Sunday, March 6, 2016

Native Wolf (California Legends #2) by Glynnis Campbell



Rancher daughter, Claire Parker simply cannot marry the man her father wants her to marry. So to thwart his plans on this matter, Claire decides to run away from home. There's nothing left for her at the Parker Ranch since her Indian mother died and Claire feels she is a disappointment to her father. Feeling Yoema's death profoundly, Claire chops off her hair in native tradition for mourning her lost loved one and prepares to leave the ranch. 

Before she has a chance to get away, Claire is abducted right from her home in just her nightgown. This is not how Claire pictured her departure and furthermore, this is abduction is nothing like the ones she reads in her beloved wild West adventures.

Overcome with discovering his grandmother's demise at the hands of white men, half-breed Chase Wolf leaves his twin brother at a saloon and heads out to the Parker ranch to seek revenge on ranch owner, Samuel Parker. Clearly intoxicated and not in his right mind, Chase grabs Claire and makes off with her on the prize stallion owned by Parker, Believing that his hostage is Samuel's wife, Chase puts distance between the ranch and when he finally sobers up, he realizes that this abduction is not quite the right thing to do.

How could everything go so wrong for Claire? Her departure now ruined by the abduction leaves her without a chance of being saved since she leaves a note in her bedroom at the ranch that she is leaving home on her own. Escape is futile as the half breed keeps her close and without a way to run, but Claire isn't going to go quietly and mentioning her Indian mother, Yoema to Chase only makes matters worse. Soon, Chase realizes her has to return Claire from whence she came, but Claire can't go home. She won't marry the ambitious ranch hand, Frank and Claire will do what she must do be free of him. The longer that Chase and Claire spend in each other's company, the more they come to know one another but also the more dangerous their association becomes when Samuel and Frank seek to find Claire with Frank determined to end the half breed's life.

NATIVE WOLF by Glynnis Campbell is a marvelously crafted tale of the historic wild west. I have not read many books by this author, but this book has made me put her books on my to be read list. Ms. Campbell's grasp of the Konkow culture is fascinating and made this history lover do some research into the tribe.  NATIVE WOLF has its fair share of danger, adventure and romance with a breathtaking backdrop of newly settled California to keep the reader engrossed from page one to the end. 

~KIMBERLY~ 

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