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Wild #6
Wild Abandon
Never let go, never give up . . .
The tragedy of the Civil War had forced Lauralee Johnston into an orphanage, and years passed before she was finally reunited with her beloved father and heard his dying wish. But for sheltered Lauralee, placing her trust in a Cherokee brave was almost too much to ask. Unfamiliar with Cherokee customs and especially Joe Dancing Cloud’s powerful, exotic presence, she gradually learned to trust in his gentle strength, especially when it came to exploring the passion they shared. But once they claimed each other’s hearts, the world around them denounced their love. Against fear and prejudice, the two lovers will have to fight for their destiny . . .
Praise for Cassie Edwards
“A sensitive storyteller who always touches readers’ hearts.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Cassie Edwards captivates with white hot adventure and romance.”
—Karen Harper
“Edwards moves readers with love and compassion.”
—Bell, Book & Candle
The tragedy of the Civil War had forced Lauralee Johnston into an orphanage, and years passed before she was finally reunited with her beloved father and heard his dying wish. But for sheltered Lauralee, placing her trust in a Cherokee brave was almost too much to ask. Unfamiliar with Cherokee customs and especially Joe Dancing Cloud’s powerful, exotic presence, she gradually learned to trust in his gentle strength, especially when it came to exploring the passion they shared. But once they claimed each other’s hearts, the world around them denounced their love. Against fear and prejudice, the two lovers will have to fight for their destiny . . .
Praise for Cassie Edwards
“A sensitive storyteller who always touches readers’ hearts.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Cassie Edwards captivates with white hot adventure and romance.”
—Karen Harper
“Edwards moves readers with love and compassion.”
—Bell, Book & Candle
401 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1994
37 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Cassie Edwards
163 books419 followersEdwards began writing romances in 1982 and released her 100th novel, Savage Skies, on August 28, 2007. Although her earlier books were classic historical romances, the vast majority of her novels involve Native American tribes. Edwards's grandmother was a full-blooded Cheyenne. Her first 99 books sold a combined 10 million copies as of August 2007, with her more recent novels averaging sales of 250,000–350,000 copies.
Edwards has won the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, as well as being named one of Affaire de Coeur's top ten favorite romance writers. Edwards has a reputation for meticulously researching the proper anthropological backgrounds of each tribe she writes about.
Edwards and her husband Charles, a retired high school biology teacher, have been married for over 50 years. They have two sons, Charles and Brian, and three grandchildren. The family lived in St. Louis, Missouri for over thirty years, but now reside in Mattoon, Illinois.
Edwards has won the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, as well as being named one of Affaire de Coeur's top ten favorite romance writers. Edwards has a reputation for meticulously researching the proper anthropological backgrounds of each tribe she writes about.
Edwards and her husband Charles, a retired high school biology teacher, have been married for over 50 years. They have two sons, Charles and Brian, and three grandchildren. The family lived in St. Louis, Missouri for over thirty years, but now reside in Mattoon, Illinois.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 24, 2025
Another Winner
I never tire of Cassie's novels, as they are full of descriptive adventures, landscapes and emotions shared between her characters. You won't be disappointed.
I never tire of Cassie's novels, as they are full of descriptive adventures, landscapes and emotions shared between her characters. You won't be disappointed.
January 16, 2018
Sigh. I don't know why this was reissued. Lauralee and Joe Dancing Cloud felt like stock characters and the romance/situation too cliche. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It might not have been for me but you might enjoy it if you are looking for a romance novel where cultures blend.
July 2, 2021
Cassie Edwards is one of my all time favorite authors of historical romance and this story of Lauralee and Cloud Dancing is so enjoyable. If you enjoy historical romance add this to your to be read!
September 14, 2025
Could not put this book down, another great. Book by Cassie Edward’s
November 7, 2016
I found this novel at the back of my bookcase where it has probably been for a good decade or more. I really fancied a good old-fashioned clichéd, soppy and over-the-top novel to fall into its gloriously romantic pages. It turns out that regular non-cliché, unsoppy and normal romances have kind of ruined me because I just found this one too much.
I had a few issues with our leading couple. Firstly, I just couldn’t picture this handsome, strapping soldier and then call him “Dancing Cloud”. It drove me insane the whole way through the book. Maybe if he had been called, “Desert Hawk” or “Wild Bear” or “Horny Buffalo” or something, then I’d have been okay. But “Dancing Cloud”? No thank you. It just didn’t conjure the images that you would want with a romance novel.
