Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon was published in 2017 by Iron Twine Press. I actually won this book in a giveaway done by Goodreads and I received a signed copy from the author so that is very cool.
“We shall not cease from exploring, And the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” –T. S. Eliot
I had high hopes for this book when I saw it opened with a T.S. Eliot quote. My favorite poem of all time is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” so this is a promising beginning.
Basically, Tom Olsen once went on a camping trip with his grandfather, Bob-Bob, because Bob-Bob had something important to tell him. Sadly, because of a stroke or a heart-attack or some such thing, Bob-Bob died in the woods before he had shown Tom what he had brought him out there for. Tom piled branches on Bob-Bob so that wild animals couldn;t drag him away, stowed his pack, and grabbed some kind of ancient artifact that Bob-Bob had had with him and went for help. Sadly, it was already too late. Now, as Tom Olsen and his friends, Myra and William, are going back up to Bob-Bob’s grave to pay their respects. Before they can leave, however, a girl shows up at Tom’s door claiming to be his granddaughter.
The story started off really well with lots of suspense and interesting characters. However, in my opinion, it hit a snag in the middle with all of the Native American mythology stuff. After only getting to know these characters, it was daunting to be thrown into a whole new cast and I honestly almost gave up reading because it felt like the beginning of an entirely new book, my least favorite part of the book because you have the challenge of becoming attached to these characters before the main plot begins. However, I persevered and by the second time that we are thrown into the Native American mythology part, I had found my footing and I wasn’t thrown off by the scenery change.
There were many tiny things that annoyed me about this book, but I wouldn’t say that any of them actually impaired my enjoyment of the book, it was just a brief flash of anger before being entirely forgotten, at least until I dragged these memories up to write a review about them. The thing that annoyed me the most was the fake “deepness” that the author seemed to be pushing. It’s one thing to say “are they taking Sarah Cooley on this journey, or is she taking them?” on the back of the book, its entirely another to say the same thing during the book itself, especially more than once (twice, actually, by my count). Another small annoyance was the fact that Sergei kept on bringing up his Russianess. It got to the point where it was weird and mildly annoying.
Despite these annoyances, I still did enjoy the book. Be warned though, you do have to put extra work into it because two stories are being told at once and it can get very confusing. It is not just a lazy day book, which is what the cover led me to believe, if you zone out you could miss major stuff. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes American Indian mythology and history, I think they would get the most enjoyment out of this book. Like Leonard says, “it’s a buy.”
Linda Shenton Matchett is an author, speaker, and history geek. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historic places all her life. Linda is a member of ACFW, RWA, and Sisters in Crime. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a trustee for her local public library.
Here is a simple recipe for Ratatouille:
Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her on the web and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.
mpbooks 