review feels constricting. I loved it. Plain and simple, I loved it. I hope you will too.
This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers for my copy to review.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 15, 2013
This series ends horribly-too real life :(
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.sherylfullner
Posted August 17, 2012
Forsaking All Others by Allison Pittman fascinates from page one which purports to be from the Ladies Home Journal 1896 featuring an article by a former sister wife in Utah who escaped her plural marriage and eventually reclaimed the young daughters she had to leave behind. With the current interest in TV shows about Big Love and Sister Wives and the possibility of a Mormon president, this book could not be more timely. Polygamy has been a popular subject for Christian romance writers, but Pittman writes with a spiritual depth and a historical accuracy that raises her book above the rest.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 6, 2012
Sister Wives is a curious topic to me which drew me to this series. Both books in the series are well written and will draw you in and cause you to read them in 2 days. I can't even begin to understand all Camilla went through with having a wonderful marriage to having to share her husband. Then the decisions to leave it all which meant a temporary leave of her children. I wonder if there will be another book to give more detail on Camilla and Colonel Brandon and life after Sister Wives.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 27, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Allison Pittman's books.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Gulfview
Posted February 15, 2013
This is such a good book, I read it all in two days,
They don't get any better than this one !!!
Anonymous
Posted February 13, 2013
This book is one of the best that I have ever read. I was captivated by the story and the characters.
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Posted February 2, 2013
I love this book. I hate Evangeline though. I gt this wierd feeling and feel sick and disgusted every time i think about her. This waas a great book though and i really hope that there is another one. It is a book of sadness, heartbreak, and trial. I really like it. WAY TO GO ALLISON PITTMAN!!!!!!! ;)
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Posted February 1, 2013
Allison Pittman is a wonderful writer. I can't put her books down. I am reading the sister wives series and it is wonderful/. I feel like I know the people personally. Keep up the good work Allison,. I will definitely be buying more of your books on my Nook!!!!!
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Posted July 18, 2012
Enlightening
I did not realize this book was the second in a series. However, I had no problem following the characters and their stories. Loving historical fiction, I found this book to be engaging. A lot of information was given about the beginnings of the Morman church and the way society reacted to them. I applauded Camilla's courage to walk away from something, she knew in her heart wasn't right, and return to her true faith. Having the courage to face her parents and admit her mistakes was something we can all learn from. I recommend this book to anyone who needs encouragement to take that first step back to faith.
Thursday4
Posted July 17, 2012
This is a sequel to the first novel in the Sister Wives Duology 'For Time & Eternity'. The plot revolves around Camilla, who left her family to marry Nathan - a member of the Mormon church. Camilla and Nathan are very much in love, until the day Camilla realizes that she does not believe everything the Mormon church espouses, and her husband brings home a second 'sister' wife. Unable to continue with the false teachings, Camilla leaves her home and two daughters in the middle of a snow storm; which is where this novel begins.
Rescued from freezing to death by the US Army, Camilla finds herself literally swept out of the cold and into the arms of a handsome, Christian, conveniently widowed army Captain. Camilla spends a good portion of the beginning of the book healing from her snowstorm ordeal, and the rest of the book vacillating between fear that the passion she experienced with her husband, Nathan, will bring her back to the Mormon church and the desire to save her children from the heretical teachings Brigham Young is imposing on the would-be state of Utah and a future with the army captain.
I did not have the opportunity to read the first book in this series, and I'm hoping that the foundation laid out in that novel provided the substance needed to carry a reader through the terribly lacking sequel.
The writing style swings between flat prose and a syrupy romantic style which utterly failed to interest or intrigue me. The plot is laid out fairly clearly from the first several chapters, and does not have the stamina to engage a reader for the next three-hundred and fifty pages. The mormon aspect, which I assume was meant to simultaneously educate and entertain, ended up as an uncomfortable series of descriptions inserted into an otherwise prosaic love triangle. Also, highly conservative Christians may take issue with the plot point of a divorced woman remarrying while her first husband is still alive.
The pluses I can mention include the emphatic statements in the text of the novel that the Latter Day Saints are not Christians because they don't follow Christ, and the recurring theme that God will love and forgive us no matter where we've been or what we've done.
Nonetheless, this book just didn't work for me. Maybe because I didn't read the first book, or it could be just because this book doesn't work. Period.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 24, 2012
I picked this book up, not realizing there was one before it. This book can stand on its own, though. Leading you through the salvation God gives you. Camilla Fox was a strong character who was determined to seek her relationship with God, while trying to restore her family. I loved this book and couldn't put it down. Cannot wait to read the first one in the 2 book story.
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Posted January 28, 2012
As much as I loved the first book in this series, this one tops that in spades. Camilla's story, her realistic journey of emotional change, blew me away. What an honest and charming telling of a true life change. Allison never disappoints.
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Posted January 16, 2012
I enjoyed this book but can't give it a RAVE review. I don't regret the time spent reading it but it was sort of a let down after the first book. Still if you read the first book, you must read the end of her story.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 28, 2011
Bad
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Overview
2012 Christy Award finalist, Historical category.
Camilla Fox is alive. The last thing she remembers is being lost in the snow after leaving her home to escape the Mormon faith she no longer calls her own. She’s been taken in by the 5th Infantry Regiment of the US Army and given over to the personal care of Captain Charles Brandon. As she regains her strength, memories of her two children she had to leave behind come flooding back, threatening to break her heart. Camilla is ...