The Unplowed Sky
A Novel
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An orphaned young woman finds hardship and romance on the Kansas prairie in this "enjoyable" historical novel by the New York Times–bestselling author (Library Journal).
It is 1924 and nineteen-year-old Hallie Meredith and her five-year-old brother Jackie must fend for themselves in America's struggling heartland. Forced to leave a housekeeping job when her married employer, wealthy landowner Quentin Raford, makes romantic overtures, Hallie becomes the cook for a threshing outfit.
As she and Jackie travel from farm to farm across western Kansas, they become valued members of Garth and Rory MacLeod's ragtag crew, which includes a Cherokee, a fugitive bootlegger, and a Mennonite who has been jailed for his stand against fighting. Hallie has finally found the home she desired, but her growing feelings for Garth threaten to set brother against brother at the worst possible moment—when the dangerous and powerful Quentin is ready to take vengeance for his wounded pride.
A moving story of integrity, courage, love, and adventure on the Great Plains, The Unplowed Sky captures the beauty and the resilience of the American spirit that prevails against those who would destroy it and confirms author Jeanne Williams's reputation as "a master novelist" (TheDenver Post).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Williams (Daughter of the Storm) should widen her audience with her latest western romance, which boasts a realistic plot, sound characterization and effective use of historical detail. The Midwest wheat fields that cover the no longer unbounded prairie of the early part of the century are the backdrop for this tale of 19-year-old Hallie Meredith and her five-year-old half-brother Jackie, as she seeks work and shelter after being propositioned by her slimy employer. The siblings are haunted by experiences of abandonment: Hallie was bereft when her widowed father married a second wife, Felicity, and his death was the final blow. Felicity now has left Jackie with Hallie so she can remarry. A brighter future beckons when threshers Garth and Rory MacLeod hire Hallie as cookhouse help. But a crippling accident, dirty politics, complex rivalries and other circumstances threaten the threshing business as well as Garth and Hallie's budding love. Though hampered by an abrupt ending, this story of the simple pleasures and harsh realities of farm life is raised above formula by its winning depiction of a more innocent time.
