Winter Woman by Jenna Kernan
Her prayer was simple: "Dear God, let me die!"
But Cordelia Channing—preacher's wife, preacher's widow—lived and was born anew as Winter Woman, a woman of power who'd survived the deadliest season in the mountains alone.
She knew she could never do it again. Though perhaps there was no need, for Providence had sent her Thomas Nash, an enigmatic Mountain Man who stirred the deep places of her questing soul.
Nash had come west to lose himself, to rail at the fates that seemed ready to destroy his life at every turn. But somehow those same fates now saw fit to put Delia in his care. And though he was fighting it at every turn, Delia was transforming his life in ways he'd thought forever lost.
MY REVIEW: I was born and raised in the mountains of VA, where I still reside. I grew up in a western-loving household, and I call myself "a prairie woman at heart". While I love my Southern heritage, there is also a deep and abiding connection with the American Frontier and the American Old West. I feel as though I could set my birth date back 100 years and not lose my stride. Jenna Kernan's "Winter Woman" is an amazing woman, indeed! Cordelia Channing and her husband John set out to become missionaries in the West, but neither was prepared for the reality of frontier life. Cordelia is soon widowed and does something no one else has ever done: she survives the frozen hell of a Rocky Mountain winter on her own. When she is found by a group from the Flathead Indian tribe, they take her to mountain man Thomas Nash for assistance. Nash wants nothing to do with the woman, but he reluctantly agrees to care for her until Autumn, when he is done with his hunting and trapping. He will take her East to "The Rendezvous", where all the trappers meet to sell their wares, and she will have the best chance of finding a way back home. At first, Nash and Delia mix like oil and water, but soon find that they enjoy each other's company. Nash teaches Delia much about the ways of the woods, and she reminds him of things that he thought he had long ago forsaken. After the death of his wife several years before, Nash became a loner, hardening his heart and living the solitary life of a woodsman. Delia captures him with her beauty and spirit and her amazing strength and willingness to learn. There are great differences between them, including Delia's religious faith and Nash's loss of faith. Delia also has "survivor guilt" and feels as though her feelings for Nash are a betrayal of her late husband. They survive much, learning about themselves and each other along the way. Can they overcome their differences and somehow forge a new life that neither of them expected? "Winter Woman" is a true romantic adventure story. At times rough, raw, and unflinchingly real, it is also refreshing and a renewal of why someone like me reads historical romance.
Jenna Kernan
No comments:
Post a Comment