Valley of the Shadow

by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Overview

"I won't go, and you can't make me!" As the daughter of Good Song Woman and a French trader, eighteen-year-old Genevieve LaCroix wants nothing to do with her father's plan to see his daughter educated by the white missionaries at Renville mission. Forced there against her will, Gen eventually finds friendship. When she meets a wounded Dakota warrior taken in by the missionaries, love blossoms. Gen and Two Stars are just beginning to find their way in the new world controlled by whites when the Dakota War of 1862 drags them both into the valley of the shadow of death. Risking everything to protect missionary friends and children, the couple are forced apart. Will their love survive? Will they?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523637607
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	09/27/2016
Series:	Dakota Moons , #1
Pages:	310
Sales rank:	231,009
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Award-winning, best-selling author Stephanie Grace Whitson has been writing full time since 1994. She received a master of historical studies degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2012 and is a frequent guest speaker/lecturer on a variety of historical and inspirational topics for both civic organizations and church groups. Stephanie resides in southeast Nebraska where her family, her church, historical research, and Kitty-her motorcycle-all rank high on her list of "favorite things." Learn more at www.stephaniewhitson.com

Editorial Reviews

Evenhanded and lively portrayals of Christian missionaries and Dakota Indians distinguish this novel by the author of the popular Prairie Wind series. Genevieve LaCroix is a blue-eyed "half-breed," the daughter of a Sioux mother and a French father. At age 18, she is sent to live with a missionary couple, the Reverend Dane and his wife, Ellen. "Gen" befriends Ellen Dane (who is based on the real-life Minnesota settler Mary Ann Longley Riggs), but dislikes her husband, who, she believes, has only disdain for Indian customs. Death haunts the story: Ellen dies in childbirth (as does the baby, her third), and dozens of men are murdered when, in 1862, the Sioux rise up against their white neighbors. Gen risks her life to save the Danes' two surviving children. After the violence abates, the Rev. Dane confesses that he has fallen in love with Gen; his transformation from a removed, austere patriarch to a loving, emotive nurturer is surprisingly convincing. The religious themes are clear enough to please Christian readers, but subtle enough that they won't be off-putting to others. Fans of prairie fiction will be grateful that Whitson refrains from populating her pages with every important historical figure who set foot in the West during the 1860s, and that she spares us tedious attempts at folksy dialect. Instead, she serves up believable and sympathetic characters, conveying the atrocities that Americans of European descent committed against Native Americans without losing sight of the settlers' complicated, and often benevolent, motives. The ending, though not a stunning surprise, is far from the predictable conclusion featured in most historical romances. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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