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Paint the Wind by Cathy Cash Spellman

Posted: Fri October 3rd, 2008, 5:10 pm
by Misfit
(4.5) The story of one woman and the two brothers who loved her in Colorado's Cloud City. What fun and darn near unputdownable! Paint the Wind begins as ten year old Fancy Deverell's parents are murdered and their Louisiana plantation burned by marauding Yankee soldiers. Loyal slave Atticus saves Fancy from the destruction and with no other family left he takes Fancy along as they head west for a better life. After being on the road for a couple of years they meet up with a motley group of misfits in a circus run by Wes Jarvis and the spooky gypsy Magda. After several years on the road the circus disbands and Fancy and Atticus once again head west, but Atticus's health fails them in the Mosquito Mountains of Colorado and Fancy is left on her own as a deadly snow storm hits and she takes a tumble down a mountain side.....

Meanwhile the story switches to that of brothers Chance and Hart McAllister who leave their Kansas home behind at the death of their parents and head west to Colorado where they meet gunman Ford Jameson and miner Bandana McBain. Bandana takes the boys in as partners digging for silver in the mountains surrounding Oro City (soon to be Leadville when the silver boom hits), and on the way home to their mountain cabin Chance spots a bit of red cloth and a banjo sticking out of the snow and a near-frozen Fancy is rescued in the nick of time. Fancy spends the winter snowbound with the boys and stays the summer working the mine with them, as both brothers fall in love with the beauteous Fancy -- but she can only chose one -- will it be the reckless, gambling, womanizing live on the seat of your pants Chance or the steadfast and faithful Hart?

Desperate not to come between the brothers and longing to establish herself as an actress Fancy leaves the boys and after a wild auction to raise money for her grub stake she heads for New York City. Once there, she struggles to support herself and her daughter, and eventually accepts an offer she can't refuse from ruthless businessman Jason Madigan. Fancy's travels finally bring her back to Leadville and the McAllister brothers, now rich from their silver mine, but she can only marry one of the two brothers and a heart broken Jason begins his plot to bankrupt the man who took Fancy from him.

Well that's about all of the story I'm going to tell, there's a whole lot more to Fancy's tale in this 800 page paperback that kept me reading well into the wee hours. The story of Fancy and the McAllister brothers takes the reader through heartache, treachery, great wealth, financial disaster, and more until it finally culminates in a daring escape from a remote insane asylum in the Rocky Mountains along with a delightful sting to catch the baddies who done Fancy wrong worthy of Newman and Redford.

All in all a near perfect read and a jolly good yarn, my only quibbles are that I did find some of the secondary characters to be a bit stereotyped -- the Madam with the heart of Gold, Ford the gunslinger, Wu the Chinaman, the circus folks -- along with a few bits of language that didn't quite seem to fit the period. If you're willing to set those minor issues aside and want to sit back and lose yourself in the past with a big sprawling epic of soap opera proportions set in the old west, this is one book well worth looking in to. 4.5/5 stars, and a big thanks to EC for recommending this book :)

Posted: Fri October 3rd, 2008, 8:08 pm
by EC2
Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did Misfit. Your review almost makes me want to read it again (already read it twice!). The first time I read it, the bit with Hart and the Native Americans - I think you'll know the one I mean, brought an enormous lump to my throat, and I never cry when I'm reading.

Posted: Fri October 3rd, 2008, 8:11 pm
by LCW
Uh oh! Looks like another one for the TBR pile! :eek:

Posted: Fri October 3rd, 2008, 8:16 pm
by Ariadne
Thanks for the review! I haven't read this one (yet) but it's on the TBR pile now. I read her An Excess of Love a few years back and enjoyed it. It's about two sisters' lives during the Irish struggle for independence.

Posted: Fri October 3rd, 2008, 8:26 pm
by diamondlil
This sounds great! Thanks for posting the review.

Posted: Fri October 3rd, 2008, 8:29 pm
by Misfit
[quote=""EC2""]Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did Misfit. Your review almost makes me want to read it again (already read it twice!). The first time I read it, the bit with Hart and the Native Americans - I think you'll know the one I mean, brought an enormous lump to my throat, and I never cry when I'm reading.[/quote]

EC, I know what you're talking about. The other part that got my bawling was when Dakota went further on her journey then they expected. Wah!

This book was especially fun as I've traveled through both Colorado and Arizona so it was nice to take the journey again through a book. Gotta say though, sleeping in Leadville at over 10,000' was not fun for this sea level girl. :p :)

Uh oh! Looks like another one for the TBR pile!
No lie, it's all EC's fault for upsetting my reading apple cart with this one.
I read her An Excess of Love a few years back and enjoyed it. It's about two sisters' lives during the Irish struggle for independence.
I ordered two others of her books after starting this one. I didn't go for EOL, but got one called So Many Partings that starts in Ireland and ends up in New York. The prices of that one are through the roof at Amazon but I found a perfectly good used hardback at thriftbooks for $.01

Posted: Mon October 20th, 2008, 11:59 pm
by anne whitfield
I haven't read this one, but I did read Excess of Love ages ago and enjoyed it. I'll look out for this one.

Posted: Tue October 21st, 2008, 12:31 am
by LCW
I bought this one last week! One more for the pile thanks to Misfit!! :p :D :) :p

Posted: Tue October 21st, 2008, 1:28 am
by Misfit
Nah, EC takes the blame for that one she started it. Looking forward to your thoughts on it. I've got one of hers that's called a perfect beach read called Playgrounds of the Gods -- one of those remote desert island millionare kind of thing. Will have to get to that soon when I want some brain candy :)

Posted: Tue October 21st, 2008, 5:47 pm
by LCW
K, I'll blame her instead! :D