Thursday, July 30, 2009

Book Review -- These Is My Words

These Is My Words These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner


My rating: 5 of 5 stars







Some books just grab you by the heart and won’t let go. These Is My Words is one of them.

Sarah Prine is a tough as nails, young women growing up in the Arizona Territories. She can shoot a rifle, defend her family and friends, and fight Indians and outlaws too – heck, I’m not sure there isn’t anything she can’t do. Her family decides to migrate to Texas for a better ranching life, but they find nothing but tragedy along the way. On their return home to Arizona, Sarah meets Captain Jack Elliott, and thus begins the heart of this novel, based on the diaries of the author’s original family memoirs.

These Is My Words is a love story, an American western, a survivors tale, all wrapped up into one incredible saga. In fact, Sarah and Jack’s love affair rivals that of Scarlet and Rhett – and the great thing about Sarah and Jack was they made it work. It wasn’t without trials – Jack, as a Captain in the Army, was absent from home most of the time. Sarah, who could survive anything on her own, was desperate to have her husband (and the father of her children) home. Not a far cry from most modern day husbands and wives.

It is not without some graphic scenes – rape, mutilation, amputation – but they are written with restraint and left to the reader’s imagination. The romantic scenes are dealt with just as modestly. I would let my eight year old read them without her being any the wiser.

I fell in love with this book. Who can’t fall in love with two people so madly in love with each other? I almost felt guilty reading about their romance -- it was a guilty pleasure – and one I would be happy to read over, and over again.

Sum it up: A great historical, western romance, that will leave you breathless (or it did me!).

View all my reviews >>

6 comments:

Liz said...

Oh I am so glad it didn't let you down! I loved it too!

Corinne said...

FANTASTIC book. LOVED it. I agree, I read it when I was pregnant with my first, 9 years ago, and it's still with me :)

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

I can't believe this book has been around that long and I've never heard of it??!! I read a library copy, but I'm going to purchase my own, so I can read it often!

Heather O. said...

I've heard of it, but haven't gotten around to it. I'm going to suggest it for next month's book club, if you think it's appropriate. And yes, we have some hard core prudes in our club---can they handle it?

Diane said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE this book and highly recommend it. We have some squeemish readers in our book club, but all greatly enjoyed this book. Has anyone read the followups?

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

Diane -- I haven't read the sequels, but they are available at my library and I had #2 checked out, but I have others I want to read first. I'm torn -- I'm not sure I want to know what happens to Sarah and her family. But i loved the book so much, I would like to read more. The reviews on Amazon are all good.