Official Review: Travelers in Painted Wagons

Kdonegan91 · Post by **Kdonegan91** » 02 Mar 2017, 00:29

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Travelers in Painted Wagons" by Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker Gorrell.]

2 out of 4 stars

Share This Review

The book Travelers in Painted Wagons: On Cohay Creek (Covington Chronicles Book 5) by Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker-Gorrell is categorized in the fiction genre. The setting of this book is in Mississippi by the Cohay Creek in the early 1900s. This comforting novel is told mostly from Jeremy Smitherlin's perspective with numerous sub-plots concerning the perspective of people in the community.

Jeremy Smitherlin is a young boy that was forced to mature way too quickly. His father, Caleb, is a stern, unemotional, and callous man and his mother, Mathilda, is terminally ill with cancer. Jeremy has to take on the duties of the farm and the blacksmith shop with little help. However, that all changes when Caleb allows a Romani caravan, also known as Gypsies, to temporarily settle by the creek in the back section of his land. In this time period, Gypsies were not well liked and could not vote or even own land. However, Caleb did not see any harm in letting them stay as long as they did not cause any issues or tell fortunes. Walthere Amaya, the leader of the clan, helped Caleb and Jeremy in their blacksmith shop to pay Caleb back for letting him settle on his land. Also, Rosalie, Walthere's wife, helped Jeremy's ill mother. The Gypsies influence the Smitherlins' lives more than expected. However, the Gypsies were taught not to grow too close to the Gentiles, or non-gypsies. Will Walthere, his wife, and their caravan ignore the Gypsy rule? Will Caleb make the Gypsies leave his land? How does the community react to the arrival of the unwanted Gypsies?

Even though the book Travelers in Painted Wagons is the fifth book in the series, it can read without reading the previous books. The character development is superb, especially since I did not read the first four books. I felt like I knew Jeremy personally by the end of the book. The novel is professionally formatted. Also, it is well-edited with the exception of a handful of errors. Some of the errors I noticed were missing commas and missing words. However, there were not so many errors that it disrupted my reading. Additionally, I appreciate that the authors' included the sources they consulted to write the book. In addition, the authors' use the perfect amount of detail to describe the people and places. Cheatham and Walker-Gorrell wrote the following to describe the Romani caravan:

The rolling homes decorated in bright colors flaunted painted designs of flowers, butterflies, birds. On each wall of every wagon, a window with a ruffled curtain gave a look of hominess. One of the wagons had a small front porch, and another had gingerbread-like trim around the top. They all had small, slender smokestacks to allow the smoke to escape, in winter, when the wood-burning stoves were needed.

Although I enjoyed the heartwarming storyline, this book progressed extremely slowly. Therefore, I lost interest numerous times and had to force myself to read on. There are large portions of this book that discusses mundane aspects of the characters' day to day lives. Also, I never really felt a climactic point throughout the book. Another issue I acquired is how the book ended. The reader never really gets any answers about Jeremy's father or mother.

I rate Travelers in Painted Wagons: On Cohay Creek (Covington Chronicles Book 5) by Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker-Gorrell 2 out of 4 stars. I would not rate this novel three stars because it did progress slowly and lost my interest many times. Also, it left the reader with so many questions. I didn't rate this book one star because it did contain well-developed characters and it was formatted nicely. Also, the authors' really did their research on the Gypsy culture and included the sources in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a slow moving but heartwarming novel. Also, this book would be great for anyone wanting to learn about the Gypsy way of life and their traditions.

******
Travelers in Painted Wagons
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like Kdonegan91's review? Post a comment saying so!

Guppy · Post by **Guppy** » 02 Mar 2017, 20:26

Sounds like it could have been a good book with a little more pace and a better ending. Still that description of the caravan is very pretty.

Joy Boudreau · Post by **Joy Boudreau** » 03 Mar 2017, 08:48

Boy, too bad there were so many errors and a slow pace. I have not read a lot of historically accurate books about gypsies, and this sounds like it could be a good one. Thanks for the review!

kimmyschemy06 · Post by **kimmyschemy06** » 05 Mar 2017, 09:38

That was a very honest review. The premise sounds very promising and the characters seem likable. Too bad, though, about the errors. Good job on the review.

SlientReader2017 · Post by **SlientReader2017** » 05 Mar 2017, 19:07

I'm just trying to read a book and get PAID, can someone direct me to the link.

Kdonegan91 · Post by **Kdonegan91** » 05 Mar 2017, 19:25

You have to make 5 posts on the forum before you can read and review a book. And for the first review, you are not paid. Once you do the 5 posts, you go to the Review Team (RT) page and click the SELECT button to pick a book.