I've read a few of Tracie Peterson's books and I know that she can write a good tale with no real issues. I've read her Alaskan Quest in the past, which actually involves some of these characters, but later on in life. I didn't realize it until I was reading these.
The first book, Treasures of the North, is about Grace. She is a young woman who was raised in a wealthy family and is now struggling to understand why her family is trying to force her to marry a real monster. He even shows his true side and hits her, but her father isn't budging. There's more to the story than he's telling and eventually Grace's mother comes to her side and decides to help her escape north with her companion, Karen. Karen is in search of her father, whom she has not heard from in a long time. Along the way, Peter takes them to Skagway and falls in love with Grace.
The second installment, Ashes and Ice, is more focused on Karen. She's all alone caring for two children that have been left in her care while their father is off hunting for gold. Now that Grace is gone, she has issues trying to deal with Jacob, the teenage boy. He's bound and determined that he needs to go north and try to join his father. Eventually he runs away and Karen decides that she needs to set out after him. Grace is having marital problems and the man that wants to marry her is bothering her and having a detrimental effect on her husband's family. As a result, she decides to join the party north, along with her sister-in-law, Miranda. Adrik has always been a man that Karen can count on, but he's now becoming more indispensable.
The end of the series, Rivers of Gold, focuses more on Miranda. Being thought dead after falling off the boat, she has been recovering in the cabin of an English botanist, Teddy. The stronger she gets, the more she fights with him to help her find her friends. To him, it's only rational to wait until the weather is better, but it's also a matter of heart for him to keep Miranda near to him. His work is most important, but in time, he discovers that Miranda is more important. Meanwhile, word has (wrongly) reached Peter that his wife, not sister, has died and comes north to fetch Miranda while he mourns his wife. The rest of the party has settled onto a claim with an old friend of Adrik's and is finding out that working for gold isn't really what they thought it would be.
The descriptions in this series are wonderful. I hate being cold, but the author has a way of describing things that makes you think that you are right there. She's also obviously done some major research about the gold rush to the Yukon and it shows. Sometimes I wish that there was a little less description, these books are pretty long compared to what I'm usually reading and then I have to multiply it by three.
Overall, I liked the series. Knowing ahead of time that I had to read all three saved me some frustration at the end of book 1. The length of them has to be my biggest complaint. I made it through half of Rivers of Gold before I had to take a break to rest my eyes. The characters were interesting and easy to care about. All three books talk about all the characters, but I put my summaries down regarding the romance aspect of the stories. Once the group gets split up, the way that these people just barely miss each other is pretty frustrating, but it all comes down to God's timing being perfect. The characters, as well as myself, usually think that they know better and try to push things forward faster.
There's a lot more to these books than what I've been able to include here. If you've got the time and the dedication, this is a great series. Just keep in mind you really do need to read all three. Good Books!
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