Beneath The Shining Mountains [Kindle Edition]

Linda Acaster (Author)

Book Description

‘Lover? I have no lover! I am chaste. There’s not a man alive who can entice me.’

Moon Hawk is playing a dangerous game. Her heart is set on Winter Man, but why would a man with so many lovers want to take a wife?

Challenging his virility captures Winter Man’s attention, but in a village of skin tipis where every word is overheard their escalating game of tease and spar soon spirals beyond control, threatening Moon Hawk and her family with ridicule and shame. Is this Winter Man’s intention? Or are they both dancing to another's tune?

From buffalo hunting to horse raiding, this is a story of honour among rival warrior societies, and one woman's determination to wed the man of her dreams.

86,000 words / heat level: sensual

“…Beneath the Shining Mountains should be listed with the Classics. The story mesmerized me, with its rich detail and strong emotions…” Celia Yeary, Western Romance writer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...I loved learning about their customs and rich culture, and seeing the land through their eyes. It is an epic, heroic world, where wealth is measured in horses..." Classic Romance Revival

About the Author

Linda Acaster is an award-winning author of four novels, 70+ short stories, and a fiction writer's how-to guide. She was once a Northern Plains re-enactor, giving talks to adult and school groups.

Product Details

• File Size: 513 KB
• Print Length: 277 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1479125830
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003VTZZNO
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,550 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #65 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > United States > Native American

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Celia Yeary Reviews "Beneath the Shining Mountains" October 8, 2010

By Rising Star Reviews

Format:Kindle Edition

BENEATH THE SHINING MOUNTAINS-BY LINDA ACASTER

Beneath the Shining Mountains should be listed with
the Classics. The story mesmerized me, with its rich detail and strong
emotions--from both the heroine, and the hero and his friends, the
Apsaroke. It's a romance, yes, but the rules and hierarchy of the
warriors, and how they treasured honor above all else could be a
prototype for any society who was ruled by a high official, and but also
by the warriors and their code, as well. I felt as though I was in the
Northern Plains with Moon Hawk and Winter Man, and while I loved Moon
Hawk and her strength and courage, I did want to throw something at
Winter Man just like Moon Hawk did. Linda showed us the truth of all
societies, especially the early ones, in which the female had to follow
a much stricker set of rules than the men. You'll have to read this fine
story to find out how they settled their differences! Yes, I say, too,
this novel is a jewel, and I give it five stars. Loved it.
CY-Romance Author, Reviewer

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of adventure and incident July 22, 2010

By Lindsay Townsend

Format:Kindle Edition

'Beneath The Shining Mountains' is set during the 1830s in North America, on the
lands of the Apsaroke. It opens with the heroine, Moon Hawk, who is restless.
She hopes Winter Man, a Good Man of the Apsaroke and member of the dashing Fox
warrior clan, will bring horses to her father in exchange for her hand in
marriage. She and her mother devise a way to snare Winter Man's interest, but
Moon Hawk has another suitor and he is less than honourable or
good....

'Beneath The Shining Mountains' takes the reader into the world of the Apsaroke. I
loved learning about their customs and rich culture, and seeing the land through
their eyes. It is an epic, heroic world, where wealth is measured in horses and
warriors win pride and honour by the dangerous sport of stealing horses from rival peoples.

Winter Man and Moon Hawk are well matched, both proud and brave, and both spar
and tease each other in their courtship. Theirs is a testing path to love and an
exciting one, full of adventure and incident. The feelings of both young people
are sympathetically revealed and realistically shown and I was enthralled
throughout.

