Comanche Moon and Comanche Heart by Catherine Anderson

Okay so I'm opening up this blog by posting a report on two library books I recently read:

You all know that I love historical western romance. It's not a genre that gets a lot of love although it's slowly growing. Part of this growth seems to be authors who wrote westerns back in the day (the early 90's) and are having them reprinted. Catherine Anderson is one such author. She had a 4 book series in the early 90's that went out of print (and if you go to any used book sites they price in the $30 range - for a used paperback). Her publisher is reissuing them and has already released the first two with the last two coming in the Spring of 2010.

I saw Comanche Heart on the "new and interesting" shelf at the library. I'm always leary of historical westerns that have a native american bent to them, because more often than not the authors who have a corner on that niche in the genre write very sterotypical stories that are everything people love to hate about romances. Having never seen Ms. Anderson's name before I picked it up only to discover from the author's note that it was the 2nd in a series.

The first is Comanche Moon and tells the story of Loretta Masters, a young woman whose family was killed several years prior by a band of Comanche while she hid. She was so traumatized by what she witnessed she stopped speaking. Loretta has lived with her aunt, uncle and their daughter, Amy. Hunter of the Wolf (or just Hunter) believes that Loretta is the white woman mentioned in a prophecy he's been told needs to be guarded and protected. According to the prophecy she will be instrumental in helping the white people and the Comanche live in harmony. Against his better judgment Hunter goes to her home and offers her uncle a "bride price" for her that her uncle accepts. Loretta feels as though she's being taken hostage but as she comes to live in the tribe she learns more about a people she'd condemned and falls in love with the man she swore was part of her family's killing.

In Comanche Heart, it's been several years since the end of Comanche Moon and Amy is now the teacher of a town that Hunter's helped to found in Oregon. Swift Antelope, a Comanche she'd loved as a young girl arrives and pledges to uphold the betrothal promise he and Amy made when they were children. But Amy has had something brutal happen in her past and she wants nothing more than to remain in the safe, secure life she's built herself. Swift has to show her that she can love him and have her independence.

One of the things that I adored about both of these books is the way Ms. Anderson didn't shy away from who and what the Comanche people were. They had their moments of violence against white settlers and she doesn't pretend that they didn't. In fact one of the biggest conflicts between Loretta and Hunter is her trying to come to terms with the man she's falling for with what she knows about what he's done to people like her family.

Ms. Anderson's amazing attention to detail brought this tribe to life for me. In both stories the heros and heroines have a lot keeping them apart and you get the sense it would just be easier for everyone if they all went their separate ways. But love isn't supposed to be easy. There are plenty of tender moments in both books but it was the moments between Amy and Swift in Comanche Heart that touched me on a personal level. Swift doesn't want Amy to give up who she is and convincing her of that is frustration both for him and the reader. For me, the best books are those that take me through a range of emotions and both of these did that. Even if you don't read romance or historical westerns I would highly recommend these two books.

As a writer of historical westerns I've had a desire to write a story with a Native American main character but have been hesitant in doing so. If I chose to undertake it, Ms. Anderson will be the standard to which I will hold myself, and that bar has been set very high indeed. Currently reading: Simply Love by Catherine Anderson (a stand alone historical western)