One look at Baby Doe and you know she was meant to be a legend! She was just twenty years old when she came to Colorado to work a gold mine with her new husband. Little did she expect that she’d be abandoned and pregnant and left to manage the gold mine alone. But that didn’t stop her!She moved to Leadville and fell in love with a married prospector, twice her age. Horace Tabor struck the biggest … biggest silver vein in history, divorced his wife and married Baby Doe. Though his new wife was known for her beauty, her fashion, and even her philanthropy, she was never welcomed in polite society.Discover how the Tabors navigated the worlds of wealth, power, politics, and scandal in the wild days of western mining.
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Money cannot buy happiness. An old saying that rings true in this tale of Baby Doe Tabor. A tale of love and tragedy. So often the two go together.
I had been fortunate in my life to have an Aunt living in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado. During numerous visits, she and her friend took me to Central City and many of the old mining towns in the area. Laura Lou Lincoln, my aunt’s friend, taught my oldest children how to pan for gold. I can therefore relate to this tale of miners, strife and those who struck it rich in the mines of Colorado.
Horace Tabor was one who rode the mining boon in silver. Wealth brought him fame, but not love. Until he met Elizabeth McCourt Doe. Revered for her beauty and work ethnics, the miners nicknamed her Baby Doe and the name stuck. Abandoned by her husband, Baby Doe sought for and obtained an divorce. Unheard of in the era of the late 1800s. Also unheard of in that time was a man married for twenty years who sought the love of Baby Doe over his wife. Horace Tabor finds a way and mines Baby Doe’s heart.
Gold Digger thus takes you on a roller coaster ride of opulence, scandal, heartbreak and resiliency. Enjoy the ride.
Gold digger is smart, funny, and witty. A woman truly ahead of the time of which she lived in. I loved all the characters in this book. A great read from start to finish.
This book is well written it somewhat fictionalizes Baby Doe’s life but still tells the story of a remarkable woman’s life. To survive during the gold rush in half-formed towns was hard for a young woman near impossible but she did it, with and without a husband. Baby Doe was known for her beauty and style shunned by society she still found a place for herself. One of the first woman in Colorado to file for divorce and she won it. Many men admired her and wanted her but Horace Tabor won her with his devotion and a good chance his wealth had something to do with it. This book follows her life from her first marriage to the death of Tabor, you will travel with her from the gold and silver mines to Washington D.C. to meet the President with her new husband Senator Tabor. See her triumphs and falls all with her head held high. This book inspired me to research the real woman she may not have been as perfect as the book but she sure was one hell of a woman
I received this as an ARcCin exchange for an honest review
Once I started reading Gold Digger I couldn’t put it down! I loved every single word written! This is one historical novel that can’t be skipped! The story of Baby Doe Tabor and the history of mining in the beautiful state of Colorado is mesmerizing and informative. Ms. Rosenberg brought to life a time and place in history that I knew very little about growing up in the South. I rooted for and cried with Baby Doe. I couldn’t begin to imagine how hard life truly was in the 1800’s out West and now I have a kernel of an idea. Thank you for taking me on this journey and I can’t wait for the adventure to continue.
Thank you for the advanced copy of Gold Digger in exchange for my complete and honest opinion.
I just finished reading Gold Digger The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor and thoroughly enjoyed it! The book is based on the true story of Lizzie Doe Tabor and her tales of the world of prospecting out West. As her story runs from rags to riches and then back to rags, I cheered for her all along the way. Her determination and grit see her through poverty, abandonment, loneliness, and public shaming. I found the ending very intriguing and look forward to the sequel!
A good deal life story of the gold rush days in Colorado. BUT only one half of the baby For story is told in this book – the tags to riches pary. The not yet published sequel should cover the riches to tags other half of this story.
There’s a little big of a double entendre going on with the title. Baby /Doe heads west with her new husband, Harvey. Almost from the start, you know this is not a marriage that is going to go along swimmingly. Harvey has asthma and the altitude in Colorado is causing him a lot of difficulty. The mining life, definitely isn’t for him.
Baby is soon left alone and pregnant and forced to find her own way. Thankfully she ended up working with a haberdashery before her life really starts changing
That change comes in the face of Horace Tabor, and older married silver miner.
