Review of The Savage Paradise

[Bertha Jackson]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Savage Paradise" by Bud Lawrence.]

---

4 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Seven years after the Civil War ended, Florida was a beautiful but dangerous place to live. Andy Yates found this out after he and his traveling group of prizefighters visited Wacassa, Florida, and he was framed for a crime he did not commit. Instead of sending Andy to prison, Judge Wiggins sentences him to the work gang on Sheriff Cooper's farm for three years. There, he meets Oquilla, a beautiful Seminole Indian maiden whose family lived and worked on the farm. To prevent the fates Sheriff Cooper has planned for Oquilla and Andy, they decide to run away, but they have to do so in secret to protect the other prisoners and Oquilla's parents from punishment for not telling on them. They know Sheriff Cooper will hunt them down with his hunting dogs, so they have to find a way to escape without leaving tracks for the dogs to find. Was it possible for them to escape without anyone seeing them or leaving any tracks behind? Will anyone help them? Why were Oquilla and her parents prisoners on the farm? Read The Savage Paradise by Bud Lawrence to discover if Oquilla and Andy escaped Sheriff Cooper's clutches.

My favorite aspect of this book is the historical information about how people survived in the wilderness by living off the land and the many resources that can be found in nature. The author's character and demographic development provided much of this information. One example is that palmetto fronds can be used for roofing, building traps, or holding food over an open fire, among other things. This book is full of adventures, like alligator and turkey hunting, traveling through swamps, encountering rattlesnakes, thieves, etc., that kept me intrigued. Learning how syrup, beer, and whiskey are made was interesting. One of my favorite takeaways from this book is that evil can make even the most easy-going people take action. The Seminole Indians were my favorite characters in this book because our society could learn much from their customs.

The only negative aspect I encountered, and the only reason this book did not get a perfect score, is that it needs to be professionally edited. Most of the errors were punctuation mistakes (periods in the middle of sentences, missing quotation marks, misplaced apostrophes, etc.), which did not distract from my reading enjoyment. However, the number of errors required me to deduct one star from my rating. Thus, my rating for this book is 4 out of 5 stars. My enjoyable reading experience and the numerous positive aspects discussed above prevented me from giving this book a lower rating.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romance, adventure, Westerns, or Florida's history after the Civil War. There are a few instances of minor profanity and religious and sexual content, but nothing that would restrict this book to any particular group of readers. The religious content is rare and does not address scriptures, only thanks and gratitude. I do not believe this minor religious content is significant enough to be offensive to anyone.

******
The Savage Paradise
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon