Awards and Critical Acclaim
What Readers and Critics Say The Bonita Trilogy (Bonita, Bonita’s Quest, Nita)
Bonita
Thought provoking, suspenseful and fun. 5 stars.
--Lizzie, enthusiastic reader.
The lead character is an immensely intelligent, loving, caring, and fierce girl with a big heart. Bonita is a magnificent piece of work and I loved it.—Reader Comment
--made me feel as if I was right there watching the scenes unfold—Reader comment.
Bonita’s Quest
Other books from Carl R Brush seem to be about early California, but Bonita’s Quest took me all the way to New Orleans and made just as believable. Quite an achievement, that.
… a wonderful story of a strong woman, her determination to succeed in her quest, and her abilities to navigate a world in which women were generally not allowed to participate.
Carl R. Brush has created an endearing character who is both fearless and feminine at the same time. – Hollywood Review
Bonita’s Quest is wonderful. –Bookside Press.
[I don’t know why my word program started putting spaces between apostrophe’s and the rets of the word. Hope we can live with it for now. ]
In Bonita’s Quest, we find [the title character] on a desperate journey to discover more about her parents and to clear their sullied name, all in an attempt to gain custody of her eight-year-old daughter, ripped away from her at birth and given to a childless and wealthy couple in the higher echelons of the San Francisco elite. She is confronted by corruption, double-dealing, and no small degree of violence but she will also find the beginnings of a romance with unexpected and uncertain consequences.-- Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
Nita
Nita is Bonita’s daughter, and Brush has nailed the attitudes and impulses of a thirteen year old hungry for adventure and inclusion in the adult world around her. She sees violence and injustice all around her, especially in her encounters with the underground railroad and the attempts to obliterate her Miwok friends. This is the third in Carl R Brush’s Bonita Trilogy and I can’t wait to read the others.—An Enthusiastic reader.
The Vendetta Trilogy (The Maxwell Vendetta, The Second Vendetta, Swindle in Sawtooth Valley)
The Maxwell Vendetta and The Second Vendetta--Lots of romance and trouble in this exciting tale. Politics too. It took this reader on a journey full of all I look for in any novel as well as into the conflicts and social dilemmas of the early 20th century. A terrific read—Reader Comment
--This is a for real family saga. Every page made me thirsty for the next—Reader Comment
--Yellow Squirrel is a villain worthy of Larry McMurtry—Dan Barth
--They say revenge is a dish best served cold. In The Maxwell Vendetta, it’s a dish that’s red hot.—The California Review
I was fascinated by the characters’ relentless persistence to pursue their romance despite the opposition of those around them to their interracial union. What a painful and heartwarming struggle.—Reader Comment.
The Yellow Rose
I knew nothing about the Texas Revolution till I read this book. Texas was a nation before it was a state? The Yellow Rose was a real woman? Sam Houston owed his victories to a mulatto woman? The surprises never stop. I loved this. Loved it. –A California Reader
It says on the book jacket that his novel mixes legend with fact. Brush and Stewart have blended history with fiction so masterfully that I challenge anyone to tell where one leaves off and the other begins. –An anonymous commentator
