Book Reviews

Book Blurb

It’s 1886, and Chicago is booming, but for nineteen-year-old Torsten Pilkvist, American-born son of Swedish immigrants, it’s not big enough. After tragically losing a rare love, Tory immerses himself in the pages of a Wild West mail-order bride magazine, where he stumbles on the advertisement of frontiersman and Civil War veteran Franklin Ausmus. Torsten and Franklin begin an innocent correspondence—or as innocent as it can be, considering Torsten keeps his true gender hidden. But when his parents discover the letters, Tory is forced out on his own. With nowhere else to go, he boards a train for the Black Hills and Franklin’s homestead, Moonlight Gulch.

Franklin figures Tory for a drifter, but he’s lonely after ten years of living in the backcountry alone, and his “girl” in Chicago has mysteriously stopped writing, so he hires Tory on as his ranch hand. Franklin and Tory grow closer while defending the land from outlaws who want the untapped gold in Franklin’s creek, but then Franklin learns Tory’s true identity and banishes Tory from his sight. Will their lives be forever tattered, or will Torsten—overhearing a desperate last-ditch scheme to snatch Franklin’s gold—be able to save Moonlight Gulch and his final shot at love?

 

Book Review

I read only very few historical novels, but lately, I have come across a few that sound intriguing. So, while I am no expert, this one truly fascinated me. It has great attention to detail, characters that come alive and are so real to me that I feel as if I have actually met them, and the suspense kept me turning the pages. The topic of a “mail order bride” in times before the Internet is as interesting as the way Franklin and Tory end up dealing with the deception Tory commits. The basic problem of not knowing who is at the other end of the correspondence before there were telephones and video conferences is not so very different from meeting someone only in cyberspace, but the implications back then were very different than the consequences are today and the historical setting added a lot of depth to what was going on.

Tory, the son of Swedish immigrants born in Chicago, is so lonely it made my heart hurt. He doesn’t even admit it to himself until he meets Joseph – and sees what it might be like to have a friend, and, eventually, a lover. When tragedy strikes he is desperate enough to try anything to alleviate the crushing emptiness in his heart. It takes him a while to realize how much he will have to distance himself from his parents, but when he does, he grows up fast. I can totally understand why he acts the way he does with Franklin, even while knowing that the figurative train wreck is unavoidable. And boy, did it still hurt when it happens!

Franklin is physically strong and is a wounded war veteran who has learned to deal with life with one arm. What he is not willing to accept (yet) is that he will remain a bachelor. His personal ad ends up getting him a much better response than he ever expected. He values honesty, having faced a fight with a local bandit in sheep’s clothing for a long time, so when he discovers Tory’s deception it hits him especially hard. His subsequent road to enlightenment is painful, and I hung on every word as he worked his way through dealing with the aftermath.

This book, while set at the end of the 19th century, has many lessons that are as important today as they were back then. I loved the added sense of adventure the Wild West setting gave me, and enjoyed exploring the new territory along with Tory. If you enjoy historicals set in the Wild West, reading this is a must. If you are looking for a character-driven story with wonderful emotional depth, please give this one a try. And if you enjoy the sense of adventure that comes from exploring a world not well known to you, you will probably like this book as much as I did.

 

 

 

 

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

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 320 pages/105525 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	13-April-2012
Price	$6.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $14.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/on-the-trail-to-moonlight-gulch-by-shelter-somerset-4286-b