Customer Reviews

The Guardian (New Montana Mavericks)

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The Guardian is an amazing story combining historical romance with folklore.

While traveling west with her minister husband and other missionaries, Charity Bennett finds herself alone and unsure about her husband's decision to go west where so much is uncertain.

Black Sun, an Arapaho doctor on a spirit quest, finds her alone and injured and cares for her, though he cannot wait until he can leave her with other white people.

I was further pulled into the story by the folklore that Black Sun shared with Charity, I felt it was very meaningful to the story and helped make the story more than just historical romance. Elizabeth Lane's imagery of both the prairie lands and the difficulties faced by Charity and Black Sun wrapped into my imagination filling every sense. The Guardian is an enjoyable story for a rainy afternoon.

From the back cover:

To help those in need was the highest virtue to the Arapaho soul, and Black Sun ever honored the ways of his people. He could not turn away from a woman in need, pregnant, alone and barely alive. No, not even if the woman was white. He would help Charity Bennett bring her child into the world here in Thunder Canyon, the sacred site where, legend told, springime was born, though it broke tribal taboos and resurrected his nightmare past.

Still, her grit and courage, along with her love for his infant daughter, showed Black Sun that here was a worthy woman--yet one forever out of his reach!

And my review:

I bought this book because I'd really enjoyed another of this author's books, MCKENNA'S PROMISE. And while THE GUARDIAN was an okay book, it did not come close to measuring up.

Elizabeth Lane's sense of history is very good. She gave me a real feel for the time period without ever sounding like a history textbook. However, I felt that the character development was lacking in this book. I could see why the hero would love the heroine (she was such a strong woman), but I had a hard time seeing why she'd fall in love with him. He was a honorable man, for sure, but he had so much hatred inside of him that it started to overwhelm his good aspects after a while. Sure, he was different by the end of the book, but it was a long time in coming.

Since the character development was lacking, I kind of felt that convenience and sex were really the only reasons why the hero and heroine were together. And it did stretch the bounds of believability that a woman could find sex so enjoyable so soon after childbirth (barely a month had passed). Not realistic, but then, it is a romance novel, so maybe that can been forgiven.

Maybe I just expected more of this author, since I'd enjoyed her work so much more in the past. If you want to try Elizabeth Lane, I recommend getting a copy of MCKENNA'S PROMISE. That book was really good. Unfortunately, I can't say the same of THE GUARDIAN. It was just okay, but nothing to rave about. If you can find it at a garage sale or a thrift store, go ahead. Otherwise, save your money.