This book is the fictionalized story of a 17-year-old Cherokee girl and her family on the Trail of Tears, where the "Five Civilized Tribes" were forced to travel a thousand miles, often on foot, to relocate to Indiana Territory away from the white man. While the Trail of Tears event really did happen, that would appear to be the only thing about this book that is based on fact.

Al and Joanna Lacy are prolific writers of historical Christian fiction, and I have read several of their books with pleasure. But I was actually rather disappointed in this particular book. The characters are two-dimensional and, once converted to Christianity, are strong, bold Christians in every interaction. They are not very believable. I feel the Christian speech is very much overdone and actually detracts from the story about the hardships on the trail. The situations are not very realistic, right down to the army lieutenant who is part Cherokee himself. Once that fact is revealed, he seems to suffer no discrimination from his fellow soldiers, even though they take great delight in manhandling the Native Americans. If I had not been doing a review, I would have quit reading long before the end.

I would suggest the audience for this book to be young, teenage girls. A non-Christian reader would definitely be put off by the constant Christian speech. I would not recommend this as a tool to present the Christian message to anyone.

Product review by Nancy Wagner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March 2007