Cherokee America by Margaret Verble

I made the mistake of thinking I could have three different historical fiction books going all at the same time. The issue wasn’t with the amount of books as I almost always have at least two books going at once, a hard copy and one on my phone and only recently have I started listening to audio books, the issue came when I had to try and sort out three different books in three very different eras. There’s one that is centered around the time of our early founding fathers (Late 1770s – 1820s), another jumps back and fourth between present day and France 1940s, then this one which takes place in 1875. They all started to get a little jumbled at different points. So if I keep up with having three books going all at the once, I just need to make sure that they are not all the same genre. That being said, they are three completely different themed books which definitely helped me out.

With the Civil War behind them and the gold rush on everyone’s mind, there is tension all around between family alliances and culture clashes in this predominant Cherokee region. Cherokee America Singer or Check as she is known by, is living in the Cherokee Nation West and trying to keep her head straight with a dying husband and five sons who definitely keep her on her toes. She is the powerhouse of not just her family but of the town as well. Check has always raised her kids to appreciate and honor her husband’s family from the north and her Cherokee family from the south, but the rest of the town was not raised this same way. When a local girl goes missing, they must push these differences aside and work together on finding her before it is too late.

I’m blaming some of this on myself for thinking I could read three historical fiction books at once, but there was just so much going on with this book. So many different characters and storylines and so many characters whose name started with the letter C. I find that it is usually helpful when books do have that front page where they list the characters in the story (looking at you 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) but there was just so many on this list that I remember reading it and thinking what am I getting myself into. Due to this I don’t know if I got the full message of what this book was trying to share unfortunately. It just fell a little short for me. Though I can say I did have google pulled up while I was reading as it offered me plenty of researching material that I do love.

Until Next Time, The Library Abroad