Brendan O'Connor is an orphan boy that delivers bakery goods to local businesses. Dai-Yue is a 13-year old distraught Chinese girl who lives with her uncle, whom has arranged a marriage with an older man. The narrative of the chapters alternate between the two protagonists. Although some parts of the plot seem to be far-fetched, it was well researched, and if offers a historical fictional account of the 1906 earthquake. Recommended for middle school collections. ( )

Sierra is a chambermaid at the illustrious Palace Hotel and daydreams of the handsome guest, Cameron, declaring his love to her. Joseph is a ranch hand who has been forced into coming to San Francisco by his father on a quest to see that both his high spirited sister and he are properly married. What no one takes into account is how all dreams and plans can be put at risk when unanticipated disasters strike.

This story is a fictional account of several different people taking place around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the resulting fires that nearly destroyed the entire city. Although Joseph and Sierra are the primary characters, their stories are joined by many others in the telling. Rather like a disaster movie you get many points of view on the incident itself and the aftermath. The author does a pretty good job of describing the earthquake, but really it is the after effects of the fire and loss of water that ultimately caused the most damage (or so it seemed from the book). Although I found the story interesting I didn't feel there was a lot of depth to the characters and I felt more removed from the story than part of it. However, overall I think it was a pretty good read that I think would be appropriate for ages 10 and up. ( )