Sad to see the series end

Mercy Flanagan was just a child when she and her sisters headed west after their parent's deaths to join an uncle and make a new life.  Mercy was the youngest of the three but old enough to remember well the terrifying Indian massacre that killed the Whittmans, and her friends.  Her sisters are settled with husbands and children but Mercy has wanted to teach and opportunity comes when  family friends, Isaac and Eletta Browning,  write asking if Mercy can come deeper into Indian territory to help with a difficult pregnancy.

Mercy feels that God is directing her to help so packs her trunk and agrees to teach the native people in town and take care of the Browning household including the Browning's daughter, Faith.  Also living close by is Isaac's brother, Adam, who teaches some of the older male Indians and ministers to the natives.  Adam appears warm and kind to everyone but Mercy and she has trouble understanding why he seems to avoid her.

Settlers in the area want the land and all the riches it holds.   They want the Indians gone, one way or another.  The government is even paying soldiers to rid the land of the Natives.  With those tensions increasing, Mercy and Adam are going to need to figure out a way to work together to get through it....if they survive.

While a reader can probably read this third book in the "Heart of the Frontier" series as a standalone, I certainly wouldn't recommend it.  Peterson does an excellent job filling in or reminding the reader of what happened in the first two installments but you don't want to miss out on the stories of Mercy's sisters, Grace and Hope.  Peterson has written about the immoral treatment of Indians as few have attempted to do and her ability to tell a gripping story shines in this series.  I guess I have stuck my head in the sand where the Indian's treatment is concerned so I appreciate Peterson sharing how cruel and greedy the white men were in the quest to settle the west.  I very much enjoyed this entire series and highly recommend it to any historical fiction reader. 

I did receive this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and was in no way obligated to write a positive one.