A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere

We meet Briar Logan, aka Mika, the protagonist of Kris Radish's A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere (Amazon Sept. 2017) as she peers out the window of a dark room, watching her husband dragged down the street by armed ruffians. The story is told in present tense so we don't know if she's happy or sad about these circumstances, whether she's a victim in hiding or a savior preparing to ride in on a white horse. We do know she's come to this 1860's western town for a reason important to her but now saving her husband will have to go first. She is a self-described 'dangerous woman' and as she prepares for battle, collecting a wide variety of deadly weapons, mentally shifting from ranch wife to remoreless killer, we see why. Radish builds the drama relentlessly and effectively by describing Briar first as a victimized child in a hellhole of an orphanage, then as the willing student to the loving Ute couple who teach her to survive anything, and finally as the mature adult who allows herself to believe in love only to have it dashed.

"... she has been determined to treat him, and all the animals on the ranch, with a kindness she has come to realize is deserved by every living creature."

It's a character driven story filled with introspection and emotion and unlike any other western you've read. I have to admit I fell in love with the book in the first ten pages and was hooked when Briar took time from preparing to save her husband to promise an abused dog that she would free it once she finished this rescue task (no spoilers--you'll have to read the book to see if she followed through):

"Briar’s husband has told her animals smile, and she sees the dog smile, its lips moving just a tiny bit, the second it smells the bread, and in spite of her present condition and what awaits her, she wants to laugh again. “There,” she says one more time, quietly. “Have the bread, and I promise we’ll come back to save you.”
Overall, a worthy read, one that will entrance you with its emotion and feeling.

--will appear on my blog, WordDreams, Oct. 15

Set in 1860s Colorado, A Dangerous Woman From Nowhere’s intriguing opening sees Briar witness her husband’s kidnap by a group of men. It seems Briar and her husband, Porter Logan, have been expecting this eventuality and have done all they can to avoid it and the disruption it will bring to the hard-won peace of their life together. Logan has knowledge and skill that is of value and his kidnappers have riches in their sights and won’t stop at anything to possess it.

Providing hints of just why she is the self-styled ‘dangerous woman from nowhere’, Briar sets out to rescue Logan, armed with an impressive array of weaponry, dogged determination and the survival skills taught her by the people who took her in as a child.

‘Briar didn’t know it then, but she was headed to a place where she would learn to shoot to kill, throw a knife so expertly she could slice a dried apple in half at sixty paces, ride a horse as if they were one, and where she also learned lessons of survival and life...’

Consciously throwing off the woman she has become, Briar channels the inner spirit she calls Mika, identified with the characteristics of the raccoon – intelligent and who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
As Briar sets out on her journey, we gradually learn more about her traumatic childhood, the emotional scars those experiences have caused and the role of Porter Logan in helping her heal to the extent she has. We also see just what a resourceful, fiercely independent and determined person she has become.

‘Her life had been and would always be about survival, and Briar knew she wanted to live, to experience the world Logan had opened up to her, to try to understand the ways of the heart more than she ever had in the past.’

Briar is just one of the powerful female characters who are the driving spirits of this book. There’s Laurie Eberhardt, an example of the strong pioneer women who matched their menfolk in battling the elements to grind out a living on the ranches of the period. And there’s Grace Perry, horse-breaker and crack shot, another loner who’s had to live by her wits to make her way in the world without the succour of home and family but who cannot resist the instinct to help Briar in her quest.

“You need me, Briar. It is impossible for me not to help. It is especially impossible for me not to help another woman.”

All three of them have experienced hardship, cruelty and loss in their lives but survived through a combination of grit, determination and by acquiring the skills necessary to defend themselves as women alone in a brutal, often lawless environment. And there’s Jack, a young man with his own traumatic history who has had to learn to survive on his own from early childhood and is seeking redemption for perceived past failures to act. Together, Briar, Grace and Jack embark on the dangerous journey to rescue Logan, each contributing their various skills and becoming in their own way a sort of family. As Jack reflects, “There are different ways to find a home and many people who might be called family”.

There is danger along the way despite the deceptive beauty of the landscape: ‘The sprinkling of red, gold, yellow, and orange leaves is slowly creeping higher each day, as if someone were moving from ridge to the next with a box of paints.’

A Dangerous Woman From Nowhere is an exhilarating combination of Wild West adventure story, moving love story, powerful evocation of the wild landscape of North America and celebration of female power and solidarity.

This book would have been complete perfection for me but for the epilogue. Suddenly the gritty, authentic feel the author had created throughout the rest of the novel seemed to give way to something out of ‘The Waltons’. I didn’t want to know all this stuff, I wanted to be left to imagine it for myself or read about it in a sequel. If I could presume to give the author advice, I would say dump the epilogue; the book finishes quite perfectly without it. For this reason, I rate it 4.5 stars.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, SparkPress, in return for an honest review.

A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere is one of the most unique stories I've read in a very long time. I don't know if I've ever read a wild west style novel that had female protagonists that weren't portrayed as bodice ripper romance novel with "heaving breasts." I definitely enjoyed reading about strong women who did whatever they had to in order to have what they wanted in life. I wish the author had gone a bit more into detail about the events leading up to what made Briar into the isolated, independent woman that she became. We get some details about an orphanage and some vague descriptions of abuse she suffers at their hands before she's saved by an Ute Indian and his wife, but not enough to really explain why she's so withdrawn and wants nothing from life but peace and solitude. This didn't detract from the story at all though. The characters were well thought out, the plot line flowed well, and it was an enjoyable read.

A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere by Kris Radish is one of those hard to put down books. So hard to put down that I am writing this review after only getting four hours of sleep. A definite five stars, recommend to everyone book.

Kris Radish is a storyteller and I love all her books, so I guess it is not surprising that I liked A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere. What is surprising is the theme. Unless I've missed one or two of Kris' books, this is a departure from her usual books. In a way the book reminded me of several of Sandra Dallas' books, another can't miss author.

Brair is a damaged woman. On her own, at a very young age, after escaping a very abusive environment, she's found half starved, in a cave, by Joseph and Nora. They take Brair in and teach her how to survive and what it is to be loved. Joseph sends Brair to take care of Logan's ranch in his absence and when he returns they fall in love and run the ranch together.

One day while Brair is in town, the owners of a gold mine kidnap Logan and Brair vows to get Logan back. The book follows the Brair's journey to the mountains and into the mines and the people she meets who help her and those who are against her.

I cannot recommend this book more.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Excellent characterisation and Briar was an amazing lead character. The setting in Colorado was very authentic, as it should be in a Western. The book is about love, trust, courage and friendship. Fans of women's fiction will enjoy this book. Many thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Kris Radish, and SparkPress in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This historical novel, covering the years of the 'gold rush' in Colorado and then California, is filled with characters easy to understand, easy to care for. Kris Radish is an author I hadn't read before - thank you Netgalley for this exposure to a writer I will follow. You will love these protagonists - Briar (Mika) and young Jack, both raised and abused in a Colorado orphanage, and Percy, a woman who couldn't fit into the cookie cutter mold of nineteenth century womanhood. Logan is also a good guy, but we don't see much of him - just enough to understand why Briar will follow him anywhere. I look forward to reading many more of the works of Ms. Radish.

Kris Radish's work always incorporates strong female characters. Pushed to their limits, they prove their worth in the face of extreme adversity. Every woman in the story has an important role in the survival of each other and Briar and Percy are no exceptions to this premise. I have liked her writing since the first book I read, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows. It's hard to believe that Kris is terrified of horses since Briar has a special relationship with her horse, Willow. This is a story of survival and love. Escapism at its best.