THE COLONEL’S LADY, Laura Frantz, Revell, 2011, 9780800733414
After a failed romance, Roxanna Rowan leaves her genteel Virginia life and travels to the wild Kentucky frontier of 1779. She plans to join her soldier father at an isolated wilderness fort, but he has been killed in action. Roxanna is stranded at the outpost with the dashing Colonel McLinn, one of Washington’s western commanders. McLinn, whom Frantz tells us was inspired by George Rogers Clark, struggles with secrets that can cost him his relationship with Roxanna as well as a military victory over the British and Native Americans in Kentucky and Ohio.
While the plot requirements sometimes throw Roxanna int TSTL situations (where she seems Too Stupid To Live), Frantz’s prose shimmers with power and poetry. The story is morally strong without being preachy or pedantic.Roxanna and McLinn build a lasting love despite steep obstacles and bitter betrayals both personal and political. This is a richly textured tale of love, forgiveness, and redemption by faith set against a vivid backdrop of frontier warfare. It is a keeper, and highly recommended.
