Frontier Gift of Love (American Wilderness #5)

WESTERN:  An intertwined family saga of the Wyllie family, set just over a decade after the end of the American Revolution, this is the fifth book, whose plot revolves mostly around Sam and his wife Catherine, and the upcoming arrival of both their first child and all the other members of the family for Christmas at their then-frontier Kentucky ranch. Strangers travel from afar, going through many towns where family and friends live, looking for Sam, claiming to be long lost friends. Already planning on getting together for Christmas, Sam’s brothers leave early, not recognizing the men’s names, or why anyone claiming to know Sam would think he’d sell the family ranch in the New Hampshire Mountains.

If this book is stylistically similar to all the previous ones, then readers are in for a treat and should go get all of them. Many authors have difficulty maintaining one storyline and subplot, let alone are able to weave happenings of four different families into a seamless whole. Sam and his brothers and their families have a rich history, and every action that occurs with every brother not only perfectly lets readers know what has gone on in previous stories, but also takes the threads, joining them together at different points within the tale, with not one stumble. A few times the threads are a bit longer than necessary, but unlike many multi-plot stories, readers will not get lost going from one family to the next. The brothers’ characters are amazingly full, entirely separate from each other, as are their wives and children. This is an amazing American frontier tale!

Julie York