THE VENGEANCE OF MOTHERS (2018) is a sequel to ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN (1999), which I read more than twenty years ago - and loved it. Obviously Jim Fergus felt a sequel would work well, but maybe OTWW was just too hard an act to follow, because I found this one kinda tedious and slow, and most of all, just too darn unbelievable to hold my attention. Same premise as the first book, the story is purportedly taken from the journals of three women who are part of the "brides" program. One was released from Sing Sing where she'd been sentenced for killing her abusive husband after he had beaten their small daughter to death. The other two are street-wise twin sisters, taken from the Chicago slums. Their alternating journals of how they evolved into women who fit easily into the Cheyenne way of life, took husbands, bore children, "fell in love," etc. and then even became savage women warriors waging war on the white soldiers, was simply NOT believable. Not because it was so implausible (which it was), but because their 'journals' were just too erudite and clever. And all the little anecdotes of how the several new white 'brides' interacted and shared their stories was just to much like a Lifetime movie, a little too 'girly.'

That "willing suspension of disbelief" that Coleridge talked about just never quite kicked in for me. The 'journal' device did NOT work. I felt that Fergus was deliberately writing this one for an audience of women. He should have dumped the 'journals,' and just written it as a straight novel.

Because it is a pretty good story, but ... Well, sorry, Jim. I have the third novel of what became a trilogy, but I'll be in no great hurry to read it. I will still recommend this one for Indian Wars history buffs, but with the aforementioned reservations.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

9 March 1876

My name is Meggie Kelly and I take up this pencil with my twin sister, Susie. We have nothing left, less than nothing. The village of our People has been destroyed, all our possessions burned, our friends butchered by the soldiers, our baby daughters gone, frozen to death on an ungodly trek across these rocky mountains. Empty of human feeling, half-dead ourselves, all that remains of us intact are hearts turned to stone. We curse the U.S. government, we curse the Army, we curse the savagery of mankind, white and Indian alike. We curse God in his heaven. Do not underestimate the power of a mother’s vengeance...

So begins the Journal of Margaret Kelly, a woman who participated in the U.S. government's "Brides for Indians" program in 1873, a program whose conceit was that the way to peace between the United States and the Cheyenne Nation was for One Thousand White Woman to be given as brides in exchange for three hundred horses. These "brides" were mostly fallen women; women in prison, prostitutes, the occasional adventurer, or those incarcerated in asylums. No one expected this program to work. And the brides themselves thought of it simply as a chance at freedom. But many of them fell in love with their Cheyenne spouses and had children with them...and became Cheyenne themselves.

The Vengeance of Mothers explores what happens to the bonds between wives and husbands, children and mothers, when society sees them as "unspeakable." What does it mean to be white, to be Cheyenne, and how far will these women go to avenge the ones they love?

This novel is for anyone who read One Thousand White Women. This novel picks up where May's journals ended. With plenty of twists and surprises, we see that the brides have fallen in love, made families and have become essentially Cheyenne. They have found a certain freedom and made the best of their new lives but they soon find themselves at odds with the very government that sent them out to become brides in the first place. Perfect for lovers of historical fiction. ( )

This novel is for anyone who read One Thousand White Women. This novel picks up where May's journals ended. With plenty of twists and surprises, we see that the brides have fallen in love, made families and have become essentially Cheyenne. They have found a certain freedom and made the best of their new lives but they soon find themselves at odds with the very government that sent them out to become brides in the first place. Perfect for lovers of historical fiction. ( )

In The Vengeance of Mothers, Jim Fergus whisks readers back to the 1870s when the US government was doing everything possible to eradicate the Native American people. Between the Black Hills gold rush, ranchers and white settlers, eliminating the People is a high priority as the Army viciously strikes their camps, the government reneges on deals made through peace treaties and Indian tribes are forced onto government reservations. In an effort to assimilate Native Americans into the white way of life, a deal is struck with the Cheyenne Nation and white women, many of whom are from prisons and mental asylums, are sent to marry the braves. Although this newest release is a sequel which picks up One Thousand White Women (which I HIGHLY recommend) ends, it can be read as a standalone.

Written in diary format, the story alternates back and forth between the perspectives of original brides Margaret "Meggie" Kelly and her sister Susan "Susie" and newcomer Molly McGill. Meggie and Susie have survived the horrific massacre which left their husbands and many of their fellow brides dead. As they fled for safety, they suffered horrific personal losses and they have vowed to take revenge on the soldiers who are indiscriminately and viciously attacking the various tribes' villages. Molly and her fellow brides' train has been attacked by the Cheyenne but they decide they still want to follow through with the plan to marry into their tribe. Still grieving from recent events, Meggie and Susie become the other women's reluctant guides as they, along with the surviving Cheyenne warriors, set out to reunite with the rest of their tribe.

Despite a bit of a slow start, The Vengeance of Mothers is an engrossing peek into the hardships and life and death battles these women and the Native Americans endured as they government continued their efforts to wipe out the indigenous people. This historically accurate and impeccably researched novel has an incredibly realistic and compelling storyline that is heartrending. There is a bit of a mystical feel to the present day aspects of the plot and Jim Fergus brings the story to an intriguing, but somewhat ambiguous, conclusion. Both The Vengeance of Mothers and its predecessor, One Thousand White Women, are incredibly well-written novels that bring the appalling plight of the Native American tribes vividly to life. I absolutely loved and highly recommend both of these incredible novels. ( )