Native American Historical - "Beneath The Shining Mountains" - 5* Reviews

[Linda Acaster]

Five 5* reviews for Beneath The Shining Mountains

"...Winter Man and Moon Hawk are well matched, both proud and brave, and both spar and tease each other in their courtship. Theirs is a testing path to love and an exciting one, full of adventure and incident. The feelings of both young people are sympathetically revealed and realistically shown and I was enthralled throughout..."

[Linda Acaster]

At the weekend I came across photographs showing the family as re-enactors: tipi, fleshing tools, the lot. Oh, the memories. Pity it was a time before I got a digital camera. Perhaps I should get a few reproduction artefacts out of their boxes and photograph them again.

[Linda Acaster]

During the week I was thinking about the repro artefacts we have packed away in boxes, and it brought to mind our trip to London during July. We were in the British Museum - I could spend all day there and only see two galleries - but I managed to pop down to the North American gallery. I was disappointed - too wide a spread of cultures, Mexican to Inuit, in a space that couldn't possibly do any justice.

However, I was shocked to hear a young American woman voicing wonder at the exhibits... "...we have nothing like this..."

Years ago, when I was seriously researching the life and times, I made an appointment to visit the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. I knew from bibliographies that they had all sorts in store, but I didn't know what. At first a bit dubious, the welcoming staff asked what I wanted to see. I shrugged. How about some dresses, some shirts, and I gave them quite a wide period and region. Did they have a few?

I was led along corridors and down stairways into the bowels of the building and, at the foot of a narrow corridor with lighting straight from a Horror novel, the guide gestured to a series of white double doors fading into the gloom. "Where do you want to start?" she asked. I shrugged. "Anywhere you like." So she started at our end and continued up, opening both sides and bringing out a single exhibit, each wrapped in tissue paper.

There were skin dresses from the early 1700s decorated in dyed moosehair, dyed porcupine quills, early pony beads. On and on it went, region by region, time span by time span. I could have cried. They were spectacular, their colours as fresh and glowing as if they'd just been fashioned. "Why isn't all this on display?" The guide shrugged. "Costs too much."

We spent three days in the vaults. I could have spent three weeks, I wouldn't have seen it all.

[Linda Acaster]

Recent review from the Sonyshop (we won't hiss)

"5 star - Great Read!
This book is a little different from Cassie Edwards and Madeline Baker.... It was a great book...If you love Indian novels this is the book to read."

[Linda Acaster]

Be carried on the haunting call, a salute to the first rays of the new sun. Let the whisper of the flute fill your senses, the songs accompanying the laughter of the stick game. Breathe in the scents, of smoldering sweet grass, crushed mint, pine boughs warming in the morning air...

Northern Plains, 1830s - Beneath The Shining Mountains

[Linda Acaster]

Bringing readers both escapism and a darn good story wrapped in a well researched novel of life on the northern plains.

[Linda Acaster]

"Full of adventure and incident." 5 stars

... don't forget the romance...

[Linda Acaster]

An ideal choice to relax with for the Holiday. And only $2.99 it won't break the bank.

[Linda Acaster]

If you are buying a Kindle for a Christmas gift and are looking to load it with a read or two, Beneath The Shining Mountains can be read by young or old, male or female, because it has story. It also sits in the Native American top 20 list.

[Linda Acaster]

Currently rasping at an antler-handled horse quirt! I have a print Western - long out of print - for which I'm trying to get the rights reverted, but the publisher seems to think that some time next century will be soon enough. Why does it take three months to answer a letter? Perhaps I'm just getting tetchy because of the speed of e-publishing.

And it would go so well mirrored alongside Beneath The Shining Mountains. Patience, patience...

[Linda Acaster]

Ah... a week is another world. The rights have been reverted. Just shows what sitting on the phone can achieve.

Beneath The Shining Mountains, not a "Western" but a "Historical" with a thread of romance!

[Linda Acaster]

Curl up with a decent read this festive season, and follow the buffalo across the Plains to the lilting sound of of the flute and the high cry of the eagle.

[Linda Acaster]

The main method of attaining prestige and enhancing one's status among the people was by gaining coups. Most men tried to gain at least one; those with ambition to be leaders needed at least four. One was to enter an enemy encampment and steal a prized horse picketed to a tipi pin. After his altercation with Moon Hawk, Winter Man had sworn to acquire such an animal, but first the raiders had to reach their destination. Omens encountered during the journey counted for much, and everything hinged on the leader's interpretation of them.