So much scandal there. It doesn’t really help matters that Baby Doe is beautiful. She’s pretty smart too. Or at least smart enough to know how to survive. But Horace does have a wife of 20 + years and a son.
This book was so interesting, because like most historical characters, they aren’t always likable, but they sure are intriguing.
Sometimes I had to wonder about Baby Doe and the decisions she made. Being brought up Catholic she would have had to have known she wasn’t going to have it easy divorcing and remarrying. In 2019 divorce still isn’t all that acceptable in the church and considering there was a pregnancy, it would have been pretty hard to get that marriage annulled.
I also wondered about Horace. He had so much to lose leaving his wife.
The power of love, maybe? I wasn’t 100 % convinced though until the end.
There’s a lot of stuff to learn here too. I think that’s what I really love about good historical fiction, you want to learn more and you want to google as you go along. I was constantly checking the Wiki pages for Baby Doe and Horace Tabor to learn more about their lives. You also know that calling it the Wild West was probably an understatement.
What I really liked was the way the story was presented, from both Baby Doe’s and Horace’s points of view.
This was a fabulous read!
Rebecca Rosenberg’s Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor was not only a page turner, but gave information about a real-life character and her struggle to succeed in a man’s world. The characters were interesting, well developed and full of surprises! Baby Doe is definitely a strong woman, rarely sees herself as incapable of any challenge set before her. She is creative, courageous, energetic and unstoppable. Loved this book! It’s a must read for summer at the beach, fall in a hammock, winter by the fireplace or spring in the garden.
Sharon F; Texas
Loved this book! I love reading about people and how they lived, challenges they faced, successes, failures, relationships….Rebecca has a way with words.
This book is set in Colorado at the time of the gold and silver mining days. The writer gives us glimpses into the history of what it was like back then and though the book is fiction, Baby Doe was real. I enjoyed the book and the way the story and characters brought those times to life for me
If you like historical fiction and want to learn more about the gold and silver mining and what life was like in those days, grab this book.
I enjoyed reading about the Tabor family. I knew nothing about them and their involvement with silver mines, opting for better wages , health care, etc. for the miners and Chinese immigrants. The wealth, the opulence, and the important people they met as they gained their way through high society
Very interesting. I will read the next book for sure.
Rebecca Rosenberg’s latest novel, Gold Digger, is the story of Lizzie, aka Baby Doe. Newly married, she and her new husband are off to Colorado with hopes of striking it big in the gold mines. Things don’t go as planned. Her rough and tumble beginning is the bewitching tale of Gold Digger.
Baby Doe is only twenty years old when she arrives in Colorado. Soon after, her husband abandons her and she is left to manage the gold mine alone. She has no hesitation about donning overalls and doing a man’s job. She fends off sexual predators and suitors but she quickly realizes that she can’t support herself on what the mine brings in. Her father was a tailor and he taught her well. She takes advantage of this and convinces the local tailor to hire her. When he expands to Leadville, Colorado, she moves there, too.
Once in Leadville, Baby Doe has no real friends and no role models. To her benefit she is resolutely independent and survives, almost thriving on her unruly disregard for society’s prevailing norms. She falls in love with Horace Tabor, a married prospector who has struck the biggest silver vein in history.
She endures the gamut of difficulties that life and society threw at her because of her strong will and the love she had for Horace Tabor. When Horace, the man who has showered her with riches, loses everything, Baby Doe stays right by his side holding her head high. Rosenberg calls her ‘remarkable’. She is! I can’t imagine navigating the world of the real Elizabeth (Lizzie) McCourt Tabor.
This is the second novel I have read by Rebecca Rosenberg. The first one was The Secret Life of Mrs. London. I loved that book so its a puzzlement to me why I don’t feel as strongly about Gold Digger. Her writing is as solid as it was in Mrs. London. The 1880s come alive in a world of miners, strife and those who struck it rich in the Colorado, the nouveau riche. We go on a roller coaster ride of opulence, scandal, heartbreak and resiliency. Rosenberg’s chilling depiction of a terrifying attack on Chinese workers teaches us how deep was the anti-Chinese sentiment toward the people who came to do the manual labor. Because Baby Doe is a divorced woman she is subject to the social rejection that is most obvious when she and Tabor are married. He is a Senator at this point but their wedding is shunned by all of Washington, D.C.’s society except President Arthur!
