In this historical novel two girls are saved from their
homestead after brutal attackers are in turn ambushed by a
party of Cherokee. With their parents dead, the wounded
girls are taken in by the native people and raised
alongside the tribe's children.
SOMEWHERE TO DREAM can be graphically violent, and plainly
depicts the times as settlers creep across the landscape and
original peoples are pushed out of the area they need to
survive. Neither group valued the other but the teenaged
girls were well treated and a wise woman saw that they
might carry 'gifts' of prescient dreams. Adelaide and
Maggie support each other through these times. But when a
young man called Wahyaw announces that he is to wed
Adelaide they are taken by surprise. Next thing Adelaide
has a waking dream of a raid going wrong, and death. Life
is never going to be simple.
While the story is filled with good details, such as a
seven-sided council house in the centre of the Cherokee
village, I did find the early violence a little off-putting
and thus it was harder to find my way into the story. The
elderly chief Standing Tree is a fine character, upright
and willing to share land with newcomers provided they can
all hunt along the Keowee in peace. At the same time an
interpreter, Jesse, is concerned as he does not believe
that the smooth words of the whites will be adhered to and
he knows more white people will be on their way. This was a
time of conflict and distrust as much as of opportunity,
and Genevieve Graham brings this home to us. SOMEWHERE TO
DREAM does eventually bring Adelaide love, but only after
much hardship, so it is not a typical romance.
The Cherokee call her Shadow Girl. A white woman adopted by Indians, Adelaide is haunted by the dark dreams she hides—of her murdered family, of the men she fears, and most of all, of the ones that foretell the future. After her visions cause her to make a terrible mistake, she renounces her power and buries her dreams deep in her soul. Until Jesse Black is captured by the tribe. His life is spared because the Cherokee believe his warrior spirit belongs to their fallen brother. Though he hates all Indians, Adelaide illuminates their way of life for him, just as he shines light into her shadowed heart. But when her dreams return, Jesse must help her face them...or die trying...
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