Lauralee was too sweet and simpering for me to really enjoy as a character. I’d hoped her past would have given her a backbone but she was just too scared of everything.
A naked man? *Scream*
A cave? *Quiver*
A bat? *Full mental breakdown*
I like my leading ladies to be strong and sassy, or at least to be halfway there but rely on a man. But not Lauralee.
I also thought that their immediate romance dissipated the tension too. I thought that she would put up some resistance and they’d butt heads, but that their time together and some situations along the way, as well as a shared enemy, would bring them together. Instead they were in love in under 50 pages and anything thereafter was them declaring their undying and unequivocal bond. I want some sexual tension! Don’t just give it to me immediately; make me work for my reward!
My final gripe was that the writing itself was very 1-2-3 and simple. Dancing Cloud and Lauralee have a common enemy, but I’d like that to be revealed slowly. Yes, tell me that Lauralee was terrorised by a Yankee. Yes, tell me that Dancing Cloud had been attacked by a Yankee. But don’t put the phrase “Red-Haired, Blue-Eyed Yankee” in every sentence that is ever written just in case I'm stupid enough not to realise that it is the same guy! Let me work it out with subtle clues and gentle hints. Let me get a shock moment later in the novel when Dancing Cloud finally meets his Yankee and Lauralee has a breakdown because it is the man who killed her mother. STOP HANDING ME EVERYTHING ON A PLATE IN THE FIRST 60 PAGES.
Ahem.
Needless to say I did not enjoy this one, and next time I fancy some old school romance, I’ll stick to my sassier Regency heroines.
I had a few issues with our leading couple. Firstly, I just couldn’t picture this handsome, strapping soldier and then call him “Dancing Cloud”. It drove me insane the whole way through the book. Maybe if he had been called, “Desert Hawk” or “Wild Bear” or “Horny Buffalo” or something, then I’d have been okay. But “Dancing Cloud”? No thank you. It just didn’t conjure the images that you would want with a romance novel.
Lauralee was too sweet and simpering for me to really enjoy as a character. I’d hoped her past would have given her a backbone but she was just too scared of everything.
A naked man? *Scream*
A cave? *Quiver*
A bat? *Full mental breakdown*
I like my leading ladies to be strong and sassy, or at least to be halfway there but rely on a man. But not Lauralee.
I also thought that their immediate romance dissipated the tension too. I thought that she would put up some resistance and they’d butt heads, but that their time together and some situations along the way, as well as a shared enemy, would bring them together. Instead they were in love in under 50 pages and anything thereafter was them declaring their undying and unequivocal bond. I want some sexual tension! Don’t just give it to me immediately; make me work for my reward!
My final gripe was that the writing itself was very 1-2-3 and simple. Dancing Cloud and Lauralee have a common enemy, but I’d like that to be revealed slowly. Yes, tell me that Lauralee was terrorised by a Yankee. Yes, tell me that Dancing Cloud had been attacked by a Yankee. But don’t put the phrase “Red-Haired, Blue-Eyed Yankee” in every sentence that is ever written just in case I'm stupid enough not to realise that it is the same guy! Let me work it out with subtle clues and gentle hints. Let me get a shock moment later in the novel when Dancing Cloud finally meets his Yankee and Lauralee has a breakdown because it is the man who killed her mother. STOP HANDING ME EVERYTHING ON A PLATE IN THE FIRST 60 PAGES.
Ahem.
Needless to say I did not enjoy this one, and next time I fancy some old school romance, I’ll stick to my sassier Regency heroines.
June 3, 2015
Amazing!
