Reviews of
The Man from Shenandoah

I was born 120 years too late.

Ms. Ward paints vivid night skies for gazing, the warm sun on your face, and makes you wish you could lie down to contemplate the clouds in a meadow surrounded by quakies. (Aspen trees to those not native to the Rockies). Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona have been my playgrounds all my life, making this journey into past memories achingly sweet. Ellen, our heroine, threw her arms up over her head, whirled around in a meadow full of wildflowers and cried "I love you, Colorado, you're beautiful." This Colorado girl was so homesick she cried tears.

I had nearly given up on reading Westerns. The newer ones I own are written with a very contemporary feel, right down to the sex and dialogue. These folks are either very stiff or teasing about the earthy, subtle sensuality that is gently touched on. Ms. Ward uses the language of the class and region effectively to make The Man from Shenandoah shine as a true western. Our characters work 'danged hard', cuss, ride horses hell-bent, and hate to drive critters. They love, blush, build homes with their own sweaty labor, and fight outlaws. But best of all, they 'holler at the kids to go down to the crick' to get water. Arizonans give me such strange looks when I talk about the dry cricks here.

The book gives our characters joyous times but doesn't pass lightly over their hardships. The author draws her characters with human warmth and depth ensuring that the reader has no trouble recognizing each individual and his or her significance in the tale. We have paroled Johnny Reb, Carl Owen, not a hero, but just an all-around likeable guy who can be counted on when needed. There is his father Rod, a controlling parent who comfortably believes that he knows what is best for his entire family forever. He brooks no arguments about his decisions. Mother Julia Owen gets a little testy at his attitude., but true to the norm for the time, falls in with whatever his life plans are. Often a western (especially with romance included) sketchily portrays the family if at all.

I love the style that eases us into seeing through Carl Owen's eyes. His thoughts and words flow so clearly that we come to know him intimately. Carl is not given to flowery speeches. He can be complex; at times makes some pretty humorous mistakes and he doesn't like to apologize for them. But then, he's pretty good at laughing at his own foibles and sometimes holds conversations with himself.

Carl's values and his honor cause him no end of conflict with family members, particularly his younger brother James. Rod has decreed that each son be promised to a local girl in return for her family's agreement to join the train on the way west. As life has a way of going, neither Carl nor James was assigned the girl that they fell in love with. Carl wanted James' girl Ellen Bates while his own Ida wanted a rich Englishman. Rod had made James leave his girl in Virginia. I imagine we may be hearing more about James and his Jessica.

I enjoyed this novel because the main character is not the typical hero, a 'silent loner with no family to teach him love and values'. He is, as are most of the characters, members of warm, loving, laughing, arguing and sometimes flawed families. Feisty women, taciturn or rather controlling men - they all enjoy a sense of community and deep friendship. It was a joy to get to know them.

Well, human nature being what it is, there were people I loved and people I could do without but loved to hate. I was a bit humbled by the women, who reminded me of my great-grandmother. She was a bit like Ellen Bates. Now give us our sequel - it's so hard to wait!

I can't leave you without also mentioning that the cover is to die for. Yummy!