In Times Gone By by Tracie Peterson

This is the third book in Tracie's Golden Gate Secrets series.  This book takes place right after the great San Francisco earthquake and then the fires have destroyed the city. It continues to follow the lives of the three girls who met on the train while each one was bound for San Francisco, all for different reasons.  This book focuses a bit more on Kenzie and her journey to move beyond her past and her journey to learn to trust again.

It's the typical historical fiction/romance. There are true players in the story that really lived in the time frame the book was written, but the main characters are, of course, fiction. I think what I really liked about this book was Tracie's portrayal of the compassion and kindness of the main character. At this point in the story, they were all fairly well off, one especially, but money was not their savior. They wanted to use their wealth for the betterment of mankind. They were willing to sacrifice their own comforts and do their own cooking, their own housekeeping, etc. That is not something you find very frequently in stories of wealthy people.

I did love the addition of Victoria, a thorn in everyone's side, but especially Judith's. Victoria is her long-lost cousin who really wants nothing to do with her, hates her, hates the life Judith is living, and only wants one thing, her money so that she can go be on her own. She is childish, vindictive, and mean and will got to any length to get what she wants. I just thought it made some good conversation in the book, not that I recommend anyone taking after Victoria's example at all.

I think, for me, that take away from the book and even this series is kindness and compassion and no social boundaries. It can be easy to judge people based on their ethnicity, their financial savy or lack thereof, or any number of things. But we are all humans and we all deserve kindness and it doesn't hurt us at all to cross over those invisible and man made barriers to touch another human being with kindness. And I feel Tracie did that well in this book with Camri marrying an Irish man, with their building to help provide food and safety and an education to women and children in a poor section of own and even in their willingness to share a meal with a former servant. I need to be more willing myself to see others as God sees them and to love them as He does.

I received this book from Bethany House through Net Galley and was not required to write a positive review.