Patricia Ann Kuess

Sweetgrass Patricia Ann Kuess

It is late Spring, 1864. Paramours Johnathan Traver and Esher Coley, and Gladys, the mother Esher adopted on the abortive wagon train they all endured, are traveling the Prairie searching for the land Esher sees in his dreams, or "feels" in his bones.




Suddenly-- gunshots!




Their days will never be the same again. For those gunshots are how they meet Bethany and her two small children. Now they are five people searching for a home, and ultimately a family.




Except for Johnathan. He was not cooperating. It was never his dream to farm, much less live with so many people. He accepted Gladys, a mother for the long-orphaned Esher, that was okay, and he was prepared for children to adopt because he knew that Esher wanted children, but Bethany? She was a threat he never envisioned.




He was ready to fight for his dream. He fought and survived an abusive boyhood, he fought and survived a grisly war, he would fight and survive this: he would make his dream count.




But Bethany was a fighter too. She also survived an abusive girlhood, and was as fearless as Johnathan in meeting life head on, come what may.




The SWEETGRASS series is essentially a family-making story, but how can a family be in the making with these two in it?




The other characters do not take a backseat in this dilemma. Even the little children contribute to ameliorate the struggle between their mother and their new Uncle John. But in the end, it is Johnathan and Bethany who must decide between keeping a tight hold on their childhood wounds, or dare to burst free and start over.