Rachel Lemoyne

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Half-Choctaw Rachel LeMoyne tries to make peace between her Presbyterian upbringing and the Choctaw culture in this simplistic historical romance, which travels the Trail of Tears in 1832, visits Ireland during the potato famine and ends with the 1848 Wagon Trail in Oregon. Chosen by the missionaries and the Indian Council to go to Ireland as a representative of the Choctaw Nation, Rachel brings corn to West Ireland, where starvation is at its worst. There she meets 25-year-old millwright Darragh Ronan, a widower who has lost his entire family to the hunger and who is sent to prison for using his landlord's mill to grind Rachel's maize. Rachel smuggles Darragh out of jail by marrying him, and the newlyweds, now in America and pursued by the authorities, travel west as members of a wagon train. Threats from other Indian tribes, snakebite, a buffalo hunt and tensions with a bigoted wagonmaster punctuate their journey, as Rachel and Darragh journey to Oregon, falling in love in the process. The latest installment in Forge's Women of the West series, Charbonneau's Waltzing in Ragtime superficial saga is predictable but partly redeemed by its colorful atmosphere and brave, resourceful heroine. June

VOYA - Beth E. Andersen

In 1847 beautiful Rachel LeMoyne, part Choctaw and part French, is a teacher for the Oklahoma missionaries when she and her brother Atoka agree to go to Ireland with a shipment of corn to help the starving Celts survive the potato famine. There Rachel meets the notorious Irish outlaw Darragh Ronan, now hunted by the British, when he repairs the mill that processes the corn and saves Irish lives. Rachel aids in Ronan's escape by marrying him (in name only) aboard the Hammersmith. Once in St. Louis, Missouri, the trio attempts to blend into the background as they work to save for the dangerous trek to a new life in Oregon where Rachel's uncle offers safe refuge. However, a near-fatal attack on Rachel, along with Darragh's (now known as Dare Swimmer) defense of her, force the three to flee again. Countless perils and tragedies during their covered wagon journey serve as a backdrop for the heated romance between Rachel and Dare as they warily inch toward consummation of their marriage. Charbonneau, author of Waltzing in Ragtime (Forge, 1996) and The Randolph Legacy (Forge, 1997), based this novel (part of The Women of the West series) on a little-known international event. This is sexy, well-researched fare for fans of historical romances. [Editor's Note: Charbonneau also wrote the well-received saga of three generations of an 1800s Catskill Mountain family with mixed French and Native American roots, which began with the YA novel Ghosts of Stony Clove (Orchard, 1988, pb Forge/Tor, 1995) and proceeded to two seemingly adult novels, In the Time of the Wolves (Tor, 1994/VOYA April 1995) and Honor to the Hills (Tor, 1996/VOYA June 1996)]. VOYA Codes: 3Q 3P S (Readable without serious defects, Will appeal with pushing, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal

When the Choctaw nation, forcibly exiled from their lands in Mississippi to the Oklahoma Territory, read of the famine in Ireland, they sympathize with a people suffering the cruelty of hunger and the tyranny of foreign ruletwo evils with which the Choctaw are well acquaintedand they resolve to send their surplus corn to the starving people. Their messenger is Rachel LeMoyne, the missionary-educated daughter of a mixed blood famous for his diplomacy. It is this sympathy for another dispossessed people that inspires Rachel to save Irish rebel Darragh Ronan by marrying him and bringing him home to the New World. But even the classless society of America is ruled by prejudice, and when Darragh, defending his new wife, kills a man, they are forced to flee again to Oregon, enduring the cross-country trek that brings hardship and strength, old enemies and new friends, and an enduring love. Charbonneau Waltzing in Ragtime, LJ 7/96 has melded disparate historical events, real people, and fictional characters into a compelling tale of clashing cultures, religions, and classes transformed by the challenge of the American frontier. Recommended for popular collections.Cynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA

School Library Journal

YA--This fictional story is based on a footnote from the March 13, 1847, diary entry of Gerald Keegan, an Irish school teacher and victim of the Irish Famine of 1845-1850. Rachel LeMoyne is a mixed-blood Choctaw student in a missionary school in Oklahoma when her teachers select her to accompany them to Ireland to help distribute corn to the starving multitudes. Well researched and beautifully written, the story takes readers from Oklahoma to Ireland, where Rachel meets Darragh, an Irishman who assists in her project and is declared an outlaw by the English. The couple marry and return to America; they journey first to St. Louis, and then across the frontier to Oregon. Along the way, readers learn about the Trail of Tears, the settlement of the West, and the many pioneers who peopled the area in the 1840s and 1850s. Hardships, difficult river crossings, and snakes make for an eventful narrative. This is an engaging, exciting tale with some romance included. Teens will like the array of characters of all ages and backgrounds. This crossing of the continent is one of hope and dreams fulfilled in Oregon.--Linda A. Vretos, West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA

Kathe Robin

What a fabulous and different portrait of the 1840s....[A]n extraordinary tale of bravery, selflessness and courage peopled with unforgettable characters and a most remarkable woman. Rachel Lemoyne should be read by every western, romance and historical reader to fully understand the place women held in our history. Bravo to Ms. Charbonneau! Sweet.
— Romantic Times