ON THE FRONTIER OF A NEW LIFE...Tired and hungry after two days of travelling, Susanna Hopkins is just about at the end of her tether when her train finally arrives in Cheyenne. She's bound for a new life in a Western garrison town. Then she discovers she doesn't even have enough money to pay for the stagecoach! Luckily for her the compassionate Major Joseph Randolph is heading in the same direction. As a military surgeon, Joe is used to keeping his professional distance. But despite Susanna's understated beauty he's drawn ...
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ON THE FRONTIER OF A NEW LIFE...Tired and hungry after two days of travelling, Susanna Hopkins is just about at the end of her tether when her train finally arrives in Cheyenne. She's bound for a new life in a Western garrison town. Then she discovers she doesn't even have enough money to pay for the stagecoach! Luckily for her the compassionate Major Joseph Randolph is heading in the same direction. As a military surgeon, Joe is used to keeping his professional distance. But despite Susanna's understated beauty he's drawn to this woman who carries loss and pain equal to his own and has a heart which is just as hesitant and wary...'Always original, always superb, Ms Kelly's body of work is a timeless delight.'- RT Book Reviews
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Author Carla Kelly is wonderful at creating interesting characters and fascinating stories. This one is more subtle than MRS. DREW PLAYS HER HAND, but just as engaging.
Suzanna Hopkins is divorced and an outcast in Pennsylvania. She is moving to the Wyoming Territory to start over. Unfortunately, her cousin (stationed with her husband at Fort Laramie, where Suzanna is headed) has told others that Suzanna is a war widow (Civil War). This is untrue; Suzanna was divorced by her husband after she ran away from his drunken beatings. He convinced the court that she was an unfit mother and retained their only child, Tommy.
She is collected from the train depot by Major Joe Randolph, a man with his own demons. Although a physician, he was unable to save his own wife when she brushed against a fire and burned to death. In the passing years, he has continued to grieve her loss and his inability to save her.
When Suzanna arrives at Fort Laramie, it is obvious that her cousin, Emily believes that Suzanna was in the wrong regarding her husband, Frederick. Living with Emily will not be easy. Suzanna is devastated but concentrates on her students and the school.
This book has a variety of delightful and despicable secondary characters. They are so clearly described through description and action that we know that we've met others just like them. Joe and Suzanna are achingly complex characters with their own traumas.
The author explains that Army life at a fort was not for the faint-hearted; life there was a combination of boring routine and heart stopping fear and death. The soldiers and their families handle their stress by becoming shameless gossips.
When the fort finds out that Suzanna is not a widow, but a divorcee? with a shocking past, they refuse to send their children to the school where she teaches. Suzanna wants to die but Joe refuses to let her go.
This is a quiet story with powerful lessons. Enjoy! 4.5 stars
