Thieving Forest

Compelling, well researched and written, completely unputdownable. This novel will certainly go on my list of 2014 top reads. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

What a marvellously accomplished and compelling book this is! Meticulously and painstakingly researched, carefully paced, with a cast of realistic and intriguing characters and with a plot that makes the novel a real page-turner, this is one of my reading highlights for this year. It tells the story of five sisters whose parents have died and who are coming to terms with their possible future in Severne, Ohio at the turn of the 19th century. Then one day they are captured in an Indian raid and their lives are changed forever. Susanna manages to hide behind a tree and watches as her sisters are carried off. Without considering the matter too much she sets off to rescue them, but her quest develops in ways she could never have imagined, and the reactions to her efforts by her surviving sisters are not always what she expects.
Martha Conway gives the reader a vivid portrait of life among the different Native American tribes and the relationship between them and the European settlers. Matters are far more complex and nuanced than we might expect. As indeed, is the relationship between the sisters, and Conway confounds our expectations just as she does Susanna’s at every twist and turn.
It’s a riveting story of survival, loyalty, betrayal and self-interest, with a good measure of love thrown in to the mix, all making for a wonderfully engaging and often thought-provoking novel of life in the early days of US expansion into Indian Territory.

Bleak indeed. For anyone who enjoys historical fiction, this novel certainly takes you back. Potawatomi Indians kidnap 17 year old Susanna Quiner's four older sisters as she watches, unseen. All the sisters have been orphaned since the death of their beloved parents from swamp fever, and it is up to her to get them back. Naive with a sense that she is born with good luck, Susana will encounter extreme hardship as she journeys into the harsh pioneer wilderness to rescue them. Along the way she meets interesting characters that feed the reader. Seth Spendlove, half white and half Potawatomi himself is in love with Susanna and discovers hard truths about his own father as he searches for her. He has his own destiny to claim within the story and while he is important, Susanna is vital!
As she conquers the territory and near starvation, she finds her beloved sisters but no one remains the same, and they cannot go back to what was. Each sister meets her own strange fate in this pioneer tale. One sister even find love with a Native American. For Susanna help will arrive in all forms, and the characters are eccentric, which keeps the reader enthralled. Anyone who enjoys tales from pioneer times will eat this novel up. The incredible resilience people of that era had comes to life in Thieving Forest and makes me incredibly glad that I live in pampered times. Seeing Susanna find her own strength, shedding her role as the youngest, is inspiring. The author did a wonderful job of setting the atmosphere for the time period in every action the characters take. Well done!

Thieving Forest is a very compelling story with a strong female protagonist. I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and wanted to know more about Susanna's return home, but overall I really, really enjoyed this novel.

Such a lovely story - having two sisters myself I could totally relate to the intense relationship between all the girls, the need to be together, resentment, fighting but at the end of the day sisters are sisters! The journey that Susanna went on as she went from the youngest spoiled sister to the woman she became at the end was brilliant. Will definitely recommend to my sisters!