The Bargain by Jackie Smith, A Surprising Blend of What Our Forefathers Endured and Human Behavior
Industry: Books
What if she dies? He told himself to think optimistically. After all, she had been through a terrible ordeal, he could tell that, and yet she was still breathing.
Nebraska Territories, USA (PRUnderground) December 7th, 2016
The Bargain by Jackie Smith begins with an uncomplicated agreement between a young widower and his young son and an attractive, naïve but adventuresome school teacher from Boston. She is to keep house and tutor the young son; but underestimates the isolation and hardship the early 1965 Nebraska Territories entails. The initial bargain is based on need for the widower; he for a substitute mother and teacher for his young son; and on desire for a home and family for the school teacher who has no remaining family. What seems initially to be an unlikely pairing of characters begins to change as they share the difficulties faced by our early settlers. When the three begin to settle into a sense of family; a horrendous and completely unpredictable event takes place which threatens to destroy the entire relationship and almost takes the life of the young woman. She is raped and beaten and left by dead while the boy and father are not there. Part one of the novel ends with the young boy forced into a decision on killing the one who was responsible for the attack. Part two (same book) begins with his being forced with the same kind of decision as an adult; whether taking a life can ever be justified by the reason…to protect the ones he loves.
The story draws the reader into the often humorous side of life in the old west and strength of the family unit. The novel is carefully researched, and though fiction, references in the back provide interesting facts about the early Homestead Act, western expansion, and hardships faced by our ancestors.
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Copies of The Bargain are available at all major booksellers, including Black Rose Writing, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble
Review copies available upon request
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Contact: BRW PR Team, Black Rose Writing, pr@blackrosewriting.com
About Black Rose Writing
Black Rose Writing is an independent publishing house that strongly believes in developing a personal relationship with their authors. The Texas-based publishing company doesn’t see authors as clients or just another number on a page, but rather as individual people… people who deserve an honest review of their material and to be paid traditional royalties without ever paying any fees to be published.
