Bear River Spirit

by Patricia Young

Owen Woulfe, a recent widower and Reilly Stewart Madison, a recent widow meet head on through Owen's son, Rory. An agreement of marriage for the sake of Rory, leads the two souls to realize they were destined to be together. They discover they were both born of mixed Shoshone blood. Reilly and Owen learn just who is Reilly's seventeen-year absentee mother. They face tragedy and joy as kindred spirits. Owen and Reilly's love for each other grows beyond their wildest dreams.Set in the time and era of the Civil War, Shoshone, Mormon, and White Settler troubles, they are witnesses to one of the bloodiest and tragic atrocities in American History."I found Bear River Spirit to be a most rewarding and enjoyable book to read. As a middle-aged male I have never read a romance but found that I could relate so well to the book it made me wish I could have been there. I found it hard to put down and looked forward to every chance I had to read another chapter. As a Historian and Native American Activist, I found the book to be very informative in both lights. It was a great way to understand the history of this period. Not just issues around the Native Americans of the day but also about Slavery, Civil War, Western and Modern Eastern living. What a wonderful way to better understand American History. I did find the book to be very accurate historically. It put Native American as well as other issues across in a way that made you feel them and feel the pain they leave behind. I would recommend this book highly. Thumbs up for Payton Lee and Bear River Spirit."-Kerry Brinkerhoff, Ranger

386 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because a student in my secondary reading class chose it to read and I wanted to be able to talk about it with him. He chose it because he is of Shoshone descent and wanted to read about the Bear River Massacre.

The story itself is of a romance between two impossibly perfect people, Owen Woulfe and Reilly Stewart Madison. They are perfect for each other as they are both intelligent, courageous, witty, generous, wealthy, passionate, and stunningly beautiful paragons of virtue. Also they are sexually compatible; I know this due to the book's several explicit sex scenes (that always end rapturously and, ahem, simultaneously).

The actual account of the Bear River Massacre is told in the last few pages of the book. Our heroine, Reilly, and her parents and children are visiting their Shoshone relatives when, miraculously, their dog warns them of impeding danger. They leave shortly before the US militia descends on the Shoshone camp and kill the majority of the people gathered there for the "Warm Dance." The family watches the slaughter, described in great horrific detail, from a bluff overlooking the camp. They send their miraculous dog back to their home, several hours away, to fetch Owen, the husband, so that he can travel to them to help with any survivors. The dog apparently runs for hours, both ways.

This book suffered from not having a good editor who would have tempered the author's tendency to flowery speech, as well as corrected the many typographical errors and errors in spelling and punctuation. There were many commas in this book, but they never seemed to be in the right places. The word "comeuppance" was written "come up a pence." An example of a garbled sentence, "He knew it would be she that would be a problem."

This book was truly difficult to read. That said, I read it on my Kindle.