Stonehaven

Westward #2

by Amanda MacLean

Picking up in the years following Westward, Stonehaven follows Callie St. Clair back to the South where she has returned to reclaim her ancestral home. As she works to win back the plantation, the beautiful and dauntless Callie turns it into a station on the Under-ground Railroad. Covering her actions by playing the role of a Southern belle, Callie risks losing Hawk, the only man she has ever loved. Readers will find themselves drawn into this fast-paced novel of treachery, intrigue, spiritual discovery, and unexpected love.

Genres: Christian, Fiction

303 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1995

About the author

pen name for Diane Noble

Reviews

[Nadine Keels · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as entertainment quality goes, the overall plot and suspense kept me interested through most of this older historical ChristFic novel, Book Two in the Westward series. While I intentionally don't read much fiction with Old American South plantation settings, I read this book because: 1) it's in the middle of a series that doesn't center on plantations in the other books, and 2) I knew ahead of time about Callie's underground plans.

At the same time, even as the read kept me interested, it reinforced to me why it's important to have diverse authors and perspectives in this genre, and also to have historical stories with significant Black characters who aren't enslaved. There's so much more to Black Americans' place in history than slavery, and besides, reading narration that refers to a person as "the slave" multiple times makes me cringe these days. Concerning a particular character at one point in this novel, I thought to myself, "He's a man. The narrator should stick to calling him a man, rather than 'the slave did this, the slave said that.'"

Along that vein, the plot went downhill for me in the last quarter as it followed a certain trend that too many stories do, when the key purpose of characters of color is to help a white protagonist along their journey, sometimes at whatever risk or cost to the characters of color. It seems to me that even this story's tie to the Underground Railroad is ultimately there for Callie's benefit, for the growth and development of her character and her heroism and also to help her on the way to salvation. But when she doesn't need the Railroad's cause anymore as she heads toward her Happily Ever After elsewhere...

Anyhow. I enjoyed the first book in this series, and it's still the third book, Everlasting, that I've really wanted to get to. I didn't finish it when I borrowed it from the library back in the '90s, and for years, I couldn't remember the title, author's name, or what the story was about. But I stumbled upon the book cover online recently and was like, "Wow! I remember that pretty cover art."

So, this historical fiction fan will still be continuing on to that last novel in the series.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update:
I read this several years ago and remember loving it. Now as a seasoned reader with all sorts of genres under my belt, I can only finish this and wish it were as good as I remembered it being. Sadly, the romance fell entirely flat. The story line is straightforward with hardly any twists and yet the pacing unfortunately drags. The climax is my favorite part, and even that was quick and didn't quite hold the emotion it needed.
*END UPDATE



Although it has been a couple of years, I do remember enjoying this book! I liked how it wove various subjects of history, from Native American oppression to the abolitionist movement to (if I'm remembering correctly) Irish immigration

[Jessica Willey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back and forth indecision between Callie & Hawk felt a little redundant & annoying, but overall the book was pretty entertaining.