The Crimson Path of Honor

The Crimson Path of Honor by M.B. Tosi follows the story of Luci Towers, a young, privileged Luci Towers who is on a mission to avoid a loveless arranged marriage that would leave her trapped in society. To escape her fate, Luci packs her bags and heads west to teach on the new frontier . . . only to be promptly captured as the lone survivor of her wagon train by a Native raiding party.
Now faced with a new people, new culture, and new life Luci- renamed Morning Star, must find a way to adapt to a foreign land while trying to understand the confusion of her new chief Golden Eagle.


I wanted to like this book. I've racked my brain thinking about this since I finished Tosi's book a few weeks ago and the premise was solid. I love historical pieces. I love strong female characters and the way that Luci/Morning Star wrestles with her faith and her heart in the midst of trying circumstances was refreshing in the honesty it portrayed rather than the clean cut version that can be so evident in Christian literature.

However, the cons sadly outweighed the pros for me in this novel. While the book opened with a preface regarding history and sensitivity certain facts were omitted to make the novel work with Luci initial overwhelming (Scalping for example was adopted from white settlers). There were also instances throughout the book where frustration and language differences were either ignored or poorly represented leaving the village looking less intelligent and more "savage" so to speak than the educated Luci. These passages just didn't seem to sit right, even after rereading them.

Finally, despite the honesty of Luci's struggle, the ending fell into a very neat pattern that left it feeling a little too formula driven for me. The last chapters were quite predictable and felt more rushed and cheapened given the pacing and wrestling of the rest of the novel - more like an afterthought than a well structured conclusion.

Overall, I give this book 2 stars out of 5.


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