I look forward to reading more of Linda Acaster's work.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVED IT! May 4, 2011

By RWhitestar

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I absolutely loved this story. It was beautifully written and had bits of drama and humor. I enjoyed the plot and I enjoyed the history as well. It was amazing and well worth the buy! <3

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of a Story February 25, 2011

By Toni V. Sweeney

Format:Kindle Edition

The time is the late 1830's; the place what is now Wyoming and Montana; the people the Apsaroke. Moon Hawk is a young woman ready for marriage but she doesn't want to marry just any of the young men of her tribe. She has a special husband in mind...Winter Man, the bravest, most handsome of them all. Unfortunately, Winter Man has many lovers and isn't about to give up his freedom to settle down with just one woman. So Moon Hawk, aided by her mother, Little Face, conspires to make the elusive young man fall in love with her. And so begins a game of give-as-good-as-gets. No matter what she does, no matter to enticements, it doesn't seem to work. Winter Man isn't about to be railroaded into marriage so easily. For every trick Moon Hawk uses, he has some of his own. One backfires, however, when he sends every young man in the village to pretend to court her and leave gifts at her tipi entrance. This not only embarrasses Moon Hawk but shames her family as well, and Winter Man expects retaliation from her brothers and father, to follow. During a buffalo hunt, he's certain Bear on the Flat intends to kill him to avenge the family honor and make it look like an accident. At the last moment, however, Moon Hawk's father discards his plan and both he and Winter Man are injured by the stampeding herd. While they wait for help to arrive, Bear on the Flat informs the younger man that he has decided he will become his son-in-law, and apparently Winter Man has no say-so in it.

As these things work out, Winter Man eventually falls prey to Moon Hawk's beauty and makes her his wife, though he fully expects the passion and joy he finds in the marriage to be transient, and soon to die away as he becomes sated and looses interest in her as he does all the other women he's known.... In fact, he's surprised when his happiness continues and wonders why. Moon Hawk is a dutiful wife, he has no argument there. She cooks, she tends the tipi, she cares for him as a good woman should, she reveals a passion quickly awakened by her husband. Still, Winter Man remains aloof because he certain it won't last. He also has other problems to occupy his mind. There was another suitor for his wife's hand, one undeclared, one Moon Hawk secretly refused. Skins the Wolf is another rising young warrior, one who has counted grand coup against his enemies, but an unscrupulous man who doesn't care for the welfare of those he leads and is concerned only with his own glory and rise to power. Skins the Wolf is jealous of Winter Man because he has won Moon Hawk and, unknown to the two lovers, plots his own revenge...seeking a way to shame the warrior, turn the Apsaroke against him, and gain Moon Hawk for his own. The fact that Winter Man is aware that Skins the Wolf has acted dishonorably during a raid on a Shoshone village but kept quiet about it only makes him more determined to rid himself of the man standing in the way of what he wants.

So Skins the Wolf bides his time, watching and waiting, and occasionally making innocuous remarks or doing harmless-seeming acts which Winter Man rightfully interprets in another way, seeing them as unspoken challenges. He is constantly on guard, waiting for Skins the Wolf to declare himself and openly attack yet knowing his enemy is too wily for that. And then, as the tribe moves from one section of the country to another, following the herds of buffalo as the seasons change, Skins the Wolf sees his chance for his revenge...

MY OPINION: This story is a bit of a novelty for two reasons: It was written by a Brit, and it doesn't feature a single White Man in it. There's a mention of the "hairy-faced men from the North," traders, no doubt, but that is all, and that's refreshing, because this is a story of Native Americans on their own, unbothered by conquest by other races, living, loving, and surviving in an era before they were exploited and robbed of their lands and heritage. At first, I just couldn't see why Moon Hawk would want Winter Man, however, because he was clearly conceited, concerned with his own pleasure and satisfaction, and not a man to be tied down to one woman. His reactions to her little intrigues was to turn them back on her with disastrous results, of which he was immediately apologetic. And then she, in turn, would fight back with some other plan which would also end in regret. It was almost like a male Taming of the Shrew, except in some places both Winter Man and Moon Hawk appeared to be playing both Kate and Petruchio's parts. They spent a lot of time arguing and then apologizing. Once I got over this first prejudice against the hero, I enjoyed the story just fine!

