GRR Reviews WILDERNESS TRAIL OF LOVE by Dorothy Wiley

Wilderness Trail of Love is a married couple's adventure on the frontier when an encounter with a slave trader and the wife's almost kidnapping that prompted the husband to up stakes and to move West to Kentucky. It's mainly adventure, not romance, with more than a few bodies dropping dead. The frontier living is hard, but this couple can take the hardships and grow stronger.

WARNING: This book contains scenes of violence against women including kidnapping, reader discretion is advised.

It is the year 1797. Stephen Wyllie has a beautiful wife Jane, and four daughters, one merely an infant. He is getting by in the outskirts of East Coast, but he yearned for new opportunities and possibilities out in the West, like the grasslands of Kentucky, with a herd of his own. Jane did not want to leave, but when a nefarious slaver almost kidnapped Jane and her oldest daughter, Stephen moved up the timetable and asked his two brothers and a godbrother to leave together (a third brother chose to stay behind with his family). On the way, they find new adventures... and old enemies; new dangers emerged, and old wounds reopened; new friends gained, old nemesis returned. When tragedies struck, Jane and Stephen were forced to re-examine their priorities and the family must unite to stand against a common foe.

The slaver proved to have several lives and Jane would prove to be the catalyst for a final showdown. As an adventure, this book is quite good, as one event flowed naturally into the other, though "the bad guy got away" seems to be more of a trope, as is the kidnappings (yes, more than one). It's a good yarn.

Category: Historical Romance

Primary Plot: Couple seeking a new life on the frontier must battle a slaver who wanted the wife as well as other dangers

Tropes: road trip, kidnapping

Overall Rating:  4/5