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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Romance > Historical
In The Crimson Path of Honor, the Civil War is over, and a
violent period known as the Indian Wars is erupting. Ignoring the
danger, a feisty young woman from Boston rebels against her
tyrannical father's plans to marry her off to a family friend, and
she seizes an opportunity to go west to teach. On the way to the
Oregon Territory, her stagecoach is attacked, and she is captured
by a marauding band of Lakota (Sioux) Indians who call the Rocky
Mountains home.
Accepting her perilous situation, the young woman courageously
confronts the daily hardships inherent in early Native American
life. At first treated like an outcast, she eventually adapts to
her circumstances and comes to respect the camaraderie of the
Indians, even falling in love with her captor. Over time, she
begins to challenge her abductor's traditional views on
bloodletting and violence as the path of honor. Torn by her
inability to justify her growing feelings for her captor in a
culture of violence, she continually wonders why God has abandoned
her in such a desolate place.
"M.B. Tosi has done it again. This is the historical novel at
its best--realistic, filled with tough issues against a background
of conflict and unrest."
--Jim Langford,
Director Emeritus of University of Notre Dame Press
Although born into privilege, Ayna Landau marries Karl Adler in
1924 and opens the door to a world of opportunities that propel her
husband's company to the height of success in the porcelain doll
industry of interwar Germany. As she basks in the glory of her
triumphs, her idyllic life is interrupted by Adolph Hitler's
meteoric rise to power in the 1930s as head of the Nazi Party.
While the chaos the Nazis create throughout Europe culminates in
World War II, Ayna and her family risk everything they have worked
for to secure the safety and freedom of not only their family and
friends, but strangers who seek their help, as well. Struggling to
survive the depths of personal tragedy that befall her by the war's
end, she abandons the Adler Doll Works and their beautiful villa to
flee Germany mere days ahead of the approaching Russian army,
determined to be reunited with her children in Switzerland. Ayna's
perseverance and resolve to restore the Adler name to the
prominence it once held becomes her final mission, in an effort to
bequeath its legacy to her children, grandchildren, and all future
Adlers.
Madeleine, a beautiful peasant girl, cannot resist the charms of
Jean, a handsome champion of the upper class. She surrenders to her
heart's desires, and their love sweetens into something amazing.
But when her father is murdered, her dreams of marriage collapse
before the impenetrable wall of class prejudice. With her grim new
prospects restricted to life as a beggar or a whore, Madeleine
grasps at the only escape she can: a new life in the New World. She
signs a contract to emigrate to Quebec-where she'll marry a
stranger and bear many children to help populate the New France
colony.
Madeleine's experience quickly turns bitter as she struggles to
overcome the frigid Canadian winters, the constant threat of
Iroquois attack, wild animals, and the soul-eroding abuse of her
husband. Isolation and crushing homesickness set in.
Worse, just as she comes to feel she cannot go on, the real
nightmare begins: she discovers that the very man who murdered her
father is living on her farm.
Her struggle for survival of body and soul are set against the
expansive panorama of colonial Quebec, a place of awesome beauty
and lethal danger. As Madeleine's extraordinary love story unfolds,
real historical characters and authentic cultural details weave
seamlessly into a rich tapestry of courageous pursuit of love and
dreams.
Can her spirit resist defeat under extreme tribulation and
deprivation of emotional support?
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