Where the lost wander

Amy Harmon

Book - 2020

"The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both. But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John's heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together. When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi's family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all the...y have left. Ripped apart, they can't turn back, they can't go on, and they can't let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually ... make peace with who they are."--Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Genres
Historical fiction
Romance fiction
Published
Seattle : Lake Union Publishing [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Amy Harmon (author)
Physical Description
340 pages ; 21 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781542017961
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

After seeing the young woman in the yellow dress perched atop a barrel amid the bustle of immigrants starting out on the Oregon Trail, John Lowry couldn't get her out of his mind. The son of a white father and Pawnee woman, Lowry was born to two worlds, belonging in neither. Now, his responsibility lies with the mules he will be delivering to a fort along the trail, and he learns that he will be traveling in a group with the young woman, Naomi May, and her family. A widow and artist who sketches in the saddle when not walking the trail, Naomi is just as taken with Lowry as he is with her. But their budding romance will be sorely tested by the many trials that await them along the trail, and by a tragedy that will bring them both to the brink of despair. Novelist Harmon brings the tribulations of the vast westward migration to life in this sweeping, majestic narrative, but he also examines diverse perspectives, including the responses of Native peoples to the incursion on their lands, brought to life in the stories of historical figures such as the magnetic Chief Washakie. The love story of John and Naomi is filled with tension and honest reflection, as well as missteps and disappointments, all of which add a rich realism to this sumptuous historical novel.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In Harmon's passionate tale of pioneers and Native Americans (after What the Wind Knows), a young widow falls in love with her wagon party's mule driver. Twenty-year-old widow Naomi May is traveling with her family on a wagon train from St. Joseph, Mo., to California in 1853 when she meets John Lowry, known as Two Feet by his Pawnee mother's family for "straddling two worlds." Naomi is drawn to him, and John is attracted to Naomi's beauty, resilience, and devotion to her family, but his awareness of the prejudice he faces due to his Pawnee heritage makes him reluctant to believe they could have a future together. Misadventures abound as members of the wagon train succumb to cholera, endure difficult river crossings, and face confrontations with Sioux warriors. After the wagons are attacked and burned by a war party, Naomi and her infant brother, Wolfe, are kidnapped and John determines to save them. Harmon richly details the train leaders' stubborn handling of the trail's challenges from John's point of view, foreshadowing the fate awaiting them. The genuine bond between John and Naomi will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Apr.)

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