Spotlight/Review: Dust Devil by Parris Afton Bonds

By Tara.

*A review copy of this book was received from the author. No financial reimbursement. The thoughts in the review below are honest and unbiased.*

Blurb:

In the fierce and untamed Territory of New Mexico, the most fierce and most untamed made love and history. Those lovers were Rosemary, the willful Irish lass who harbored a forbidden love and claimed the Cambria empire as hers forever…Lario, the handsome Navajo who claimed revenge on Rosemary and then claimed her for his own … Grant, who wielded the Territory’s political power and who would bind Rosemary’s fate with his…Stephanie, beautiful heiress of the Cambria empire, who loved wildly and paid for that love…and lastly, decades later, Chase the Wind, destined to rule the white man’s world and every woman’s heart.

Dust Devil moves through the Navajo’s Long Walk, when the U.S.
government in an attempt at ethnic cleansing herded the Navajo into
New Mexico’s Fort Sumner, to the Death March for a Navajo Code Talker captured by the Japanese on Bataan during World War II. Although the Native Americans gave their lives fighting for our country during World War II, tragically, they were not given the franchise, allowed to vote, until 1948.

Dust Devil can be purchased on Amazon Kindle.

My honest two cents: I had a very hard time with this one. First of all, it's not a fairytale romance, nor is it a "skipping through the flowers and live happily ever after" novel. That's fine. I like real life. I like realism. I get tired of HEAs, but this book has so much ugliness. For me, the ugliness overshadowed the romantic stuff.

The main reason I didn't like it, however, is the heroine. I could not relate to her at all, or sympathize. She made her bed; she had to lie in it. She continuously made decisions that just didn't set well with me. Having an affair, I don't blame her for that. Staying in the rich man's house knowing he's a child molester? Can't fathom it. I realize times were different then and it wasn't like a woman could just walk out and take the child with her, but strong women did exist then and I'd sell my body before raising a child around a man like that. Worse, she abandons the kid to live with her lover.

I bailed a quarter through, but that's just me. I do believe anyone with a strong interest in Native American history and customs, who doesn't have strong feelings toward the topics mentioned above will enjoy it. It does immerse you in another time and place. It is rich in historical detail and it's a real eye opener as far as Native American customs.