“The Lord will be with us. Keep telling your mind and your heart that until it takes root.”
How I love the faith that is being fanned into flame at this point in Texas Divided by Sherry Shindelar! But so much action, so much emotion, so much war comes before this point.
Beth Logan, niece of a Texas cotton planter, has been kidnapped from the Comanche by bounty hunter Devon Reynolds. Taken by the Comanche when she was young, Beth has adopted their ways and lifestyle, including the name, Morning Fawn. The settlers’ way of life is odious and restricting, and she hates her uncle’s family for forcing it upon her. But even more, she hates Devon, the one who captured her and delivered her to his uncle.
As Morning Fawn is constantly looking for an escape to the Comanche life she had grown to love, she is rejected and punished by society. Her uncle ( LeBeau) uses extreme force and cruelty to try to bend her will to his. As Devon sees how cruel LeBeau is, he wonders if he did the wrong thing in capturing Morning Fawn. Now a spy for the Northern army, tasked with stopping cotton from being exchanged for weapons for the South, Devon begins to be entranced by the feisty maiden who is so different from the usual Southern belle.
“I’m going to get you out of here someday, Morning Fawn. The moon will be yours for the taking.” While Devon works for LeBeau as a front for his spying, he begins to interfere with LeBeau’s extreme control and cruelty towards the people on his land. Morning Fawn herself can have more freedom than in the past if she acts like LeBeau wants her to and chooses a wealthy Southern planter to wed. How badly does Morning Fawn want her freedom? What kind is understanding do she and Devon develop? The story is layered with action, intrigue, and romance. Then, at its worst, we see Faith beginning to bloom and spread from the most unlikely of places. The people who are treated the most unfairly!
I love Shindelar’s writing style. So many times I had to stop to reread a beautifully phrased sentence or re-enjoy a great word picture. I am hoping for another book soon!
You won’t be able to put this adventurous Civil War novel down until you’ve devoured the last word!
I received a copy of the book from JustRead Tours. I also bought my own copy of the book. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.
Notable Quotables:
““If giving her the land buys her a settled, respectable life, so be it.” Could land really buy all of that? What about love?”
“Maybe the Lord had not forgotten her. Maybe He’d been reaching out to her all along. Waiting for her to turn her heart to Him.”
“A body can do a bushel of harm without ever meaning to.”
“he’d squash any hint of romance. Sometimes the most loving thing to do was to walk away.”
“There’d be no way to keep Morning Fawn uninvolved now that she knew. It’d be like shooting off the starting pistol at a race and telling a Thoroughbred not to gallop.”
“I used to ride toward the sunset as far and as fast as I could. You took the sunset. Now I have nothing.”