The Accidental Guardian (High Sierra Sweethearts, #1)

by Mary Connealy

[phyllish]

The Accidental Guardian by Mary Connealy

My rating is 4.5 Stars


Giving enough details to expose the evil nature of the men who attacked the wagon trains, the women’s escape and then the pursuit of the outlaws, yet not so many as to give me nightmares, author Mary Connealy weaves a riveting Western adventure in The Accidental Guardian.

Trace is a fascinating character. Orphaned as a young teen in the massacre of a wagon train, he had to learn how to survive in the wilderness alone. He rescued a colt from wolves and adopted an orphaned half-dog, half-wolf shortly after he himself was left alone in the wilderness. The way he taught himself to do some things was slightly surreal but described so it did not seem unrealistic. He ended up having skills mostly attributed to Native Americans.

He knew that his anger towards those who had killed his father and his desire for justice was wrong and he struggled with a terrible image of himself because of it. He knew that “vengeance is mine, says the Lord”, but his flesh cried out to right the wrongs that had been done.

Wolf was probably my favorite character. He hardly tame, or so Trace thought. Then Deb, Gwen and the children showed up and all of a sudden, Wolf was docile and protective of them. In some ways, he was the real hero of the story, but you’ll have to read the book to find out why I say that.

This appears to be a series in which each book tells a complete story, yet leaves hints of future stories to be told of secondary characters. I have a hunch that the next book will be about Gwen and . . .


This review was originally posted on Among the Reads

You can read a brief exerpt at AmongTheReads.net


I would like to thank Celebrate Lit, Netgalley for giving me this copy of The Accidental Guardian. This gift did not influence my opinion or review.