Burning Sky - A Review

About the book (from Amazon)
“I remember the borders of our land, though I have been gone from them nearly half the moons of my life. But who there will remember me? What I have seen, what I have done, it has changed me.
 
I am the place where two rivers meet, silted with upheaval and loss.
 
Yet memory of our land is a clear stream. I shall know it as a mother knows the faces of her children. It may be I will find me there.“
  Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her family’s New York frontier homestead after many years building a life with the People. At the boundary of her father’s property, Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path. Feeling obliged to nurse his injuries, the two quickly find much has changed during her twelve-year absence—her childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired is now grown into a man twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land.

When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willa’s vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil MacGregor, the kind and loyal botanist who does not fit into in her plan for a solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, strong feelings against “savages” abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willa’s safety unsure.

Willa is a woman caught between two worlds. As tensions rise, challenging her shielded heart, the woman called Burning Sky must find a new courage--the courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?

My thoughts
Whenever I think of the American Frontier, I immediately think of the American West (ie Oklahoma, Wyoming, etc) and tend to forget that after the Revolution, the frontier was Western New York, Pennsylvania, etc. So once I finally got the setting firm in my mind (it took me about halfway through the book to do that), I was able to picture the story better. This book is beautifully written with strong characters. But it moves VERY slow. It didn't hold my interest for well past 100+ pages. Once I was hooked though, I devoured it. I found Willa to be stronger than most heroines I've read about. She had no choice but to be as her circumstances demanded it. I did learn things about this period of our nation's history that I'd not known before.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite book, and probably won't make my read again shelf. Still I know that for others who love books rich in history, this would be one that they would enjoy.

I received both the paperback and the Kindle copy for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah Publishers Blogging for Books program for the purpose of reviewing. I was not required to like the book, only give my honest opinion. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating - 3.5 stars, which will be 3 stars on Amazon. 

Recommended to fans of historical fiction, Jocelyn Green, Laura Frantz

Please rank my review.