I picked this book up because I am planning a trip next month to Monticello.  I was pleasantly surprised how interesting and readable this work of historical fiction is.  This novel is mainly the adult life of Martha Jefferson Randolph, oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson and mother of eleven children.  Martha, according to Monticello,  was an amazing woman who took care of all of her children, supervised her father’s home when he was President in Washington D.C.,  and tried to be a good wife to her husband, Tom, even when he was in the throes of depression and deeply in debt.  Although Martha, like her husband and father, understood the evils of slavery, for economic reasons they could never free their slaves.  Martha also denied until her father’s death that Sally Hemings was his mistress and bore his children. For Martha to admit this, would take Thomas Jefferson off the pedestal she had place him on.