Normally I don’t write about a book until I finish it, but I LOVE The Frontiersman’s Daughter by Laura Frantz. It’s been a while since I found a book that kept me soaking in the bath until my toes turned to prunes. Or one that makes my husband roll over and grump, “go to bed!” when I read “just one more page” for the umpteenth time.
This book takes me back to how I felt reading Heidi and Little House on the Prairie. It’s about a girl becoming a woman on the frontier of Kentuke. (I flash back to Last of the Mohicans every time I see that spelling.) It’s been a VERY long time since a character made me want to be like her. Lael Click tempts me to run barefoot and gather wild herbs. She makes me think I’d like to try my hand at cooking a feast for the settlement’s Scottish doctor in an open fireplace or maybe to braid a rug for my puncheon floor.
This is what good books do. They pull you in and make you care about the characters and wish you could do the things they do. (Just wait ’til you get to Captain Jack at the waterfall. Sigh.) This is why I read–to be fully engaged in another world where my own challenges fade away, at least for a little while.
I’m counting on a happy ending, though I’m rooting for the love that I think will not be the ONE in the end. Even so, I trust Laura Frantz to deliver. And I’ll definitely be checking out her other books. You should, too.