Review: Where The Rain Is Made by Keta Diablo

Where The Rain Is Made by Keta Diablo
Reading Level: Mature


Summary:

Ethan Gray is a Dog Soldier, a Cheyenne fighter. That is when he is in 1864, because when living in the present day he is an Assistant Curator at the National Museum of American Indians. And so he is Meko aka I Am The Wind, because he has the ability to transform into a crow and at the disposal of the Cheyenne Council he travels back and forth in time, in order to help best serve the interests of the tribe, which is currently under attack from the Americans claiming their land.

It is during this period (1864) he meets Francesca DuVall, who lives with her father and brother, after her mother passed away. Life is hard in these new lands and she is told she is safer if she poses as boy instead of letting it show she is a woman. So, when Meko attacks, he has no idea she is a woman, but when he does, he does what a Dog Soldier can do. He takes her as a loot. What he doesn't know, though, is that she will end up being more important to him than anything...

Review:
I won this book at a contest at Amanda's Blog Not Really Southern VampChick and for that I humbly thank both Keta Diablo and Amanda. I'm so glad I had the chance to read this.

I knew that I was going to love this book, ever since I read it had to do with Indians.
I am not ashamed to admit that I'm a daddy's little girl and ever since I was little, I used to watch "Westerns" with my dad.
John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper are only a few of the actors I know because of that.

These movies always fascinated me. It was great to see how the Indians lived, the struggle over the land, the compromises and the fights. Plus, all the love stories that sprung form all that. Between Indian Women and white men or Indian Men and white women. Love has and always will transcend all boundaries and biases.

So, imagine my excitement when the protagonist of this book is an Indian and a time-traveler at that. It's like two things that I love greatly (Indians+Paranormal), all tied up for me with a neat, little ribbon.

Meko is strong, brave, selfless, noble and very sexy. It is always welcome to find protagonists like him.
I loved his dedication to his race and sometimes I felt he was giving too much of himself just to accomplish that. It was like he had no human substance in the eyes of the Council and that angered me.
He should be allowed some happiness. According to the council, Cesca was a distraction.
But it was evident from the start, that from the moment he laid his eyes on her, he wouldn't let her go and actually went to great lengths to make her love him and accept the Indian way of living. He wanted to keep her with his people and made her his wife.

Cesca, on the other hand, is a delightful heroine. She is strong-willed and brave, not willing to give in to him, because - initially, at least- she thought him to be an Indian, a "Savage" only there to attack and kill her people.
It was only after spending some time in the village as a "prisoner", that she finally realized that Indians wanted peace, they were just defending themselves.
Although, she only agreed to stay there, in order to have Meko spare her brother's life, she came to love everything about the Cheyenne and Meko.

Their love story flowed nicely and plausibly and I loved the pace and the build up.
The story was well-researched and well-presented.
Keta Diablo flawlessly describes the way of life of the Cheyenne and I quite enjoyed the mentions of specific rituals that they had and words from their language, rendering "Where The Rain Is Made" an amazing page-turner and a heart-warming take of love in the face of perdition and destruction. (We all know what happened to the Indians at the time)

Actually, I loved the description in this book. It may be that I'm not a native speaker and I'm easily impressed (*g), but the language was something that drew me in immediately and made the reading experience so much better.

Notable Scene/Description:

...Ribbons of scarlet and midnight black detonated behind his eyes before a rush of blood surged through his brain. The hammering began, slowly at first with a gradual ascent to volatile. Fascination gripped him when his arms went numb and shifted into massive, black wings. Soon his spine launched into spasms, every beleaguered ligament and muscle stretching as if ripped from their vertebrae. The familiar burning in his chest spiraled up his throat, spreading outward like a white-hot flame.
The power of the raven to surged through his veins. He tumbled through a dark tunnel faster than a meteor falling from the sky, struggling to emerge on the other side.
Brother to the open sky, ally to the distant sun, he’d soar above the clouds to where the rain is made.

Verdict: An amazing love story that will move you and make you tear up, set against a background of chaos and war, but for that so much more intense and unforgettable.
Now, WHERE is the NEXT book? XD

Rating: 4.5 Stars {Instant Classic}

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- Kelly