It's a Review!
MBR Bookwatch: September 2020
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/sep_20.htm#dianedonovan
Diane Donovan's Bookshelf
Courting Anna: Women of Destiny
Cate Simon
Prairie Rose Publications
www.prairierosepublications.com
9781081299880, $12.00 Paper, $3.99 ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Courting-Anna-Destiny-Cate-Simon-ebook/dp/B07VCL98BD
Courting Anna: Women of Destiny features the educated female lawyer Anna Harrison, who operates in the milieu of 1880s frontier Montana Territory. Her latest case, rejected by the only other lawyer in town, revolves around Jeremiah Brown and Edward Marcus, young men identified as actually being the notorious Tommy Slade and Johnny Nevada - outlaws with a bounty on their heads.
Anna takes their case and discovers that Jeremiah is trying to dodge the law until the statute of limitations on his crimes runs out. She also discovers an unexpected attraction to him that threatens not just her carefully cultivated and rare (for a woman) career, but her efforts on the side of law and justice.
Neither anticipated falling in love - much less with the enemy. But their evolving feelings challenges their roles and trajectories in life, and as Anna and her ward Sarah ride out on a strange adventure, these emotions are deftly portrayed as both external and internal challenges loom: "He could conceal that, however, and appear simply charming and glib, when he wanted. Anna wondered if perhaps that was the real man, and if she'd just been reading more into him than was really there. She wondered, but she kept thinking, despite herself, of moments when his insights, his thoughtfulness, came to the fore."
It's unusual to have a Western story feature a feisty, educated female protagonist with a career of her own and the moxy to confront the male world around her. Cate Simon does a fine job of weaving romance into broader considerations of women's independence, perceptions of changing personalities and perspectives, and courtroom and wilderness dramas alike.
This approach crafts a tale far more detailed than most Western historical stories. While its complexity may stymie readers who anticipated the usual formula production of either the romance or Western genre, it will delight those looking for strong female characters whose determination, observations, and achievements leave room for growth, challenge, and revised trajectories in life.
Anna's courtship isn't just a matter of setting aside her abilities or her goals, but involves becoming more open to new possibilities both within herself, as an accomplished frontier lawyer, and in others, who are working to turn their lives onto different paths.
The underlying story of her relationships and prejudices not just about men and criminals, but her fellow woman, are particularly well-drawn and compelling: "Anna might have passed Nellie dozens of times or even hundreds, but she'd never seen her - all she would have seen is one of those women. And a lady like she was didn't speak to those women. It was the way people looked through her on the street now, and she found herself feeling sympathy for the fallen sisterhood, for the first time. Many a formerly "respectable" woman in her own situation, without the annuity and the property her father had left her, or the too-generous insistence of Jonathan in adhering to the letter of their partnership and continuing to split their fees - now almost exclusively his fees - would have ended up as one of them."
The result is a highly recommended, unusual Western that will reach an audience that usually doesn't turn to or read the genre: women searching for a frontier story of a different nature, where a woman lawyer is charged with cross-examining her own emotions and prejudices.
Diane C. Donovan, Senior Reviewer
Donovan's Literary Services