4 out of 4 stars
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It begins with a normal hiking trip with family and friends, then 13-year-old Sarah goes missing. After a week of futile search, she comes back with a head injury and a missing finger and fantastic story! The novel switches smoothly between Sarah’s narrative and present day events, portraying love, friendship, commitment etc. It is the first tale in the Spear Thrower Series, to be followed by “Adrift” in 2018.
Charlie Sheldon’s Strong Heart is a thrilling story set in the North Pacific Coast. The story drags at the beginning with the sudden arrival of Sarah at her grandfather’s home, but after the turn of a few pages, the story spiraled into a historical fiction which was interesting and educative. Reading the book, I could sense that the author would have actually hiked in the Olympic National Park for him to paint such a beautiful scenery in his book.
Sarah, along with her grandfather, Tom, who she just met and some friends go hiking in the Olympic National Park to return an important artifact to her great-great-grandfather’s burial site. Sarah is a dog-headed little girl, who having lost her mother at the age of nine became strong-willed and independent. Annoyed at Tom for disbelieving her story about seeing a short-faced bear, she disappeared into the woods and is not seen until a week later. However, on their way back home, she tells them where she had been for an entire week, she tells them a story of ancient men!
Although the book is a fictional work, it contains historical facts that I did not know about until I read the book. I cannot say this is the best historical fiction book ever, after all, this is my first of the said genre, but, Strong Heart is a masterpiece. The book seemed to be professionally edited as I could not find any error which made my reading smooth, as well as the fact that the author’s writing style made it easy to read.
All in all, this book makes a great read and I recommend it to those who love to read books all genres. Written in third person except when Sarah was narrating her ordeal, the plot encompasses all genres, even a hint of romance. Although, I did not like the abrupt end of the story which left me with tons of questions, still, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.
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Strong Heart
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