Her wilderness survival skills are without rival.
But her greatest talent is keeping other people's secrets.
After fleeing Virginia, Temperance Tucker and her family established an inn along the Shawnee River. It's a welcome way station for settlers and frontiersmen traveling through the wild Cumberland region of Kentucke--men like Sion Morgan, a Virginia surveyor who arrives at the inn with his crew, looking for an experienced guide.
Though he balks when Tempe is appointed to lead his team through the wilderness, it isn't long before Sion must admit that her abilities may outmatch his own. But can the tenuous tie they are forming survive the dangers waiting just around the bend?
With her signature sweeping style and ability to bring the distant past to vivid life, Laura Frantz beckons you to join her in a land of Indian ambushes, conflicting loyalties, and a tentative love that meanders like a cool mountain stream.
Review: Laura Frantz has written many hauntingly beautiful stories including the Ballantyne Legacy series and The Mistress of Tall Acre; these are all books that I have enjoyed immensely over the past number of years. A Moonbow Night was just as wonderful as its predecessors.
Reading Ms Frantz's writing is akin to listening to a beautiful piece of classical music. Her style is timeless, lyrical, and artistically masterful. At her hand, you don't just read the stories, you live them.
The journey of Moonbow Night starts on a brutal settler's trail through a savage mountain range. At this time, it's not just the wicked elements or the wild rivers and gorges that can kill you, but the furious natives. As the team of surveyors cuts their way across Kentucky they struggle to avoid detection by the local warring tribes of Shawnee warriors who are fiercely trying to protect their land from the crown. Sion Morgan, leader of the surveyors, finds himself in a difficult situation when he is confronted with the vastness of the land before him. Without a guide, he knows he will not be able to perform his duties, and if he is unlucky, he will likely not return home with his scalp.
Young Tempe knows the woods as well as the natives, but she has no desire to leave the fledgling home she has created with her brother and mother. Forced from civilization for a crime committed by their father, and isolated by devastating loss, Tempe doesn't feel or care much about anything. She just wants to loose herself in the beautiful wilds of Kentucke and have the remainders of her family close by.
When circumstances take a cruel twist, Tempe finds herself on a trail she had hoped to never travel again. As she struggles to keep the group of surveyors out of the path of the Shawnee and push them towards their goal, she discovers that her heart isn't as dead as she thought it was.
The story of Moonbow Night is a wonderful one. I was captivated from beginning to end. The character of Tempe Tucker is multifaceted and intriguing. She's smart, introspective, and kind... but she's also guarded and borderline depressed. As the two halves of herself war together we get quite the clash of internal and external drama throughout this story. As for Sion, he is a delightful - if not reluctant - hero. Capable and strong, he plows unforgivingly through the story and it is great fun watching him hurdle into Tempe's life.
I absolutely recommend this book. It was excellent.
Thank-you to Graf Martin Communications and to Baker Publishing House for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
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