Monday, September 8, 2014

A Light in the Wilderness - by Jane Kirkpatrick

Cover Art

About the book:

Three very different women. One dangerous journey. And a future that seems just out of reach.
Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause most white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read--as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him.

Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply in love with her husband and she knows she will follow him anywhere--even when the trek exacts a terrible cost.

Betsy is a Kalapuya Indian, the last remnant of a once proud tribe in the Willamette Valley in Oregon territory. She spends her time trying to impart the wisdom and ways of her people to her grandson. But she will soon have another person to care for.

As season turns to season, suspicion turns to friendship, and fear turns to courage, three spirited women will discover what it means to be truly free in a land that makes promises it cannot fulfill. This multilayered story from bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick will grip your heart and mind as you travel on the dusty and dangerous Oregon Trail into the boundless American West. Based on a true story.

My review:

This was a very interesting story that showed the resiliency of our frontier women!  I really admired Letitia, who had such a good attitude about the hardships she endured and the unfair way she was treated just because she was black.  Though she got angry, she didn't let her circumstances dictate how she would behave.  I really felt sorry for her and Nancy, who endured such sorrow but was able to rise above it.  I got pretty frustrated with Davey and how he would treat Letitia sometimes, as though her worries weren't important.  I was also downright angry with a man who bothered her in Missouri and showed up again a few times to make her life harder, and all because he felt she should still be a slave.  I felt like I learned a lot about what it was like heading west in a wagon train, especially from not only the challenge of being a woman that men didn't listen to much but also being black and how that influenced the way people treated Letitia.  I liked that this was based on a true story and there's a section in the back that explains what were facts and what were embellished.  This was well-written and I would recommend it if you like historical novels that bring history to life!

I received this book free from Revell in exchange for an honest review.

Check out the book trailer here: http://youtu.be/8Ixka881BNY

 The Author

  1. Jane Kirkpatrick
    Danielle Barnum Photography

    Jane Kirkpatrick

    Jane Kirkpatrick is the New York Times and CBA bestselling author of more than twenty-five books, including A Sweetness to the Soul, which won the coveted Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center. Her works have been...
    Continue reading about Jane Kirkpatrick 

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