"Garret Daines calls the wild and resilient Mad Mag of the mountains “My saving Grace”. She has always thought of him as her fair-haired Viking to be admired from afar. Theirs is a compelling story that surrounds the reader with a flood of emotions.In the blink of an eye thirteen-year-old, Margaret Grace’s (Maggie’s) life is changed from being the much-loved, pampered daughter of a wealthy father to being a person on the run to save her life. With harsh lessons learned from Ira, a reclusive trapper, Maggie survives and becomes Mad Mag dressed in a stinky bearskin coat, hat pulled low over bushy black hair and a hostile attitude that sends most people scurrying away from her.
When she pulls the unconscious and wounded Garret Daines out from under a snowdrift, her world changes. Reluctantly, she hauls him and his dog Boots to her secret home in the mountains, knowing she is going against Ira’s teachings and making herself vulnerable.
Stacey Kayne creates a riveting story with descriptions that make the reader shiver in the snow, shudder at the sadistic cruelty, and sizzle with the love scenes.
Ira, the trapper that appears only once in the story is a major influence in the action. He taught Maggie to depend on no one but herself and to keep moving because she is a target standing still. The antagonist, Nathan Strafford, whose “death would have been a favor to gentle society” in Maggie’s opinion, is the epitome of a deranged person ruled by insatiable greed. Many other characters embody the best and the worst characteristics of humanity as they influence the lives of both Maggie and Garret.
Mountain Wild bustles with happenings we expect in a historical western but it also has startling twists that make the reader catch her breath and rush along reading to get Maggie and Garret out of precarious situations.
Stacey Kayne touches the senses and satisfies the heart with her poignant style and captivating characters. Recommended!"
Reviewed by Camellia