So, why am I questioning what I thought of the book? I just couldn’t like Baby Doe! I didn’t trust her. I didn’t get the empathy for her that grabbed so many earlier reviewers because I was left with too many unresolved questions. Was she resourceful or selfish? Did she love Horace or was she simply using him because of what he could offer her? Where did the relationship with her own family come from? When her house was burning down, why was I sensing ambivalence on Baby Doe’s part and not the pain of loss any of us would feel?
I can’t answer these questions so I have to hold off on a thumbs up or a thumbs down review. As for Rosenberg, herself, she writes about women who are survivors and she speaks from experience. Both she and her characters know about resilience. Rosenberg and her husband lost their home and lavender farm in a California wildfire in 2017. Maybe she was able to keep going because she remembered some of the beautiful thoughts she wrote through out Gold Digger. The one that has stuck with me went something like: “Love is like a wild horse, impossible to tame. The horse takes you places you never thought you’d go. But if you hold on tight, it always leads you home.”
As she did with The Secret Life of Mrs. London, Rebecca Rosenberg has written another fascinating story that carries the reader away to a very different time. Well researched, filled with vivid detail and engaging characters, it did not take long for me to be drawn into the fascinating life during the Gold Rush years. Rosenberg knows how to spin a tale based on fact and even though this is a period of time that did not call to me, I was soon hooked. This is a fascinating tale of love and loss with a determined female protagonist who overcomes one tragedy after another. I can’t wait for the sequel! I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A Rollercoaster of a life! She hit highs and lows and still kept her character and strength! She put her shoulder to the grindstone and worked to better her lot in life. Even when she is ostracized by the elite, she carries on with her own good works. A captivating tale with plenty of action and excitement! Cannot wait to read the next book.
Loved this book! Could not put it down. I can’t wait for the sequel to be released. Another great love story by Rebecca Fisher Rosenburg. So grateful to Lion Heart Publishing and Net Galley for the Advanced Reader Copy and the chance to review. Thank you!!!
Favorite Quotes:
You have the attention span of a squirrel. Maybe I should bring acorns next time.
“I prefer women with a past.” Wilde winked. “They’re always so damned amusing.” Peter inserted a long skeleton key into the dressing room door. “Don’t give up on love, darling,” Wilde advised her. “One should always be in love. That’s the reason one should never marry.”
My Review:
Ms. Rosenberg has an entertaining and commanding writing style that squeezed my heart while raising my awareness. I have to choose carefully when picking up historical fiction, as the poor treatment of women tends to cause me dental damage from grinding my teeth. This entertaining and enlightening blending of fact and fiction was often tragic, as was undoubtedly the life of most women of the time, rich or poor. I was unfamiliar with the history and notoriety of the featured characters and having my curiosity sparked, I found myself hitting up Mr. Google for more information, which in turn led me to YouTube videos – which always results in me losing hours of time. Funny how that happens…
Historical novel during the 1870’s involving mining in Colorado. Intriguing story of Baby Doe Tabor. Powerful woman during challenging times.
Thank you for the advanced copy of Gold Digger in exchange for my complete and honest opinion.
I really enjoyed reading this novel based on a real person. Baby Doe first went to Colorado with her first husband. She married Harvey in hopes to be able to help her parents with money. It as interesting to learn about this woman’s life. She seems to have been a little before the times. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series that will continue her life story. I received a copy of this book from the author for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this book. From beginning to end it a page turning wealth of history and beauty. A true story , told so well by Rebecca Rosenberg, with romance, struggle, sacrifice, wealth, and poverty, but most of all love. Everything in a true life story, that enthralls you to the very end and beyond. I was so blessed to get this book as an ARC reader, but the review is totally my opinion of this exciting and wonder filled book.
An amazing story on one woman’s journey through life in the late 1800’s west and how she became the wife of a miner that struck it rich. “Her beauty was a gift from God, Mam said, a gold plated guarantee she’d marry a gentleman of means and wouldn’t have to take in mending.” She was a newlywed and she and her husband were headed to Colorado where they were going to work a gold mine.
That set to stage for what was to come when her husband abandoned her and she had to make her way. But meeting Silver King Horace Tabor, she seemed to be set to live a good life. Never being accepted in polite society was hard and there was a lot that happened.
Follow this amazing story and become riveted as you turn the pages as fast as you can..