One of Constance O'Banyon's Best.
I was very disappointed with Constance O'Banyon's "Enchanted Ecstasy". Therefore, I didn't necessarily have high hopes for "Savage Autumn", the first book in her "Savage Seasons of Blackfoot" series. However, I was happily proven wrong, as this is a truly beautiful love story.
The Story: The story begins on a sad note. Seventeen-year old Joanna James, the heroine of the book, and her twelve-year old brother, Taggart-or Tag as he is known-have lost their mother, Althea. (Their father, Russell, is a shipping magnate and is away on business in Oregon.) Shortly after their mother's death, Russell's sister Margaret and her husband, Howard, show up. Their reasons aren't to take care of Joanna and Tag, but to get their hands on various things. For Margaret, she wants to get her hands on her brother's money. For Howard, he wants to get his hands-and other things-on Joanna. When Joanna tries to evict them from her home, they give her a bogus letter claiming that Russell is dead. Margaret and Howard use this letter to get Howard appointed the children's legal guardian, and gain access to Russell's money. However, later Joanna receives a letter from Russell stating that he is alive, although badly injured after a boat accident, and that he is sending for them to come to Oregon. Joanna and Tag's plans to go to Oregon are disrupted, however, when Howard finds the letter after trying to rape Joanna. The kids are then locked in their rooms and kept as prisoners. They do, however, with the help of two of their long-time servants, escape and, after finding that they can't travel by ship because the ships are being watched, decide to travel to Oregon by wagon train to get to Russell.
The trip, however, is problematic. Their wagon train, after a series of problems, fails to join a bigger group traveling to Oregon. One positive for Joanna is that she meets the hero of the book, Windhawk, chief of a band of Blood Blackfoot Indians, when he rescues Tag from drowning. Joanna and Windhawk are immediately attracted to each other.
Tragedy soon strikes, however, as the wagon train the James children are on is attacked by a warring band of Blackfoot Indians known as the Piegan, let by their chief, Running Elk. Most of the people on the wagon train are killed except for three: Joanna-her wagon fell off a cliff trying to escape the massacre; Running Elk believes she's dead but she's not-Tag, and another young woman, Amanda Phillips, who are both taken captive by Running Elk. Windhawk finds Joanna, injured but alive, and begins to take care of her. She believes, erroneously, that Windhawk was involved in the attack on her caravan. At first, Joanna hates Windhawk, but after a time, they realize they are in love with each other, get married and make love.
All is not well, though. Even though Joanna loves Windhawk, she believes that Tag is dead and she also yearns to be back in white society, in part to get revenge on Margaret and Howard. Her opportunity to do so comes when Windhawk leaves his village after finding out that Tag is being held prisoner by Running Elk. When Windhawk leaves to rescue Tag-he doesn't tell Joanna that he's going to rescue Tag-Joanna is found by a trapper, Crazy Farley, whom she and Tag befriended with their wagon train. He believes that Joanna is being held against her will-she's not-and they leave the Blackfoot village. When Windhawk arrives back home with Tag and Amanda, he finds that Joanna has left after proclaiming that she loved him, even though she said many times that she wanted to return to the white world. Windhawk had vowed that he'd never let her go. Windhawk then tracks down Joanna and Crazy Farley, and understandably, he is very hurt and angry with her.
As Windhawk brings Joanna back to his village, he is very cruel to her, especially mentally, and he hits her one time. Then, another tragedy strikes. They are travelling in winter, in a raging snowstorm, and Joanna suffers from both exposure to snow and cold, and later, snow blindness. When his medicine woman can't heal Joanna's snow blindness, Windhawk decides to let her go back to the white world, not because he hates her or doesn't want her around, but because of the incredible guilt he feels as he believes that his actions caused her to be blind. He also deeply regrets hitting her and being emotionally cruel to her, although he doesn't verbalize any of this to Joanna.
Joanna, on the other hand, wants to stay with Windhawk, as she now realizes how much she loves him, but she also doesn't verbalize this, and Windhawk takes her to a forr and lets her go.
Eventually, Joanna regains her sight, and both she and Windhawk realize that their lives don't have as much meaning without the one they love in it and they come back together and have their happily ever after.
The love Joanna and Windhawk feel for each other is so sweet, pure and most importantly, genuine. Yes, as mentioned in other reviews, a lot of the pain both suffered could have been avoided had they actually talked to each other. When this book was published-October 1984 was the original publishing month-people in romance novels didn't talk to each other. They simply acted out and hid their feelings, and eventually apologized and regretted the pain they caused their loved ones. The only negative about this book for me is that Windhawk hits Joanna once when he finds her. While I totally understand his anger and hurt over Joanna's betrayal, that doesn't excuse what he did. That is the only black mark on an otherwise wonderful book.
Sex: a few scenes. As always, Ms. O'Banyon's loves scenes focus more on the feelings of the act rather than the descriptive aspects of the subject. More warm than hot.
Violence: In addition to the raid on the wagon train the James kids are on and Windhawk's hitting Joanna, there is another scene where Windhawk has to kill three Piegan Indians to rescue Tag and Amanda. None of the violence, however, is graphically described.
Bottom Line: There are three more books in the "Savage Seasons of Blackfoot" series, one for each of the four seasons. If the others are as good as this, it should be a wonderful series.