The stars were growing bright in the eastern sky when one of the wolves was seen running back towards them. The jocular atmosphere of the little group changed at once. Something was amiss. They were another night’s journey from the area of the Shoshone village sites.
   Hunts The Enemy eased his pace and the others crowded round him. His chest was heaving, but his words were not strained.
‘Bannock,’ he announced. ‘A party of five. They’ve killed themselves a buffalo-cow and are roasting her flesh over a small fire.’ His eyes rested on each man in turn. ‘They are young.’
   Young meant inexperienced. Five. It was a number the eight Apsaroke would willingly take on. The thought passed through every mind.
   ‘They may not be alone,’ Running Fisher said.
   ‘Frost and I have watched them since noon. They played in a creek like women, splashing each other and singing songs. They smoked for a while, and chased buffalo just for the fun of seeing them run before cutting one out and killing it. It needed three arrows to bring it down,’ the wolf snorted contemptuously. ‘None of their number left to tell others of their kill. Frost circled round them, but found no sign of anyone else. They are alone.’
   ‘And asking to die,’ Spider added.
   Hunts The Enemy nodded. ‘They have even let their horses wander.’
   Winter Man didn’t know whether this development was a good thing or not. If they did attack the Bannock, the raid would end. There would be no Shoshone horses, no picketed horse to parade before Moon Hawk. There would, of course, be the chance of a grand coup, the touching of an armed enemy who was trying to kill the coup-taker. The prestige gained through that act was more than through the taking of a picketed horse, but he’d need both to be a Good Man. And what if he wasn’t quick enough? There were eight Apsaroke. Eight men attempting to take the same coup. Even if all of them succeeded, only the first to call the strike would be allowed to drag a wolf’s tail behind his moccasin. If Winter Man wasn’t the first, he’d have nothing.
   He thought of Moon Hawk, of her dark, beguiling eyes gazing at him over the top of the buffalo robe that night she’d come out of the lodge. He thought of the contemptuous look she’d given him when they’d spoken at the root-digging. He, a Good Young Man, and she’d treated him shamefully in front of all those old women. If he didn’t return with a picketed horse as he’d promised, he would forever hear her laughter ringing in his ears.

Thanks for reading this excerpt of Beneath The Shining Mountains, currently riding #16 in the Native American chart.

[Linda Acaster]

I'm from the UK, therefore so my land research for this novel came very much from books ordered, from the University of Oklahoma Press, the University of Nebraska Press and Dover. So it was quite a thrill when a couple of years ago we flew into Denver.

The Comanche National Grasslands was a sight to see: waist-high, green grass surging and eddying in the breeze.  Groups of antelope slid lazy eyes in our direction as we passed at a crawl, but stop the car and they were off before we'd even got the doors open. The reconstructed Bent's Fort was a delight, giving a 3D rendition of everything I'd read. And then we headed north.

It was mid September and, alas, the weather was against us. Horizontal rain I'm used to; snowflakes the size of saucers was a bit beyond my scope and, without either winter tyres or the right clothing, quite terrifying. Thankfully it abated. We made it into Cheyenne and then Laramie. It's odd to see places that hold so much imagery from movies and TV series of my youth. Finally we drove into Nebraska, its short dried grasslands rolling wind-whipped to the horizon, its sky a maelstrom of scudding clouds.
   "There's a place called Pine Bluffs," hubby said as he pored over the road map. "What do you reckon?"
I reckoned I could see it, at least I could see a solitary hill with a few pines sprouting from it. But what would I have thought if I'd been on horseback, wrapped in a slicker or a buffalo robe?

Beneath The Shining Mountains

[Linda Acaster]

Isn't it great when a spectacular review comes in? I love the enthusiasm. Whoever you are AF, thanks a bundle!

"I never write reviews...ever. But I thought I had to on this one. It is such a nice breath of fresh air to read a book that isn't your typical "Native-war-chief-falls-in-love-with-beautiful-white-woman" cliche. Finally, a beautiful love story with a Native man and a Native woman. It's realistic and sensual, without the tacky and over-dramatized unrealistic love scenarios like so many others. Once I got reading I couldn't put the book down. A definate good read and well done. You won't be disappointed."
[AF - Amazon.com]

[Linda Acaster]

"A gem of a story."

"Full of adventure and incident."

"Definitely worth your time."


An Apsaroke village, 1830s. Moon Hawk wishes for her heart's desire, and determines to catch his eye.
She's not the only one.

[Linda Acaster]

This weekend Beneath The Shining Mountains has been jumping around the #20k mark in the paid Kindle chart, which has been quite gratifying. Pity I haven't a sequel or series in the immediate offing. Alas, I'm one of those authors who can only concentrate on one project at a time.

[Linda Acaster]

What does a young man do when your friend from childhood leaves you behind, when everything comes easy to him and not to you, when people sing songs in his honour and you are ignored? When the woman you crave looks not at you, but at him... and he doesn't even want her?

[Linda Acaster]

Striking the village, families transporting their possessions on travois, the men singing society songs, the new brides riding together showing off their bright elk-tooth dresses...

Romance with a capital R
Danger with a capital D

[Linda Acaster]

Part of an Amazon review:

"...This story is a bit of a novelty for two reasons: It was written by a Brit, and it doesn't feature a single White Man in it. There's a mention of the 'hairy-faced men from the North', traders, no doubt, but that is all, and that's refreshing..."

[Linda Acaster]

Got another 5* review this week, from another AmazonUS reader...

"I loved this book. Although this was a romance, this book gave the reader insight into the daily lives of Native Americans particularly that of women."

I like the wording of the Although this was a romance...

Mmm. So a romance isn't supposed to be serious and insightful? Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

[Linda Acaster]

Pick up your pad saddle and travois and head out into the tall prairie grasslands of Apsaroke country where the weather is fair and the streams run clear.

[Linda Acaster]

A Native American historical romance with "endearing characters and a strong storyline" - and seven straight 5* reviews on Amazon.com alone.

[Linda Acaster]

Currently #15 in the Native American charts.

Perhaps try the opening, c/o Kindleboards http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B003VTZZNO or a pdf from http://www.lindaacaster.com

[glennlangohr]

Glad to see you get the rights to your books. I love the blurb, thanks for showing us.