The second book is a continuation of the story of Gray Eagle and Alisha Williams, and a very compelling one at that. However it is riddled with problems, as is the first one. Cliches abound, stunted, elementary dialogue, and continuous continuity errors, ie: in the first book, the raid on the fort takes place 28 days after Alisha's recapture. At the beginning of the second book, it is 18 days. Three moons till the joining, then one, then two. Punctuation in mid-sentence is distracting. The continual angst is no doubt an early '80s requirement, but, OMG, it reads annoyingly. He loves me, he loves me not. He wants me, he wants to kill me.I don't understanding why, knowing the language barrier is the cause of many problems and Gray Eagle understands English, the Indian doesn't ever come out and tell Alisha he understands, which only feeds her paranoia.
Improbable phrases for the time period - "No more freezing up," "Leaving her hanging." "Has me plenty worried." "Never stood a chance with him." "Played into his hands." "How much information did he spill to him?" "...remained glued to the spot." "Of of the blue." "Come to grips." "What was she trying to pull off?"
Alisha continually vacillating between loving Gray Eagle and hating him; between suspecting him of loving her to him wanting to kill her. That gets old fast and it's rife throughout this volume.
She took her forced exodus to the camp of Brave Bear much too easily for my liking and she fell in love with him instantly, AND she walked away from him as easily.
This STORY makes me want to read on, not the writing, as there were many things that bothered me. The omniscient POV gives too much away before it should.
Gray Eagle overhears EVERYTHING!!
Problems aside, the story keeps me reading. The four stars are for that reason. On to Forbidden Ecstasy.
