BLACK EAGLE

Author: Gen Bailey ISBN: 9780425228180 5/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: BERKLEY
Time Period: 1755

Fleeing her corrupt uncle, Marisa Rathburn heads to a friend's home in the north, despite the escalating battles between the English and French. Mesmerized by her beauty, a Mohawk warrior named Black Eagle volunteers to act as her eyes through the wild forests of New England. As danger surrounds them, he realizes Marisa is not as she appears. Caught in the crossfire of war, with an assassin on their trails, they discover that trusting in their love may be the only way to survive.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I'll say one good thing for Gen Bailey—she definitely does her homework when it comes to historical details in her romances. Set during the time of the French and Indian Wars, Bailey takes great pains to accurately portray the Native American people and their culture, as well as the daily lives of the French and British settlers they often commingled with. With so much historical detail evident from the start of BLACK EAGLE, a Warriors of the Iroquois story, I just knew I was in for a really great read. But, alas, once I was into it by just a few chapters, BLACK EAGLE turned out to be not at all what I expected, which was very disappointing.

Although I couldn't seem to connect with any of the characters, my biggest gripe, if you will, is with Marissa, or Ahweyoh as she's called by Black Eagle. I couldn't come to grips with her at all, especially after she and Black Eagle end up doing "the deed" in a hollowed-out tree roughly a day or so after they meet. In addition, the author's writing style just didn't have any rhythm or flow, which made it difficult to read.

BLACK EAGLE was a very slow go for me, with uninteresting characters who had no chemistry and a plot that was so unbelievable I thought I'd never get through to the ending. Fans of Karen Kay, Gen Bailey's AKA, and those who enjoy the romance writings of Cassie Edwards hopefully will find much more to like in this book than I did.

Nancy Davis