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Defiant

Defiant

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: She loved him--could he really be a criminal?
Review: Wade Foster had finally avenged the murder of his Ute wife and son. The last of the men who had killed his family lay dead after a ten month search. And now Wade knew that he would soon die too. His wounds were serious, his horse was dead, and he was lying in the middle of nowhere bleeding from two gunshot wounds.Twelve-year old Jeff Williams was chasing his dog when he stumbled across the wounded stranger. The boy dashed back to the ranch house, screaming for his mother, hoping that somehow she could save the injured man. Jeff's mother, Mary Jo, was the widow of a Texas Ranger. She lived on a Colorado ranch with Jeff. The ranch was her inheritance from another Ranger, Tyler Smith, who had wanted to marry her after her husband's death. But Tyler, like her husband, had died in the line of duty, leaving her and her son alone on the frontier. Although Wade was badly wounded, Mary Jo would do her best to keep him alive. It was not simply that she believed in life. She had lost so many people that she loved, that she could not bear to lose even this dusty mysterious stranger. Without even knowing his name, she soon began to care about Wade. As her patient began to recover, Mary Jo learned that Wade Foster was a man with a past not to be discussed. He was a man of dark secrets; perhaps he was wanted by the law. But when Sheriff Matt Sinclair rode up to the ranch to investigate a recent murder, Mary Jo lied to him, saying she had seen no strangers. Wade was concerned that the Sheriff and his posse would discover his dead horse with the Ute-style bridle that his wife had made for him. He feared that the Indians would be blamed for the murder of the white man. Mary Jo went out in the rain to retrieve his goods, and only then discovered that Wade had had an Indian wife. Mary Jo had only bitter memories of Indians, and could not understand Wade's relationship with them. Mary Jo sheltered Wade. He was physically injured, to be sure, but the emotional wounds hidden behind his defiant exterior stirred her feelings far more than his visible wounds. More than merely protect him, she wanted to heal him inside and out. She devised a plan to have Wade stay with her and Jeff, pretending to be Tyler Smith's brother. She told people in her valley that he had been injured in a railroad accident, and that he had arrived on the ranch to help her and Jeff . In spite of himself, Wade began to care about Jeff, and even more for Jeff's mother. He did not understand Mary Jo's affection for him. He believed that a man with so much blood on his hands was unworthy of happiness or even forgiveness. When danger comes in the form of a Civil War criminal, Wade's new life is disrupted, and the welfare of the whole town is threatened. Wade must make a terrible choice. Should he trust Sheriff Matt Sinclair with the truth of his past , risking his freedom and perhaps his life, to protect the woman and child he now knows he loves? DEFIANT is the tale of a man who has lost his faith in the goodness of life who is given a second chance. It is a coming of age story of Jeff, a boy who is forced to make the choices in life that define a man. And it is the story of Mary Jo, a woman who is so afraid to love and lose again, yet takes a chance to find the happiness that has eluded her all of her life in the arms of a bruised stranger. Finally, it is a tale of redemption and forgiveness. Patricia Potter has written a beautiful and powerful love story set on the Western frontier in Colorado. Her sympathetic treatment of the Ute Indians and their involvement with her protagonists is a lesson in culture and history. Her characters are people the reader will immediately care about and will miss when the story is finished and the book closed. Patricia Potter fans have come to anticipate her strong and emotional stories. Again, they will not be disappointed. DEFIANT is powerful and poignant. There are passages in the tale where the reader can only cry, and others that cannot help but to bring a smile to the lips. DEFIANT is destined for the keepers shelf. reviewed by Laurel Chevlen


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