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Three Rivers Rising | LitPick Book Reviews
Three Rivers Rising
Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood
Three Rivers Rising
Jame Richards
Sixteen-Year-Old Celstia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel’s hired boy. It’s a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it’s a love that could get Celestia disowned. These affairs of the heart become all the more wrenching on a single, tragic day in May, 1889. After days of heavy rain, the dam fails, unleashing 20 million tons of water onto Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the valley below. The town where Peter lives with his father. The town where Celestia has just arrived to join him. This searing novel in poems explores a cross-class romance—and a tragic event in U. S. history.

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Historical Fiction

Age Level: 

  • 12 and up
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Three Rivers Rising, by Jame Richards, takes place in the summer of 1889. Celestia is a sixteen year old girl from a wealthy family who vacations with her family at a fancy resort on the edge of Lake Conemaugh, held in by a dam. She has a desire for a life beyond the restrictive one her parents have planned out for her. Paul lives with his father in the village below the dam and works at the resort. He too wants something more out of his life. When they meet, a romance blossoms between them that is undeniable. It's also one that could have Celestia disowned and have Paul fired.

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