Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Far from the world he knows, he’ll find a home. Among strangers, he’ll find acceptance. And in the arms of an unexpected man, he’ll find love.

Young Billy Strobaw comes West to escape the stigma of his Tory family. In the Dakota Territories, he encounters the Yanube warrior Cut Hand. Billy’s attraction to the other man is as surprising as the Yanube perspective on same-sex love. Unlike Europeans, the Siouan tribe celebrates such unions. Billy and Cut Hand can live as partners and build a life together, which Billy agrees to do.

As Billy struggles to acclimate to a very different culture, quickly discovering the Yanube have as much to teach him as he has to impart to them, a larger struggle is brewing. The white man is barreling through the Great Plains, trampling underfoot anyone who stands in his way. As a leader of his people, Cut Hand must decide whether it will be peace or war.

In a historical romance taking place against the epic backdrop of the early American West, where a single spark can ignite a powder keg of greed, lust for power, and misunderstanding, one man must find his place in history and his role in the preservation of all he has come to value. 

 

First edition published by STARbooks Press, June 2010.

Second edition published by DSP Publications, October 2017.

Book Review

Epic, tragic, and spellbinding are all words I could use to describe this historical tale set in the early part of the nineteenth century in the Wild West, just at the point in time where white men began the genocide of Native Americans in earnest. Seen through the eyes of Billy, a young white man who lost his family and ventures west, it is a story about cross-cultural encounters, curiosity about how others live and what they believe, and love found and lost, then found again elsewhere. I did not expect a happy ending based on the realism with which the author approaches Billy and Cut Hand’s relationship from the start, but I still kept hoping for one. Instead, Billy finds happiness in different and sometimes unexpected ways, and the tale of his life is fascinating as a result.

Billy starts out pretty naïve, repressed by a Christian upbringing that tells him his “urges” are sinful and wrong, and expecting to live more or less like most guys his age. But the adventure that starts when he meets Cut Hand leads him onto a very different path, one he travels with courage and a stubborn will to carve a niche for himself – one way or another. He lives with Cut Hand’s tribe and learns their ways, but encounters with the white men he thought he left behind keep interfering. They are not the only issue he has to deal with, and disaster strikes more than once and in multiple ways. The emotional toll the reality of Cut Hand’s duties as a chief’s son takes is devastating, and I felt for Billy deeply.

I felt myself pulled in not just by the various human tragedies, but by the setting, the language, and the beautiful descriptions of everyday life. Billy’s evolving thoughts and view of the world were as interesting as the history of thirty tumultuous years, always there as a backdrop to the part Billy plays. The many people he encounters felt real to me, their characteristics a mix of good and evil, from the heroic to the misguided and cowardly. Just like in real life, these characters enchanted and annoyed me, depending on their interactions with Billy and those close to his heart.

If you want to dive into a different time and place, if you enjoy people experiencing a culture not their own and learning to accept and love it, and if you’re looking for a read that is engrossing to the final page and don’t mind it being realistically sad more than once, then you will probably like this impressive start to what looks to be a multigenerational saga. I found it to be riveting and look forward to the next installment.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by the publisher for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novel, 99184 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	27-February-2021
Price	$5.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.jms-books.com/mark-wildyr-c-224_489/cut-hand-p-3691.html