Francine Pascal's The Wakefield Legacy The Untold Story

          Following up Francine Pascal's The Wakefields of Sweet Valley comes The Wakefield Legacy: The Untold Story.  In this novel, Pascal takes the same five generation journey as before but follows the twins' of Sweet Valley High's paternal side, starting with Theo Wakefield who leaves his family and inheritance of title and estate in England to travel to America in 1866.  Again, the characters are enjoyable to read but the author lets down the reader by imposing events and actions that do not seem natural to the character.
          In Theo Wakefield, Pascal hardens his heart and he becomes what he ran away from, which fits some people but not the good and loving man she paints Theo.  Before his last decision on the pages of the novel, Pascal takes away his brother, his parents, his home, the two women he loves (one in 1866 and one years later) and his twin son.  This being the case and him doting upon his daughter, it does not seem likely that he would make any decision that would cost him his daughter (only living child and piece of his last love).
          From Theo, Pascal creates enjoyable characters: his daughter who experiences the San Francisco quake, to her son Ted whose story is completely heart breaking and the one that connects to the women's novel with Amanda and mirrors Theo's story in him losing his two loves, then his son who participates in WWII and finally his grandson who is a child of the sixties and becomes the father of the Sweet Valley High twins.
          The WWII story in this novel is the best of the ten stories about the twins' ancestors and is exciting, dangerous, and wound up very nicely. Robert and Hannah Weiss are well crafted and believable. They would be the couple most suggested to be read and then the story of the parents of the twins is the next best story.  The novel was well written but again the sadness and tragedy seemed forced into it to make the Wakefields bump into the women's line several times before finally ending up together when it might have been better to have just not had them meet until the parents' generation.