Summary and Reviews of The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

The Davenports

by Krystal Marquis
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  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 31, 2023, 384 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2024, 400 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

The first in a breathless YA series set in 1910 Chicago, The Davenports offers a glimpse into a period of African American history often overlooked, while delivering a totally escapist, swoon-worthy read

The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love—even where they're not supposed to.

There is Olivia, the beautiful elder Davenport daughter, ready to do her duty by getting married ... until she meets the charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight and sparks fly. The younger daughter, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love—unless it's with her sister's suitor. Amy-Rose, the childhood friend turned maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business—and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen's brother, John. But Olivia's best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can't seem to keep his interest ... until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers.

Inspired by the real-life story of C.R. Patterson and his family, The Davenports is the tale of four determined and passionate young Black women discovering the courage to steer their own path in life—and love.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

The Davenports is full of beautiful gowns, high society gossip, fabulous balls and more than a little scandal. But given the time period and the identities of the characters (Mr. Davenport, for example, was formerly enslaved and has yet to be reunited with his brother), Marquis's debut also carries historic heft. In the process of growing her political awareness, Olivia learns about race riots in nearby Springfield just two years earlier, during which the city's Black residents were attacked by a white mob who killed eight people, permanently harmed Black-owned businesses and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of property damage. There's a good chance readers of this novel will be hearing about this ugly episode in American history for the first time, too. The frothy romances and shifting friendships play out in a moment and place where the Black characters feel relatively free of racism and oppression, though as Olivia comes to learn, that freedom is both hard-won and fragile...continued

Full Review (769 words)

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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).

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Beyond the Book



The C.R. Patterson & Sons Company

Black-and-white photo of the open frame of the first Patterson-Greenfield automobile, with engine visible Krystal Marquis mentions in a brief author's note that her debut novel The Davenports was "inspired by the story of the C.R. Patterson & Sons carriage company, founded by a proud patriarch who escaped enslavement to become a wealthy and respected entrepreneur."

Charles Richard Patterson was born into slavery on a plantation in Virginia in 1833. Like many enslaved people, his life was not well documented, and sources vary about whether his family bought their freedom or whether he alone escaped. Either way, the historical record finds him settling in the small abolitionist town of Greenfield, Ohio, between the 1840s and 1860s, where he worked as a blacksmith (a trade he may have learned while enslaved) and later went into business ...

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Read-Alikes

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