Windsong

By Kelly Ferjutz

Book Overview

WINDSONG REVIEWS "An exciting, exquisitelyresearched and sensitively written story of enduring love set in the Great Lakes of the mid-1800s." -Sandra Heath, author and winner of Romantic Times... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1492893390
• ISBN13: 9781492893394
• Release Date: November 2013
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

richly woven tapistry

Windsong by Kelly Furtjetz opens in 1837 in Michigan in the United States. The back-story - Windsong, an Indian maid lives with the husband she was forced to marry, a young heir to the chief ship of a local tribe. He manages to do his husbandly duty before dying of small pox, leaving her alone and with child. Bear Dancer is the father-in-law, and he feels he must find a suitable husband for Windsong and a good father for her baby, Sky Warrior. Since his father died, this mean Sky Warrior will one day be the chief. During the freezing Winter Bear Dancer journey's to Mackinac Island. There, he intends to report the death of his son to the Indian agent. Since the weather is so bitter, he thinks it best to leave Windsong and Sky Warrior on the island while he continues his father hunt. He leaves, promising to come back in the spring with a new husband for her. While staying on Mackinac Island, she meets Etienne Nicholet. Instant attraction flairs between the two. Nicholet is an Indian Scout and he arranges for Windsong and her son to stay at the same home where he rooms. While things heat up between Windsong and Etienne, she knows her father-in-law will never accept this man for her husband. His grandson is to be chief, he needs to learn the ways of their people, and grow up in the traditions of his heritage as ruler of the tribe. She loves Etienne, but to marry him would mean she'd have to give her child to Bear Dancer to raise. Oddly, the same small pox epidemic that killed Windsong's husband, also took many other fine braves, so Bear Dancer is not finding a man suitable to step into the role. Their laws do allow for a form of marriage, saying a man and woman may live together as if they were married for the summer. Come fall they must go their separate ways. Windsong seizes upon this chance to be with Etienne. She hopes when Bear Dancer sees what a wonderful man Etienne is, how he loves her, he will finally give his blessing to their union. Ferjutz is meticulous in her period research, thoroughly weaving a tapestry of the Indian ways and White Man's ways, far beyond other authors of this genre. She paints with vivid colours their beliefs, prejudices and the power of love. The author doesn't give you stereotypes, but richly conceived characters and who come alive in this mesmerizing tale, that neither is preachy nor takes one "side". The chemistry between Etienne and Windsong nearly burns up the pages. I understand this is to be a series of books, and I for one cannot wait for the next one Very highly recommended.

Windsong--the Romance that Teaches History

"Windsong" is a charming historical novel set in the 1800s on Mackinaw Island. The story is a romance between Windsong, a Native American Woman, who was educated with the whites, and Etienne, a wealthy French Canadian "comte" turned trader and adventurer. Windsong's baby boy, Skye, an integral part of the story, draws the couple together and fosters their romance(a lovely touch). Meticulously researched by author Kelly Ferjutz, "Windsong" also is noteworthy for teaching the interplay of the French, English, and Native American cultures at the time and place in which the novel is set. The couple move fluidly between all three cultures, maybe a little too fluidly to be realistic, but this does move the story along and emphasizes both the differences and similarities of all three cultures. The love scenes are torrid; otherwise, I think this book might be approproptiate for not only the adult audience, but also the classroom. Certainly, the book is appropriate for teenagers to read on their own.

A terrific read

Kelly Ferjutz's Windsong is a gripping page-turner, with real sense of pace and strong characterizations. Also impressive is her research: this is a work with a real sense of period and culture clash. She is also excellent with sexual tension. A highly enjoyable read from beginning to end! Alice McVeigh

A compelling and informative historical romance

Despite the fact that romance novels sell big, they are frequently put down as fairy tales of a sort, fluff with not much in the way of redeeming literary value. Gorgeous boy and luscious girl meet, there's instant love and/or lust, but complications keep arising, first on one side, then on the other, until after a few hundred pages, love finally conquers. But judging by Kelly Ferjutz's Windsong, this is an attitude both unfortunate and inaccurate. Windsong is a fantasy, rather than a fairy tale, and like other artistic examples of fantasy, it provides the reader excellent insights into and understanding of particular problematic matters in human society. Windsong takes place in Michigan in 1837. The title character is a beautiful Indian woman who, the year before, had been forced to marry the young chief-to-be of a local tribe, who managed to get her pregnant before he died of smallpox. As the story begins, Bear Dancer, the old chief and Windsong's father-in-law, has set out to find an acceptable new husband who will be a proper father to the two-month-old baby, Sky Warrior, next in line to be chief. But first, Bear Dancer and his entourage of advisors stop on Mackinac Island to report the death of his son to the Indian agent there, and given that it is January and freezing-cold, he leaves Windsong and Sky Warrior on Mackinac until spring, when he will presumably return with the new husband. On Mackinac Island, Windsong meets young Etienne Nicolet, an Indian scout. Their exchange of glances probably melted snowbanks for miles around. Etienne engineers the situation so that Windsong and Sky Warrior get a room at Mrs. Haggerty's home, where he himself just happens to be staying. Under the sympathetic and not-too-watchful eye of Mrs. H, the romance blossoms. Etienne is as taken with Baby Sky as he is with Windsong. But there are problems: Sky's new father must be able to teach the young chief-to-be his Indians ways and heritage, so Bear Dancer will never accept Etienne, a non-Indian, as a worthy husband and father. The second Catch-22 is that if Windsong does marry Etienne without the chief's approval, she must give up Sky to the tribe. Fortunately, there's a temporary solution. Since smallpox has decimated the Indian population, Bear Dancer and his men are not able to find a suitable husband over the winter, and it will be a while before they can. And under Indian custom, any man and woman may live together as husband and wife during the summer, but must then separate at the Green Corn Ceremony in the fall. So, Etienne and Windsong go off with the tribe, she willing at least to have a few more months with Etienne, he determined to convince the chief and the tribe that he can be a proper husband to Windsong and father to Sky. The story is suspenseful, but beyond that, Ferjutz's assiduous research (documented at the end of the book) presents a fascinating account of life in both white and Indian cultures in early nineteenth-centu

A matchless story of love that crosses boundaries...

As an author who appreciates descriptions and the setting-in-its-time aspect of a story, I have nothing but praise for this book. Kelly Ferjutz has such feeling for her characters, and for the historic settings in which they move, that her passion exudes from every page. From the opening scene, where Etienne first sees the beautiful Indian woman, the Windsong of the title, the reader knows that the treat ahead will provoke the imagination to such an extent that everything will be seen as well as felt. The research is awesome, and so accurate as to almost make one wonder if Ms Ferjutz had access to a secret library of detailed journals. For anyone wanting to know what nineteenth-century life was like on Michigan's Mackinac Island, this book is essential reading. For anyone wanting a rattling good historical novel, filled with sensuous love that battles against the odds, this book is essential reading. Read, enjoy, and savor the delights you found between the pages. Then read it all over again. WINDSONG will always be a treat, and will always have new pleasures to impart, no matter how many times you delve into its wonders. There is to be a sequel, called SECRET SHORES, which I know will satisfy readers' craving to know what happened next.