From her background and interest in Native Americans, I'm going to accept on faith that the author researched the customs and practices of the Asparoke and the things she describe are authentic and not worry about that. It's a lovely story, interesting in its background of a people who live with Nature, moving with the seasons, following the animals as they migrate, drawing their lives and their loves from the land. The ceremonies the young men go through to be accepted as warriors, going on raids, counting coup, stealing wives, as well as the many aspects of behavior which brings shame and betrayal to not only the perpetrator but his entire family are also explored.

For a fresh look at an old subject, seen through the eyes of Native Americans and not those of the invaders, this novel, previously published in the UK as A Wife for Winter Man is a little gem. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Definately worth your time January 1, 2012

By A.F.

Format:Kindle Edition

I never write reviews...ever. But I thought I had to on this one. It is such a nice breath of fresh air to read a book that isn't your typical "Native-war-chief-falls-in-love-with-beautiful-white-woman" cliche. Finally, a beautiful love story with a Native man and a Native woman. It's realistic and sensual, without the tacky and over-dramatized unrealistic love scenarios like so many others. Once I got reading I couldn't put the book down. A definate good read and well done. You won't be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully told, totally engrossing October 15, 2012

By Amy Gallaher

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was a bit skeptical about this book, as it is self-published. I figured if it were "good" it would be published by a big publishing house. This is a bias I am now beyond, because this book impressed me immensely. I am an avid student of Native American lifeways, and this novel has an authenticity that rings true in every detail, large and small. Very well researched, and inhabiting a consciousness of an indigenous people... the characters are multi-faceted, believable, and sympathetic, even when they're not perfect. The storytelling is paced perfectly, and I got absorbed completely into it.

I wanted to find a novel that helped me to peek inside the lives of American Indians the way they lived, the ways they loved each other, their struggles and their triumphs, from their point of view. I wanted a "romance" of sorts between Native individuals, not between an Indian man and a white woman; I feel that genre is contrived and condescending. This novel did not disappoint.

We are in a new age where authors don't need the big publishing houses to share their well-crafted works with the world, and this book is beautiful evidence of that.

More About the Author

Welcome to my Amazon page! I'm an English novelist and short-story writer, living on the Yorkshire coast on a Saxon settlement site a stone's throw from an ancient spring. The locales of "Torc of Moonlight" are on my doorstep.

History has always fascinated me, especially the day-to-day lives of those who never feature in history's grand recollections. Undertaking the research necessary to breathe life into these long-ago people regularly throws up direct connections to 21st century living that I exploit in my fiction.

"Torc of Moonlight" is the first of a trilogy of thrillers set in university cities around the eerie North York Moors, and the ebook contains research articles, an author interview, and opening excerpt from Book 2 "The Bull At The Gate".

Some of my previous print novels have been relaunched as ebooks. "Hostage of the Heart" explores the role of mediaeval battle hostages and is set on the English-Welsh borders on the cusp of the country's last invasion (1066). "Beneath The Shining Mountains" (originally paperbacked as "A Wife For Winterman") is a story of love and misplaced honour among a First Nation people on the plains of America in the 1830s. Much of the insight for this latter novel came from my years as a re-enactor of the period - yes, in northern England - the Brits are renowned for being eccentric.

My short fiction covers a variety of genres, from the expected historical and women's fiction, to horror, literary, crime, SF and fantasy. Kindle ebook "Contribution to Mankind and other stories of the Dark" holds five speculative fiction tales.

For many years I've been teaching fiction-writing in various forms, and from this developed the non-fiction "Reading A Writer's Mind: Exploring Short Fiction - First Thought To Finished Story". If you'll forgive the chuckle, it rather does what it says in the title. If you are finding your way into writing, as a hobby or a new career, it can help iron out technical questions.

If you wish to be kept up to date, drop by my blog http://lindaacaster.blogspot.com to read opening excerpts of all my available fiction, or join my mailing list for an emailed newsletter. I can also be found at www.lindaacaster.co.uk and on Facebook and Twitter - all the usual places.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you'll consider reading some of my work, and enjoy the books as much as others have.