Book Review: "A Woman Called Sage" by DiAnn Mills

Sage Morrow has everything---an adoring husband and a baby on the way---until five ruthless gunmen change her life forever. Now accompanied only by her magnificent hawk, she's a Colorado bounty hunter bent on retribution! But the stakes are raised when two young boys are kidnapped. Will the hunter become the hunted?

Bounty hunters make me think about Boba Fett or Dog the Bounty Hunter. It's a tough job but only the most brave can do it. The image most definitely does not make me think about a woman in the 1800s fulfilling that occupation. Sage has been forced into this lifestyle after the devastating death of her husband and the baby she was carrying. Revenge is all she lives for now.

What I liked best about this book is that even though Sage is half Native American and it is mentioned several times, it is never really an issue. Other books that take place during this time period tend to really dwell on this fact to the point where race and culture become blatant stereotypes. Here in this book, she is just half Ute and other than her being darker than most women, it's perfectly fine. She's never shunned simply because of her heritage. It is brought up that it's happen in the past but it's not really a huge concern for this story. I also liked how it's ok for her to be a bounty hunter even though she's a woman. It's not the normal occupation of a woman but she's treated better (for the most part) than a saloon girl or prostitute. Something about surviving the west does that people.

While this book is exciting at times and uses a plot that I have not seen in Christian fiction before, I wasn't too big a fan of the story. I never got really connected with the characters and there were times in the story that just dragged for me. There were some cliched characters and at times I felt like I was reading a storyline I had read before. Also the cover really distracts me because Sage is supposed to be a bounty hunter which makes one think about sleeping in the outdoors and unable to take showers regularly. The model on the cover has a clean freshly pressed spotless WHITE shirt, her hair is straightened and washed and to top it off, she has a FRENCH MANICURE!!!! While I do like the fact that she is clearly Native American, all the other details on the cover just make the description about her occupation look like a joke.

Overall though it was an interesting read. It takes a unique perspective to a genre and time period that has been done over and over again.

A Woman Called Sage by DiAnn Mills is published by Zondervan (2010)

This review copy was provided for a blog tour with the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance