From the New York Times bestselling author who pioneered the passionate world of Native American romance
After trekking across the country, Wylena is happy to arrive in Arizona Territory to reunite with her brothers, but less happy to learn of their troubles. Her brother, Jeb, is wrongly accused of scalp hunting. H e's also been courting a lovely Apache woman who is sister to Chief Falcon Moon. And the anger of the ruthless Mexican general on Jeb's trail is nothing compared to the ire of a protective sibling...
Then Wylena is kidnapped by Mexican troops-and the handsome chief comes to her aid. Now she must not only clear her brother's name, but fight her burning desire for her valiant rescuer...
Edwards 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.
Its been a while since Ive read a Cassie Edwards story. I love her story telling and how she pulls me into the story and makes me forget about everything else around me. The only thing I dont like about her stories is the instant love. I really enjoyed this story and how Falcon Moon supported Wylena when they uncovered a secret that her brother had hidden well from her. The rumors were plenty and her brother was a wanted man but she wouldnt believe that her loving brother could commit such crimes he was being accused of. Falcon Moon had his own heartache when his best friend that he chose to be chief if something happened to him, betrayed him in the worst way. This was a nice cozy, snuggle by the fireplace read.
I'm used to reading paranormal romance, so when I picked up Falcon Moon by Cassie Edwards, I wasn't expecting much in way of story, characterization, and writing. To be fair, I wanted to read a straight forward romance novel because I've thought about writing some of my own. However, if Falcon Moon is any indication of how easy it is to write romance, as well as publish it, then I'd rather stick to writing horror and alternative-history.
Cassie Edwards writes simply enough. There are no complex words or overly complex sentences, yet there are several run on sentences throughout the entire book. An entire paragraph can be made up of one sentence, and often I had to stop and read that sentence/paragraph out loud just to understand it. Edwards writes in a passive tense, so it's hard to get into the action and minds of her characters. Is the action happening now? Or did it happen then?
In writing, it's easy to throw in a lot of fluff words. The novel could be considerably shorter if the over abundance of "that" and "As you know..." were removed. Also, Edwards seems to have a fondness for exclamation points and ellipses, especially at inappropriate times.
Her generalizations of characters is laughable. Hardly ever was General Zamora, a minor antagonist, referred to as simply "the general," but instead became "the evil Mexican general" or "the Mexican general." After a few dozen times, the distinction of General Zamora's race should be ingrained into the reader's brain. To compliment this tacky abuse, Cassie Edwards seems to reiterate the fact that Falcon Moon is an Apache chief every chance she got. Wylena, Falcon Moon's paramour, is described as being sweet, and possessing nothing but "sweetness." Such lack-luster adjectives make reading tedious, and does little to truly characterize (or humanize) her main cast of characters. Even the Apache's camp--a "stronghold"--seemed to invoke images of a castle in my mind rather than a community of tents/dwellings. The generals' fort was only described as a fortress, again provoking images of an era long before this story takes place.
Often throughout, things are repeated by the characters just before or after Edwards has described the event. Several times in one chapter is enough to make your eyes roll at the hilarity.
Dialogue is sub-par, and too proper to be believable. Even Falcon Moon speaks as though schooled in a far away boarding school, where "don't" is a sin and "do not" is next to godliness. It would have been refreshing to see snippets of Spanish used by General Zamora and his cronies, or bits of Apache tossed in to breath life into a tribe so poorly represented in this book.
The plot is simple, and held no major twists. In fact, I'm not even sure there was one. Wylena is the stereo-typical maiden-in-distress who develops an affection for her captor, and in turn, he falls for her. Joshua, Wylena's holy, and sinless brother, is supposed to be the voice of reason, yet fails when Wylena and Falcon Moon ride of into the sunset on his very white stallion. (Cliche, anyone?) Jeb, Wylena's other brother (Joshua's twin), seduces Falcon Moon's sister yet sneaks around the countryside accused of being a scalp hunter. Where and why he decided to keep Falcon Moon's sister unharmed, makes no sense to me. It would have been more satisfying to me if Joshua had turned out to be the scalp hunter and Jeb the innocent. But even that fails, and the story comes to a disappointing close.
Perhaps the only well developed character is Bull Nose, though even he seems flat. After having been embarrassed by Falcon Moon, he sets his sights on bringing his chief down any way he can. This plan develops and Bull Nose takes it upon himself to steal and abuse helpless Wylena, even going so far as to scare her with tarantulas. Scared of spiders or not, a knife would have been more effective in my opinion. Wylena is so absurdly afraid of spiders that she is easily captured not once, but twice, by Bull Nose. Unfortunately for Bull Nose, things spiral out of control and he soon finds himself on his way to the "Happy Place."
I can't recommend this book for its thrilling reading, but I can recommend it for a bit of light reading and good laugh. The entire book is summed up on page 303, and is the best description of how laughable Cassie Edward's Falcon Moon really is: "Although most white people were hated with a passion for interfering in the lives of these wonderful people, she [Wylena] was magically being accepted, as her brother Joshua had been treated kindly by them [the Apache]."
Too bad it's all magic and stereo-types in Falcon Moon.
This book is the book that I always refer back to when I read something that I don't think was well-written. It's become an inside joke for me and my brother (who just happened to be the person around when I needed to vent to someone about awful analogies.) Now I always say, "Well, that book wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as 'Falcon Moon'..."
That said, it made for an excellent parody of a romance. I did laugh at how bad it was. (I do feel bad saying this, but hey... At least I'm being honest, yeah?)