A Flame in the Wind

The heroine of A FLAME IN THE WIND, Rebecca Dalton, endures the jolting stage coach that is taking her into the Outback by thinking about the father she will soon rejoin after a dismal life in Sydney with her not-too-nice mother and her downright nasty aunt. As a tiny child, Rebecca lived with her father at his sheep station (sheep ranch in America), and she can't wait to get home to see the kangaroos hopping across the plains, and to be with the father she didn't want to leave when her mother divorced him. But Rebecca's homecoming is not as joyous as she expects. In fact it's horrible. Her father has been killed in a wagon accident. A young neighbor of his, Cole, comes to meet her coach. Another family friend, G.W. joins Cole to her that a sheep ranch is no place for a woman alone. Her hired man, Ned, suggests she go back to Sidney. He even suggests Cole might not be the nice, helpful neighbor he claims to be. Somehow, Rebecca just can't believe that. She also wants no more to do with her aunt. Then Finley, another rancher, makes it clear he intends to have her place as his own. In response, G. W. makes a suggestion Rebecca doesn't like, but she can't figure out how to tell him. How can she straighten everything out? Whom can she trust to help her? When she finds out, does she want to do it? Author Karen Cogan poses those questions, and eventually their answers, in simple but elegant prose that describes people, feelings, landscapes,time, place, and action vividly. Her writing style makes A FLAME IN THE WIND a page-turner. So does a twist in the plot as Rebecca and her supports meet Finley in a final confrontation. A FLAME IN THE WIND is a nice, nice romance with Christian overtones. But it is never maudlin, preachy or mushy. Add to all of it Karen Cogan's careful research of the Australian Outback and life there in the 1800s, and A FLAME IN THE WIND turns into a nice little fire.