Linda Clare's A Sky Without Stars ~ Reviewed

A SKY WITHOUT STARS
Linda S. Clare
Series: Quilts of Love (Book 15)
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Abingdon Press (February 18, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1426752792

Description: 

Frankie Chasing Bear is caught between cultures. She wants to raise her son Harold to revere his Lakota heritage, but she also thinks he will need to learn the white man’s ways to succeed. After the untimely death of her husband, Frankie joins the U.S. Government’s Relocation Program and moves to Arizona. There she begins sewing a Lakota Star pattern quilt for Harold with tribal wisdom sung, sewn, and prayed into it. 

A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars, but neither the quilt—nor her new life—comes easily to Frankie. Nick Vandergriff, for instance, is the last man Frankie wants to trust. He’s half-Lakota but Christian, and Frankie can see no good coming from that faith after her own parents were forced to convert at an Indian school. Can Nick convince Frankie that white men and Christians aren’t all bad? And will Frankie learn that love is the most important ingredient—for her son’s quilt and life itself?

Review:

A Sky Without Stars follows Frankie Chasing Bear, a young Lakota woman who lives in Arizona in the early 1950’s.  She is trying to figure out what to do with her life.  She struggles to hold on to her Native American heritage while being forced into a white man’s culture and world.  To make matter more difficult, she is a widow with a young son, Harold, who can’t seem to find his identity either.  When Frankie meets Nick Parker, who is not only half white and half Lakota, but a Christian as well, she finds herself in even more conflict.  She has a hard time trusting men due to things she’s experienced in her past, however, she begins to see things in Nick that she admires.  


I really had a hard time getting into this story.  I can’t put my finger on why, but it didn’t really hold my interest.  The story talked about some of the characters being Christians but never really got into the gospel.  I know not every book is going to have a gospel presentation, but I really felt it lacking in this one.  


Reviewed by: Sarah Meyers