John Jakes and his historical fiction are second to none

My favorite style of writing is historical fiction. Since John Jakes had such a large collection of American books that he had written, and I enjoyed his novels so much, I ambitiously set out to read everything I could get my hands on. The first series I read was Kent Family Saga and it turned out to be my favorite. I read all eight volumes of the series starting with the “Bastard”.

Philippe Charbonneau, born with his mother’s maiden name, later took his father’s surname and Americanized it to Philip Kent when he was first in the United States. He had grown up in France. His actress mother, Marie, had been having an affair with a British nobleman and Philip grew up not knowing the truth. He was raised in a rather poor state at his mother’s French country inn. Marie had wished that her son would one day join her rich father in England. The duke had sent some support over the years, but the father and son had never met.

Once the truth came out as he entered adulthood, the mother and son set off for happy England. Although the duke was not home when they arrived, they found his half-brother and his stepmother. Neither of them got along. His unsympathetic brother and wicked stepmother had no part of another part of the inheritance. The two brothers fought. The duke did not know that Philip and his mother had been persecuted. Philip’s brother’s wife, however, had an interest in Philip and soon began a secret affair as Philip stayed in the area for a while, hoping for a piece of the property.

Eventually, they were driven out of the country by the brother, stepmother, and their employees. Marie was heartbroken as her dream was over. Philip wanted to seek his fortune in the new land and hoped to do so in the printing business. His distraught mother died on the way to the new world and she was buried at sea. Philip lost what little money he had left and came to the United States alone and penniless.

Philip discovered that Boston and the colonies were ripe for revolt when it came. They went to the mother country in protest against the unfair taxes imposed on the colonies. He falls under the spell of influential men like Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, and other pre-revolutionary figures. He also participated in the initial dissent the lawyer father of his first love, Anne. They started the Kent family lineage and when she died, he had more children with Peggy. Philip puts his brother, now a British Army officer, back in America, as well as his widow, after Philip fought him a second time. She tried to restart the romance with him without success.

It is full of action and continues until the second novel “The Rebel”. In the second novel, he will participate in the American Revolution. He simply runs into Lafayette, whom he had met growing up in France.