Promises on the Wind by Bonnie Hamre
Time-Travel (from 1998 to 1850)
Hardshell Word Factory
Mollie Anderson only wanted to stretch her legs at the rest stop on I-80 on her way to California. She was tired, still an emotional wreck after losing her baby daughter and husband in a car accident, and not in any mood to suddenly find herself lost in the desert. It was strange, one minute the restroom door slammed shut behind her, and the next moment, everything was dark. Luckily, she stumbles upon a group of survivalists re-enacting the pioneer's trek through the desert.
Ford Hunter can't believe his eyes. Standing guard for the wagon train, he thought maybe a clumsy Indian was coming through the brush. Instead, he finds a woman wearing practically nothing, except strange clingy leggings and a short-sleeved shirt. He can't make any sense of her rambling - something about calling highway patrol, or something outrageous like that.
She must have wandered from her own wagon train and gotten sun-stroke, is the final verdict from the wagon train's doctor.
The story starts out in a fairly predictable time-travel romance fashion, but quickly becomes an original, highly entertaining story of a woman from 1998 finding herself one hundred fifty years backwards, stuck in a wagon train with pioneers heading for the New Country.
The originality comes from the fact that Ford finds out early in the
story that she's from another time, her purse is full of strange and wonderful
things ( a maglight, M&M chocolate candies, a driver's license and
a photo of a red car!) And he not only believes it, but tries his best
to protect Mollie from the overly-suspicious members of the wagon-train,
who feel Mollie is a serious trouble maker and impediment to their progress
and survival. He and
Mollie are obliged to marry for her own protection, (there are other
single men in the wagon train, and most want a wife - woman being about
equal to slaves back then!) Mollie falls in love with Ford, of course.
He is a widower and has two daughters, and Mollie struggles to keep them
alive and healthy on the long journey.
The author, Bonnie Hamre, has done her research well, and there is so much realism that you find yourself transported back to another time. A real time-travel tale!
I enjoyed the historical details about clothing, food and the way people acted and reacted back then. The book brings to light the incredible difficulties pioneers faced. Mollie and Ford's love-story weaves in and out of pioneer life and hardships on the trail. A well-written book, with good dialogue and very well-rounded, interesting characters, I have only one compliant - I found problems with the formatting, some parts of the book were not easy to read because of bad formatting. Maybe Hardshell has corrected that problem - it was the first time I'd run into it! It didn't take away from my enjoyment of the tale, and I am looking forward to reading more stories from the very talented Bonnie Hamre.
Reviewed by Jenny