Destiny's Captive-

Destiny's Captive
Kate Lyon
Leisure, Nov 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9780843962833

The raid at Baldwin Fort, Texas left almost everyone dead in the bloody massacre. The few young survivors were sold to the Comancheros. He adapted to the Indian way of life given the name Chikoba. He married, but soldiers murdered his pregnant wife. Insane with the senseless massacre of his loved ones, Chikoba attacks soldiers whenever he can although he has never assaulted a civilian.

In 1875 the Great Spirit sends Chikoba a vision insisting he goes back to where his journey began. He starts using his birth name of Jeremiah Baldwin for the first time in years and returns as a white man to Baldwin Fort. Wealthy rancher Senor Don Miguel Sanchez owns the land, but no one knows how he bought it or from whom. Someone attacks Jeremiah leaving him dead.

Another survivor of the Baldwin Fort massacre Angelina was raised by Sanchez as his daughter. She suffers from partial amnesia having blocked out the horror of that brutal day. She loves her father, but she hides an injured Jeremiah from his henchmen though she is not sure why. While she help nurses Jeremiah back to health, Angel begins to recall the massacre while her dad’s man Juan Delgado who sold Jeremiah to the Comanchero displays openly he wants her.

This is an exhilarating western Reconstruction Era romance starring two delightful lead protagonists carrying tons of baggage from the same massacre and odious villains. Filled with plenty of action, readers anticipate the showdown between Delgado and Baldwin with a confused Angelina pulled in several directions by the men in her life. Kate Lyon writes an enjoyable Texas historical romance starring a strong cast as the good, the bad, and the ugly converge on a sweet young woman.

Harriet Klausner