January 14, 2018
Cassie Edwards is one of the Leading writers of Historical Native American Love Stories. She writes about all the tribes and shows the prejudice against them and their way of life like you are there. Cassie catches the feeling of prejudices in post Civil War America in this story of Love between Dancing Cloud and Lauralee. While coming home after the war is over with his friend Boyd, their group is attacked by a rogue Yankee band of soldiers. When Boyd steps in front of Dancing Cloud and saves his life, he vows to help Boyd any way he can for the rest of his life. The leader gets away and is shot in the leg while fleeing. After patching up the wounded and taking care of the dead Dancing Cloud & Boyd go their separate ways to find their homes devastated by the war. Boyd has lost everything including his wife but spends the next 10 years looking for his daughter only to find Lauralee working in the veteran's hospital he has come to as he's dying. Lauralee has been living in the orphanage connected to the hospital since she was 5 and still suffers from the attack & death of her mother. As Boyd lays dying he sends for his friend Joe so that he can escort Lauralee to relatives in Illinois. As soon as Dancing Cloud and Lauralee meet they're attracted to each other but Lauralee can't seem to get past witnessing what happened to her mother. Eventually, her feelings for Dancing Cloud over come her fear of men. On the way to her relatives house they fall in love but Lauralee wants to keep her promise to her father. Dancing Cloud leaves immediately for his home in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, but he's only a short way from where he left Lauralee when the man who attacked his group 10 years earlier reappears out of no where to shoot him and would've killed him if not for passing farmer. The farmer takes him to the doctor who does surgery and as Dancing Cloud lay there Lauralee's uncle brings in his wife who has had a heart attack. Her uncle doesn't want her to be with Dancing Cloud so he introduces her to the farmer's son who saved Dancing Cloud. Lauralee is conflicted for a short while between the 2 because of her upbringing. When the man who shot Dancing Cloud comes to check out the situation at the hospital and runs into Lauralee. She can't believe the man who raped and killed her mother is right in front of her and then he tries to kidnap her as part of his revenge but she gets away. It's then that she realizes the man who killed her mother and the man who is after Dancing Cloud are the same person. Also in a dream Dancing Cloud sees his dead family and including his father letting him know he's died also and that the man who attacked his group at the end of the war also attacked Dancing Cloud's village and killed his people. After Dancing Cloud recovers and they go for a tour of the town and stop at a stable and see a beautiful white stallion. Lauralee talks to her uncle into helping her buy it for Dancing Cloud but when he goes to talk to the owner the next day the owner says Dancing Cloud has stolen the horse. Dancing Cloud is put in jail where Lauralee breaks him out. As they head to his home with a posse of their tail. They get caught by the posse but find out the man lied and her uncle brings the horse for Dancing Cloud. On their journey home, they run into a little boy in the woods and he hates Lauralee because she is white. He won't reveal his past but they take him in and love him as their own. While going to the trading post Lauralee is kidnapped by their enemy and taken to his log cabin where his Indian wife is. When she escapes and runs through the forest fearing her husband is after her she ends up falling over a cliff where Dancing Cloud finds her alive and she points him in the direction of the cabin. Lauralee is keeping her kidnapper at bay by holding a gun on him, but when the gun is knocked out her hand and goes off shooting the guy, Dancing Cloud comes through the door. They take the injured woman back to the village where Lauralee tries to save her. They decide that they want to adopt Indian children from a local orphanage and they bring back all of them to be adopted by other members of the tribe. They adopt a baby girl but their son won't have anything to do with his new sister because of the loss of his sister that his father was going to get rid of. They realize after Lauralee miscarries that the baby is their son's actual sister. 10 years later: They return to her relatives home because her uncle has passed away a short while before, and it ends with them back in the village. Cassie Edwards brings you into the world of these two characters and how they love each other through all the trials and joy of a life well lived and they can over come their problems with love and trust in each other no matter what with Wild Abandon.
January 17, 2018
Who would have ever known that something so good and loving would come from the Civil War? Lauralee Johnston was only 5 years old when her father went off to war. Her father was the commander of a troop of Confederate Cherokee warriors that he had been close to for many years. His best friend is Joe Dancing Cloud, a chief of the Wolf Cherokee clan. Joe would do anything for the commander, so he is willing when asked, to accompany Lauralee to Illinois to live with her aunt and uncle. This story sweeps through the years and is fast-paced, full of adventure and love. I found the characters to be vivid and endearing, the plot to be satisfying but stereotypical. In this book, I was able to overlook the stereotypes and enjoyed it to the very end.
Wild Abandon by Cassie Edwards will be available January 30, 2018 from Zebra, an imprint of Kensington Books. An egalley of this book was made available from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
Wild Abandon by Cassie Edwards will be available January 30, 2018 from Zebra, an imprint of Kensington Books. An egalley of this book was made available from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
August 19, 2018
This author has a way to draw you into her books from the get go.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews