Customer Reviews

Follow the Sun

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Rarely do you find a series or trilogy where each story is strong and moving in it's own right. This book is a keeper. My copy is creased and missing it's cover...well -loved. But I can promise it will never see the inside of a Goodwill donation bag. It's the first book I read by Deborah Smith and it drew me to seek out her other works. Sadly I haven't read anything by Smith to match these stories.

This Cherokee Trilogy reprint contains "Sundance and the Princess", "Tempting the Wolf", and "Kat's Tale" from the Loveswept series romance of 1989. The women in these novels are the great-great-great granddaughters of Katherine Blue Song (a Cherokee woman on the Trail of Tears) and Justis Gallatin (the white man who cared for her). The three stories tie together well and preview Katherine and Justis' 1838 historical story told a decade later in "The Beloved Woman." All three novels also deal with changing women's roles in society (and romance novels) and sexual relationships in the late 80s. They also depend on the relatively limited communication technology of 20 years ago - every once in a while I found myself looking for a non-existant cell phone or wi-fi.

"Sundance and the Princess" begins with Jeopard Surprise taking an assignment to find a stolen diamond by romancing the chief suspect (Tess Gallatin) who is half Swedish and half Cherokee. Both Drake Lancaster and Jeopard's brother Kyle Surprise appear as secondary characters in this one. This is well-plotted and surprisingly open in the sexual relationship between Kyle and Tess - reading more like a love story of the 21st century.

"Tempting the Wolf" tells the story of former NFL Washington Redskin and full-blood Cherokee, James Tall Wolf and the tall, gawky, civil engineer Erica Gallatin. It is set in Washington D.C. and on the Cherokee tribal lands in North Carolina with some wonderful interactions with Wolf's family as Erica tries to understand her 1/16th heritage as a Cherokee. The best part of this novel is the internal interactions and character development in the Wolf family and Erica's discovery and self-acceptance as fully female and Cherokee. It also begins an interesting secondary romance between Drake Lancaster and Echo Tall Wolf.

"Kat's Tale" tells of Kat Gallatin, a full-blood Cherokee circus acrobat turned wrestler, and Nathan Chatham, a geologist/millionaire who has roamed the world and adopted indigenous customs from many tribal peoples. It also resolves the story of Echo Tall Wolf and Drake Lancaster. This book has a lot of humor in it and deals with the different understandings of Indian culture by those who have no clue about their heritage and those who have studied it. Two very physical characters accustomed to "gettin' nekkid" makes the first half of the novel fun. I'm not crazy about the storyline that resolves the revenge plot at the end of this novel - it seems out of place and very demeening to both lead characters.

The men in these stories first appear in Smith's earlier Loveswept novels. Jeopard and Kyle Surprise first appear in their sister Millie's story "Caught By Surprise". Their characters are further developed along with introducing Drake Lancaster and Nathan Chatham in "Never Let Go". Only James Tall Wolf is a brand-new male lead. Definitely read "Never Let Go" before these novels as many spoilers are given away in this later trilogy.

If you read this book, be sure to also read Beloved Woman by Deborah Smith. Although Beloved Woman is set a few generations earlier, you will have a greater understanding of the references in Follow the Sun. Also, some of the characters in the earlier Deborah Smith books continue to show up--Jeopard and Kyle Surprise, Drake Lancaster, etc.--blending wonderful and adventurous stories. You will not be disappointed with reading all of these books.