{"id":43412,"date":"2025-11-20T22:01:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43412"},"modified":"2025-11-20T22:01:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:01:40","slug":"review-of-the-davenports-by-krystal-marquis-read-by-joniece-abbot-pratt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43412","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Davenports, by Krystal Marquis, read by Joniece Abbot-Pratt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Davenports<\/em><\/p>\n

by Krystal Marquis
\nread by Joniece Abbott-Pratt<\/p>\n

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 2 minutes.
\nReview written April 29, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

The Davenports<\/em> reminds me of a Jane Austen book \u2013 a wealthy family trying to get their kids married off \u2013 only this one is set in 1910, and the family are successful Black Americans in Chicago. The father of the Davenport clan was born enslaved, but after escaping, ended up making a fortune with a carriage company. And he\u2019s happily giving his family a much better life \u2013 maybe sheltering them a little too much.<\/p>\n

Now the two daughters and one son are at an age to be married \u2013 but nobody falls in love with the person their parents want and expect them to marry. And it\u2019s quite fun watching it happen.<\/p>\n

There are four viewpoint characters: Olivia Davenport is getting ready for her second season and really needs to find a husband this time around. When Jacob Lawrence shows up from England, everyone thinks she\u2019s found one. But then she stumbles into meetings of activists when she\u2019s doing charity work and learns the plight of her people in the South.<\/p>\n

Olivia\u2019s friend Ruby has been in love with Olivia\u2019s brother, John Davenport, since they were kids. Her father is running for mayor of Chicago, and her parents want Ruby to go ahead and get him to propose. Maybe if she makes him jealous\u2026.<\/p>\n

Younger sister Helen Davenport is never happier than working in the garage on the modern horseless carriages. Maybe she can help John convince their father to expand the business to automobiles. But instead, her parents hire an etiquette tutor to bring Helen into line.<\/p>\n

The final viewpoint character is Amy-Rose, long time friend and maid to the Davenport girls. She\u2019s been saving her money, and now she\u2019s almost ready to start her own business and open a salon.<\/p>\n

I thought I knew where this book was going, but all the romances run into snags toward the end of the book, and the author\u2019s note hints at a sequel. So I\u2019m looking forward to more time with the Davenport family in the future. The author\u2019s note also tells us that the family was based on an actual family led by a formerly enslaved Black man who got rich in the carriage business. She wondered what life might have been like for his daughters. And her wondering gave us this delightful book.<\/p>\n

krystalmarquis.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/davenports.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 2 minutes. Review written April 29, 2023, from a library eaudiobook Starred Review The Davenports reminds me of a Jane Austen book \u2013 a wealthy family trying to get their kids married off \u2013 only this one is set in 1910, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,32,24,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiobooks","category-historical","category-romance","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45937,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43412\/revisions\/45937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}