4 out of 4 stars
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This was an enchanting story of family, tribal history and tales, magic, courage and perseverance. It begins with a thirteen year old girl named Sarah who is orphaned and left with her Grandma. Her Grandma doesn’t want to deal with her so she drops her of at her Grandpa Tom’s house. They have never met before and know nothing about each other, which serves to be a huge struggle letting each other in. Tom was preparing to embark on an early May adventure, through the wilderness in Washington, to visit his father’s grave. His friends William and Myra, William’s daughter, were preparing to join him on this trip. After a long debate over Sarah’s safety they decided to continue on this journey as planned. They are tested on their limits as Sarah rebels and the terrain gets rough for her and the two older men. Sarah eventually enters a journey all her own as she experiences the magic of the tribal tales. They also face an ethical debate about tribal artifacts as there journey takes a turn for a certain piece they all became aware of. Sarah’s separate journey helps her build strength, skills, courage, perseverance, and in the end, trust and a sense of family.
I loved how the author described the geological land marks as they came to them. It made me feel knowledgeable of the area. I also liked how he made me feel as if I were taking the journey through Sarah’s eyes when it was from her perspective. I could feel her pain, smell the stench, and deeply understand what she was going through. The family bond that formed between these three adults, which eventually became four, and the teenager they had not previously known was heartwarming.
The only things I struggled with while reading this book, was when it changed points of view, it left me wondering if I missed something. It didn’t clearly flow from one point of view to the next. Some of the sentences were also kind of choppy, making it hard for me to follow at times. That being said, I did not bring the rating down for that because it felt like the author might have done that on purpose to portray the characters being short with each other, so I decided that might have only been a personal struggle for myself.
I rated this book, 4 out of 4 stars, because I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a very enlightening story of tribal history mixed with fantasy and family bonds. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys any of these aspects. It is an easy read with only 272 pages, definitely worth a day or two of luxury reading.
This book also reaches out to the teenagers struggling with life, dealing with loss, feeling unloved, being abused or just having a hard time. It shows triumph over some of these struggles and reminds them they can find love in the most unlikely places.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. I will admit, at the parts I struggled with, I kind of lost interest for a bit and decided to take a break, but when I came back to it I couldn’t put it down. So I recommend to not give up if it seems like you might want to cause it really gets interesting, and turns into a great read once you figure out where it’s going.
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Strong Heart
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