A Light in the Wilderness Review and Giveaway info!!!!!

A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick

Book Description:

Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read--as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him.

Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply in love with her husband that she knows she will follow him anywhere--even when the trek exacts a terrible cost.

Betsy is a Kalapuya Indian, the last remnant of a once proud tribe in the Willamette Valley in Oregon territory. She spends her time trying to impart the wisdom and ways of her people to her grandson. But she will soon have another person to care for.

As season turns to season, suspicion turns to friendship, and fear turns to courage, three spirited women will discover what it means to be truly free in a land that makes promises it cannot fulfill. This multilayered story from bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick will grip readers' hearts and minds as they travel with Letitia on the dusty and dangerous Oregon trail into the boundless American West.

My Opinion:
This is a very interesting read! :)  I really enjoyed most of it, but it is also a very deep read.  Jane takes you on a roller coaster of emotions as you read how these women were treated in this day and age.  I don't think the book description really goes with what's actually in the book.  I expected to have three full stories for each woman, but instead Leticia is really who this book is about and the other two women's stories are in pieces, and are shown with how they will or have touched Tish's life.  Anger to joy, sadness and heart ache to love and excitement this book takes you through them all!  Jane Kirkpatrick always has the ability to suck me into her stories!  The history in this book is fantastically displayed and I always LOVE that Jane goes into what is fact and what is speculation on her part in her Author's Note.  I always finding it so interesting what she just thinks may have happened and what actually did happen in history.  Some of these things are so sadly realistic it made my blood boil with the way people treated other people.  Overall this is a fantastic story of Faith and strength and I truly loved following and seeing how Leticia's Faith grows throughout.  I really wanted more of Nancy's story though.  It kind of felt like it jumped around too much for me, and there are things that seemed rushed that I didn't care for.  Especially since I came to really like these characters.  I understand why historically these things happened quickly, but I wish I had "been" there through more of her decisions and the circumstances that brought them about.  I don't want to give anything away so I'm trying to be vague! LOL! :)  I really enjoyed the addition of Betsy and her grandson.  The  Kalapuya tribe is one that I can't remember ever hearing about nor learning anything about so I really loved everything I learned about this people.  So in the end I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to someone who i looking for a Faith filled, history based, deep story with fantastic characters and a wonderful ending.

Songs that fit or mentioned in the book: 
"Walk By Faith" by Jeremy Camp, 
"Turkey In The Straw (Instrumental)" by Mike Scott, 
"I Got a Right to the Tree of Life" by The Starlight Gospel Singers, 
and 
"I Want Jesus to Walk With Me" by Dorothy Melton 
I wanted to put "My Country Tis of Thee" but I want a version that has all the verse especially the final lines that say: 
"Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing,
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom's holy light,
Protect us by thy mightGreat God, our King."  But since I'm unsure if any of the versions I can link to are the full versions so I didn't add it.  If any of you know that a version has the whole song especially this final part from amazon.com please let me know! :)

 Songs etc. May be changed and/or added in the future. ~ASC

Matthew 10:31, Psalm 140:1-4 

~ASC

P.S. There is a giveaway for A Light in the Wilderness on Goodreads.com if you want to enter CLICK HERE

*I requested and received this book from Revell for the purpose of reviewing it.  This in no way affected my opinion and the above are my true thoughts and feelings about A Light in the Wilderness. ~ASC