A Tropical Frontier: Tales of Old Florida (3 Stars)

Last year, I won A Tropical Frontier: Tales of Old Florida by Tim Robinson in a Goodreads Giveaway. It took me a while to get through this book. It’s a collection of stories about a family living in Florida in the 1800s. The stories are told in chronological order.

One thing to know is that there are several deaths throughout this story. Many of them do not die of natural causes, and many of the deaths are people who are fairly young. Most of the deaths feel a bit like this person died, and now we’re moving on with the story. In at least one case, the person’s death felt so inconsequential and like it didn’t really bother anyone that I had to go back and reread to make sure the person really had died. 

The Wrecker

This story felt rushed. There was a lot going on, but because it was only a novella, the author never went into a lot of detail. I think it would have worked better as a full novel on its own. I could be wrong about this, but I feel like this story takes place over a longer time period than any of the other stories in the collection. Even though it was rushed, this novella was my favorite of the collection.

As a warning to readers, there is some swearing in this story. It is minor, as in probably 3 to 5 swear words, but it’s there. There’s no sexual content. There is some minor violence, mostly people shooting at animals or in some cases, other people.

The Colony

This story takes place several years after the previous story ended. It’s mostly focused on the children of the main characters from the previous novella. Other families move to Florida, and some of the children marry during this time. My biggest complaint is that there were a lot of storylines started but left incomplete. Some of them were picked up the future stories. With one of them, one of the granddaughters marries a guy who’s scamming her. Her family doesn’t like him. I thought we’d get some insight into what happened to her and if she learned from the experience. I was really interested in knowing what had happened, but I think she’s only mentioned once by name in any of the other stories, and even that mention is minor.

This story also has some swearing. It’s slightly more prominent than it was in the previous novella. There’s no sexual content. There are a few scenes with violence, but it’s pretty mild.

The Vagabond December 26, 1857

I wasn’t a huge fan of this story. It didn’t feel like it really fit in with the book. It felt like mostly a filler piece. This story was about Charlie, one of the sons of the original couple, and Salty, their bird. It’s a quick read. There is some swearing, but there’s no sexual content or violence. Honestly, this story left me with more questions than answers. Even after completing the story, I’m not sure if it was supposed to be real or if it was all a dream.

The Blockade Runners

This story takes place during the Civil War. Charlie and another family member, Bobby, are illegally bringing goods to their family in some Florida islands and running goods from other coastal states to mainland Florida.

This story takes up the bulk of the book. It drags on a lot. Whereas I felt like the first story could have been longer, this one felt very repetitive. We encounter some of the same issues over and over again. For example, Charlie and Bobby are caught sailing illegal goods several times, but they escape or get let off with a warning. The same situation played out similarly gets a bit old fast. It just felt so long. There were also a lot of characters thrown into the story. I really couldn’t keep all of them straight honestly.

This book has a lot more swearing than the previous stories. It talks about a few attempted rapes. It includes some pretty serious violence, although the violence doesn’t go into graphic detail. This story has the most deaths in the collection.  

The Beachcomber

This is basically your epilogue. I felt a bit like the author felt that the previous story had ended too happily (it hadn’t), so he added this sad epilogue. While there are more deaths in the previous story, if we are counting the number of deaths per page, this one would win the prize.

Like the previous story, there is some swearing and serious violence, although it also doesn’t go into too much graphic detail.

Final Thoughts on This Old Florida Story

Overall, I feel like the author tried to take on too much of a story. I could easily see taking one of these stories and expanding it into something more detailed. For one book, though, it was just too much thrown at the reader at once with too many plots left unfinished.

I should note that I’m in the minority here. It has a 4.6-star rating on Amazon and a 4.4-star rating on Goodreads. Clearly, most of the people who reviewed it enjoyed it.