Heart of a Warrior
[d-prc5389]

5 of 5 Stars First, let me say that I stayed up all night reading "Heart of a Warrior" from start to finish. I didn’t intend to, but I couldn’t put it down.

Pelican Book Group offered me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I agreed even though I wasn’t sure I’d like a book about Indian-meets-white girl. In so many such books, it’s hard for me to connect with the characters. However, this book was different. Towan is half white and was educated, rather than a savage who just grunts and makes hand gestures. For the past several years, Towan has been living with his Shoshone mother and her people because he has long-standing resentment toward his white father. And the woman (Christina) isn’t someone he has captured and taken home to his tribe. In fact, Towan rescues her after her husband is killed on the Oregon Trail. She’s pregnant and needs help. At first, she thinks he is part of the group of Indians that attacked the wagon train because he doesn’t speak—and when he does, it’s in the Shoshone language. Because he hasn’t spoken English for awhile, he actually has difficulty forming the English words initially. But when he continues to be kind to her and she realizes that he understands her and wants to help, communication opens up. Because winter is almost upon them, Towan doesn’t want to take her to a fort. It’s closer to go to where his tribe is camped. The story takes off from there.

To give a fair and balanced review, I wanted to notice the positives and the negatives both. First, the negatives (of which there aren’t many) include some word choices and typos:
• “I will walk, thank you very much.” (An annoying defiant expression found more in this century instead of back then. An anachronism.)
• “The pattern continued as they followed the soft gargling of clear water winding its way in the course of least resistance.” (I believe the word should be gurgling, not gargling.)
• “The sun crept into the sky, broaching the opposite peaks.” (Broaching doesn’t seem correct here.)
• “My brother is an over-achiever.” (Merriam-Webster says the first known use of this word was in 1939. So it wouldn’t have been used in 1859.)
• “Laugher drowned out the gentle rush.” (Laughter)
• “He led the way up the slope to a small cave, it’s opening a third of the size of the one that had housed them in the fall.” (its)
• “Towan nudged a peace of broken cobblestone with the toe of his boot and started back to the house.” (piece)

The positives:
• A Christian book that’s not over-the-top preachy.
• A believable and sweet romance (not sappy or X-rated).
• I cared about the characters.
• Towan and Christina weren’t stubborn and always butting heads over real or imagined slights and misunderstandings as in so many books.
• Bad things happened in the past and in the present, but there wasn’t the type of angst that made me want to stop reading.
• The story arc was good: They meet and work through their initial differences. They arrive at the Indian camp and learn to acclimate to day-to-day living for the winter as their relationship grows. Christina makes a wrong choice when it comes time to leave for the fort in the spring. Towan rescues her again. As he says good-bye when she leaves with a group headed back east from the fort, both have misgivings, but they don’t see any way to deal with the issues. Then things happen, and all is resolved.
• Has a happy ending.

Great book! I’d recommend it.