Review: Burning Sky: A Novel of the American Frontier by Lori Benton

Title: Burning Sky A Novel of the American Frontier
Author: Lori Benton
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Publication Date: August 6, 2013
Edition: ebook (400 pages)
Genres:

• Fiction
• Action/Adventure
• Historical Fiction
• Revolutionary War
• Romantic Suspense

Literary Awards:

• Christy Award for Book of the Year, Historical, & First Novel (2014)
• INSPY Nominee for Debut Fiction (2014)
• Grace Award for Action Adventure/Western/Historic Epic Fiction (2013)

Burning Sky: A Novel of the American Frontier by Lori Benton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Willa Obenchain was taken from her family as a fourteen-year-old girl. She was renamed Burning Sky by the Mohawk Indians who took her. Twelve years later, alone, she returns to Obenchain land to find her parents gone, not sure if they are alive or dead. And there are conflicting stories about their loyalty to England or to an America fighting for independence. Intending to plant crops and live on her family's land, she returns to find the land is scheduled to be sold at auction, and she has no money with which to purchase it. And it seems that someone doesn't want her to have her land, and is trying to stop her, no matter to cost to life or property. Add to that, Willa's conflicted feelings about who she is, a white woman or a Mohawk woman and the complexities of old and new loyalties, and you have a great story.

I found this book fascinating on every level. It captures the history of the period and the people, the conflicts between loyalty to the Crown and loyalty to colonial America, and the cultural divide between the colonists and the native people. It also captures the naked emotion and heartbreak of love and loss, and a woman's internal and external struggle to choose her own path and way of life.