Hearts of the Children, vol. 5: So Much of Life Ahead

I've just finished reading the complete Hearts of the Children series, and I've enjoyed them so much. The final book, So Much of Life Ahead, was not up to the first four, but it was a good conclusion for the Thomas family. One big problem with this last book, in particular, was the many errors: consistently spelling "naive" as "na*ve" and fiancée as "fianZe," to only name a couple. A good editor was needed, which I am. This was annoying but I plowed on through and hated to leave the family I had learned to care about.

I loved reading this series. It was nostalgic and brought back so many memories of life in the 60's and 70's. It created an emotion of what is was like to live during that very torrential era. So many traditions were challenged in America, not only through the Viet Nam War, but the resignation of Nixon and the change of traditional American family and marital life. I feel it was an accurate and emotional portrayal of the life during that era.

For someone looking for decently written LDS fiction I have read many of his books and I have found them all to be engaging and well written. Unfortunately a lot of LDS fiction strikes me as silly, riddled with cliches and badly written. So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the fiction of Dean Hughes. His writing is good enough that I would think that it could be easily accessible to readers outside the LDS community.

super great series. by the time I read all volumes of children of the promise and hearts of the children I considered the Thomas to be my friends and neighbor. I hated for the series to end. I do wonder though why dean hughes did not include another few chapters to continue through the blacks receiving the priesthood, since Kathy and others fought for civil rights for the black people.

I would strongly encourage everyone to either read or listen to the complete series ofHearts of the Children. And while they are doing either one place the trials there struggling with into these times we're living in. It won't be too difficult to see the correlations.

I love the Thomas family and their struggles. Over the years I have read the 10 book set at least three times and I still love them all.

Loved this series, an insight into what families were living with at the time.

Part of a set ... and actually a sequel to another set by Hughes. Interesting story of an extended LDS family.