The Heiress and the Woodsman
Suntz sets her romantic adventure in 1837 Ontario, Canada, where a feisty heiress who, faced with a dying father and a blackmailing neighbour who intends to steal their estate, decides to search for her missing brother in the trackless backwoods. She meets a sturdy but poor and prideful pioneer who is aware that a rebellion is brewing and tries to send her home. She refuses. He needs money to free his brother from an indenture, she is utterly ignorant of the backwoods, and winter is coming on. Around them the countryside swarms with militia and rebels preparing for an uprising that makes her quest even more dangerous than her ignorance.
Our woodsman capitulates, and the adventure continues with many twists and turns. The various settings and the atmosphere of danger, both from the realities of pioneering life in remote forest and river-covered lands infested with wild animals, coupled with armed settlers and militia, are well imagined and portrayed, as is the developing relationship between the main character. The main and subplots work well together, there are several surprising plot twists that work, and the story ties up nicely, if somewhat patly, in the denouement.
As an historical novel, it is somewhat light on history and relies on character, atmosphere and the usual dose of feisty young woman feeling unfairly overlooked by men (which they were, of course, but is it historical?). Finally, I wonder about the appropriateness of using American spelling for a novel set in Canada with a totally Canadian plot and characters.
