Elspeth (Bethie) is a recently widowed and hugely pregnant young woman left alone in the wilderness of the Ohio valley when her older husband dies. She knows she cannot go back to civilization until after her baby is born. Nicholas has been living in the wild for six years after his torture at the hands of the Wyandot Indians. He severely injures himself and finds Bethie's homestead in the woods. He demands she help him and then passes out at her doorstep. Bethie stitches him up and nurses him back to health. Nicholas repays her while he heals by protecting her, helping with the homestead, and delivering her baby. The love that develops between them is sweetly erotic with lots of sexual tension.

Bethie is haunted by her abuse at the hands of her step-brother and step-father. Nicholas is haunted by his abuse and torture at the hands of the Wyandots. Both of them must overcome their fears and learn to trust the other. Bethie is a strong, wonderful heroine. But Nicholas is a hero to die for. When he thinks that her dead husband had abused her, he wanted to dig up his bones and kick them around. Right there he completely won my heart. There is lots of action based on true events which I found fascinating since I'm a bit of a history buff. But the action takes second place to this wonderful story of healing love. Nicholas' final speech to Bethie is heart stopping and will make you sigh in contentment. (Grade: A) ( )

While the hero and heroine were well drawn, I found the plot to follow almost exactly - in basic structure - the first Pamela Clare book I had read, Surrender. Frontier savvy hero rescues abandoned heroine who is unable or unwilling to return to civilization due to evil relatives and a painful past, hero takes heroine to some Soldier Fort, heroine is attacked and nearly raped, hero must negotiate with local native Americans for incompetent, xenophobic military leaders while heroine make herself useful nursing wounded soldiers, hero and heroine confront evil relatives who hero easily defeats, happy ever after ensues. I didn't even bother to read the last couple of chapters because I had a definite case of been-there done-that.

I want to read other Clare books, but I think I need a bit of a break if they all follow this same mold. ( )

Set in the American frontier during the French and Indian war, the hero, Nicholas Kenleigh, lives in the wild after escaping the savage Wynadot tribe who held him captive for years.

Years later, after being wounded by a bunch of marauding trappers, Nicholas comes across our spunky heroine, Elspeth Stewart, and basically forces her to take him in.

Left alone and heavily pregnant after her husband died months before, Bethie doesn't want to trust the mysterious man who showed up at her door, but Christian charity demands she assist him. It doesn't take them long to let down their guards a bit and soon they come to an uneasy truce and in doing so they discover an attraction that will outweigh the scars from both their pasts.

Their story takes them across the miles from the Ohio territory to practically my back door in eastern Pennsylvania. The author moves them so effortlessly, nothing feels forced though tragedy strikes often.

Though it does bring to mind the movie The Last of the Mohicans (Danial Day Lewis version)- I had to set that aside to really get into the book- it doesn't follow the tale as closely as Donati's series does and is very much it's own entity. I found trying to compare the two distracting.

Once I set that aside I found I loved both the heroine and the hero. Both had fire and spirit as well as great capacity for kindness and a deep, happily ever after kinda love!

Loved the setting too- did I already mention that? How could I not when she actually got right much of the history I'm familiar with. Fictional interlaced with Non-fictional- very cool.

By the way, Ride The Fire is also a hot little number! ( )