Cindy Holby, Rising Wind

Rising Wind

Cindy Holby

Leisure, Aug 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 9780843958652

In 1746 ten years old Connor Duncan fled the Highlands after Culloden. He quickly adjusted to the New World environs and now years later as a scout leads the arrogant stupid British soldiers through the wilderness to Fort Savannah. However, putting up with boorish military behavior seems easy to Connor when he thinks about his other traveler. He wants the "Virgin Widow" Carrie Murray, the colonial governor's niece, but knows the gentle woman is off limits to a frontier ruffian like him; as he believes she is better off with the inane aristocratic officers.

However, Carrie is attracted to the rugged outdoorsman whose wilderness skills have kept them alive even when held prisoner by Indians. As each step seems increasingly more dangerous and the British behave foolishly, Carrie knows she must convince Duncan they belong together before they reach the fort as he will probably vanish back into the woods soon after they reach their destination.

The latest Wind Colonial romance (see WIND OF THE WOLF, CROSSWINDS, WINDFALL and FORGIVE THE WIND, etc.) is the best historical in the series as the audience will feel the danger while trekking the wilderness with the lead couple. The story line is action-packed and Carrie and Connor are wonderful heroes, but it is the vivid colonial Georgia setting filled with wild beauty and deadly graphic violence that makes the tale such a strong entry as the audience will feel they have traveled back to the mid eighteenth century to a world where as H. Rap Brown said: "violence is American as cherry pie" (aside not apple pie).

Harriet Klausner