A Moonbow Night

Paperback, ebook, hardcover

January 3, 2017

by Laura Frantz

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Revell 
• ISBN-13: 978-0800726621

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.

My thoughts: First, the disclaimer. "I was provided a free copy of this book. All opinions are my own." That done, A MOONBOW NIGHT is only the second book I read by Ms. Frantz. and I loved them. So when this book became available, I was excited for the opportunity to read it.  

The story is full of description.  Rich, vivid descriptions that enable the reader to see what the characters see, and almost smell the buttery crusty cornbread and feel the spray of the waterfall. 

Unfortunately, the story itself dragged. Sion was a strong, Daniel Boone type man, leading a group of surveyors through the wilderness. Tempe is a strong pioneer woman who is used to the wilderness, but torn between the settlers and keeping peace with the Indians--ones who butchered her fiance in cold blood the eve of their wedding. I really liked Tempe's brother, Russell, Sion's friend, Nate, Sion and even Tempe. 

As a romance, it was a fail. There were zero romantic tension between the characters, but they did come together as a couple in a very slow, kind of secondary to the story sort of way. The writing itself is beautiful. Ms. Frantz is a very talented story teller and can definitely put words together.  My attention was caught--a little--by River, when he was caught in a snare, but the author solved that flair of interest quickly by revealing what happened. The only other draw to the story was whether the characters would survive--or not--the impending Indian attack, but given the genre of the book, that was a given. 

Not an altogether unpleasant read. Fans of Ms. Frantz or historical pioneer stories might be enthralled.