The Eagle and the Flame is a romance between Wind Eagle, a brave from the Assiniboine tribe, and Luci Glenforest, daughter of an Army general, who has been brought up to be a skilled sharpshooter.
When Luci’s younger sister Jane becomes pregnant by a deceitful soldier who already has a wife, Luci challenges him to a duel. After she injures the soldier in the duel, as she intended to do, he shoots at her, against the strict rules of dueling. Knowing that they are in great danger, Luci and Jane escape in disguise to New York, where they join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Luci dresses as a young boy, and Jane dons a dark wig to hide her blonde hair.
When Buffalo Bill sees the skill that this young sharpshooter has with a gun, he pairs “him” with Wind Eagle to perform in a daring show of skills between the two. Wind Eagle immediately recognizes that the young man is actually a beautiful young woman, and the attraction begins.
Author Karen Kay has carefully researched the culture of the Assiniboine tribe. She brings Wind Eagle and his friend Iron Wolf to life. I enjoyed her emphasis on the spirituality and traditions of the tribes, and the respect she shows for the culture. It is a thoughtful juxtaposition of the native culture against the white American culture of the 1880s.
The romance between the Luci and Wind Eagle is the heart of the story, and this is what Karen Kay does best. The two are attracted to each other in spite of their different cultures and the secrets that each carries from their pasts. Karen Kay is planning more in this series, and I am eager to find out what happens next to her characters.
(I received this book as an ARC) ( )