"Captive Trail" by Susan Page Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Taabe Waipu has run away from her Comanche village and is fleeing south in Texas on a horse she stole from a dowry left outside her family's teepee. The horse has an accident and she is left on foot, injured and exhausted. She staggers onto a road near Fort Chadbourne and collapses.

On one of the first runs through Texas, Butterfield Overland Mail Company driver Ned Bright carries two Ursuline nuns returning to their mission station. They come across Taabe who is nearly dead from exposure and dehydration and take her to the mission.

With some detective work, Ned discovers Taabe Waipu's identity. He plans to unite her with her family, but the Comanche have other ideas. Through Taabe and Ned we learn the true meaning of healing and restoration amid seemingly powerless situations.

After reading the first book in the Morgan Family Series, I couldn't wait to read Billie's story. I was not disappointed. Though many captives were assimilated into the tribe and didn't want to return to their families, Billie was not one of them. Through twelve long years, she never felt completely a part of the tribe and longed to return to her family. Twelve years is a long time when you're captured at such a young age, and when Billie finally escapes, she can no longer remember much of her early years or even how to speak English. This is a sweet book that tells of her struggle to escape, her work to re-learn English and remember her former life and the battle to keep her freedom. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next installment of the Morgan Family Series. The only issue I had is the predominence of Catholicism which just a mention of "Protestants and Catholics worship differently" though Billie was raised Christian. No mention of salvation was made at all.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.