"Getting back on the horse was never so important."
Reviewed by Sandra Wurman
Posted July 17, 2017
Romance Western
Sometimes life is just too unfair -- almost unconscionable
and simply
terribly sad. What can you do when conditions are unstable
and the
odds are stacked against you? When there are no good choices --
actually when there are no viable choices at all. Your fate
and that of
your child is in the hands of someone that is just shy of a
monster. Perhaps an even worse scenario is that there is no way out
-- no way
to catch a break and maybe just walk away unbroken --
un-shattered
-- in one piece. The best revenge is to beat the odds and
sometimes
you need a little help to do just that. RIDE A PAINTED PONY by Kathleen Eagle starts out with a punch
to the gut. RIDE A PAINTED PONY opens to a horrible scene and
matters escalate from there. Somehow what appeared so harsh and
scary manages to get worse. Candidly Kathleen Eagle paints a
bleak
picture -- dare we hope for a glimpse of sun amidst all this
darkness. The reader keeps wondering if there is any way Lauren's
world could
get back on an even keel. Lauren who was literally thrown
away like
yesterday's trash. Bruised and battered and left for dead.
But Lauren
couldn't die. Somehow this brave industrious mother had to
find a
way back into that perilous place that disposed of her so
callously.
Lauren left something important behind, something vital,
someone
who needed Lauren alive. Lauren had been thrown away but her
baby Joey was still in the grips of the same man who ordered
her
death. And that's when Lauren met her savior Nick Red Shield -- a
big tough
as leather ex-military, oil rigger -- Indian. Nick just
happened to be at
the right place at the right time. No that vastly
underestimates the
importance of Nick finding Lauren. Lauren was an absolute
mess. In
worse shape than most strays and Nick finds himself in a
very foreign
position. A place where Nick has to feel again -- something
he has
fought hard to avoid. But with Lauren Nick discovers that
the part he
has guarded fiercely is now being exposed to something he
thought
he would never experience. Caring and dare he say love. Kathleen Eagle brings living on a reservation to life with
her ability to
make each scene rich and important. There's something almost
poetic in the way Kathleen Eagle describes the land so very
vital to
Native Americans and basic to their rich heritage. Something as
simple as the synergy of plants and animals is as beautiful
to read as
witness on the open range. That's Eagle's goal -- to have you
appreciate this in its entirety. RIDE A PAINTED PONY is
beautiful
even when enmeshed in a difficult story filled with its'
share of
ugliness.
SUMMARY
A woman on the run . . . The terrified eyes in the middle of the highway belonged to
a woman--battered, bruised, and barely conscious. Nick Red
Shield swerved his pickup and empty horse trailer to avoid
her, but neither he nor the mysterious Lauren Davis could
avoid the collision of their lives . . . though Nick's loner
instincts kick into high gear, Lauren's vulnerability tugs
at him in ways he'd thought long since shut down. More
comfortable with horses than people, he's drawn to the
secretive runaway. But even in the safe haven of his South
Dakota ranch, among the magnificent painted horses of
Western legend, the danger shadowing Lauren's life will
compel her to new acts of desperation to save her young son
and force Nick to confront demons bent on destroying them both. Kathleen Eagle is a mother, grandmother, teacher, chief cook
and bottle washer, and best-selling writer. She has
published over fifty books during the course of her long
career. She lives in Minnesota with her husband of over 40
years, the Lakota cowboy who continues to inspire the
stories readers treasure.
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