Since girlhood, Clare Stratford has dreamt of marrying David Lazare—until she meets the brother he left for dead on the Oregon Trail.
Charleston, South Carolina, 1859. After earning his medical degree in Paris, David returns home to discover that the impish girl he remembers has blossomed into a beautiful young woman. A young woman who proposes marriage. David longs to have Clare by his side and … have Clare by his side and in his bed—but if he lets her that close, she’ll discover his secrets.
Then David’s greatest secret returns from the dead. Thoroughly Cheyenne in spite of his blond hair, Ésh has come East seeking answers. He finds not only the brother who abandoned him as a baby but also the woman he’s seen in visions.
Desperate to escape her father, Clare is torn between the childhood friend she thought she knew and the stranger who’s capturing her heart one secret riding lesson at a time.
At once intimate drama and multigenerational epic, Native Stranger is the third book in the sweeping Lazare Family Saga that transports readers from the West Indies to the Wild West, from Charleston, Paris, and Rome into the depths of the human heart. The series begins with Necessary Sins.
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Native Stranger is a fantastic book, from start to finish.
I love multigenerational family sagas, and this is one of the best ones I’ve read. I think there’s something for everyone here. From the Cheyenne Nation in Nebraska to Sullivan Island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, this book took me on a memorable journey.
Author Elizabeth Bell has a knack for setting a memorable scene. Near the beginning, there is a funeral scene that is full of rich details that evoke a powerful emotional response. Here’s an example, “a red camellia shed petals like tears of blood across their path.” That’s just a fraction of the detail in that chapter. I won’t soon forget that tomb in the plantation’s cemetery.
The star of the story is a young woman whom we know well from previous installments in the series. She possesses the rare beauty of her mother, though she isn’t particularly ladylike, at least not from the perspective of her meddling Aunt Hortense. She has a passion for wild creatures, including insects, reptiles, and amphibians. As it says in the book, “Clare saw beauty even in toads.” As a girl, Clare idolized an older orphaned boy named David, that her mother took in. They were close as children, and Clare expected to marry him when he returned from getting an education abroad. I could tell you about the painful reasons that David avoided the girl he adored, but the author tells it so much better than I could. I found myself believing they belonged together, and aching for them as their circumstances kept them apart.
This book contains adult subject matter and is appropriate for a more mature audience. The romantic elements appear within the coming of age, young love, first love category. Somehow the author manages to portray these scenes from the perspective of both characters simultaneously. Readers who enjoy romance will be particularly drawn to this book, but I think there is something for everyone in this book, including contemptible villains, heart-wrenching drama, and the Native Stranger himself appears as if born from a classic western.
For me, the best part of this book is the story of a young woman named Easter, who is a slave. Her story is devastating, and her character is nuanced, complex, and memorable. What Easter goes through provides a striking contrast to what Clare experiences. I fully expect these two women will have their hands full with the evil villain in the finale of this series, and I can’t wait to read it. Good thing it is “coming soon.”
Native Stranger is beautifully written, carefully crafted, painstakingly researched, seeping with symbolism, and packed with dramatic angst. Like a fine garden, it’s decorated in the beauty and fragrance of all manner of flowers, just like all of Elizabeth Bell’s novels. I highly recommend this book and series.
Elizabeth Bell is back at last with the long awaited third installment of the Lazare Family Saga, Native Stranger. This story is well worth the wait! It follows the third generation of the family, David and Esh and Tessa’s daughter, Clare as they become adults. In order not to spoil any of the tale, I cannot say more.
This novel is amazing. I don’t know how Ms. Bell keeps coming up with her ideas, but each tome is different with unique trials and tribulations for each generation of characters. Starting with Grandfather Rene, continuing with Father Joseph and now David and Esh, the drama continues with a distinctively exceptional story line.
You can read this book separately from the others but I recommend reading each one. All are spellbinding and you won’t be able to put them down till you turn the last page. I would suggest that these novels are for a more mature audience from late teen to adult because of the adult subject matter.
Native Stranger is the third book in this fantastic series of a family in Charleston,S. C…it’s a continuing story of a family of many generations,telling the on going story of the Lazare Family and the friends that are intertwine with this family. In 1851 and on..it tells the story of different characters that are in the past,growing up,that are to come…I read the last ten chapters of the second book so I could catch up again and remember where I left off so this one could continue the story. This series you will do enjoy and it will stick with you and some of the events that happen or going to happen and the characters will remain with you forever..once you start to read you will not see only see a story you become the story..Elizabeth Bell knows her stuff and once you read her writing and how she writes and how she is with words, Elizabeth has a way of putting you in the story as if you are right there seeing the story unfold! Start with the first book, so you don’t miss anything and you know the background to all the Lazare Family Saga..I believe there another book coming …looking forward to see what happens to the family and close friends as you continue to live with this family.. Excellent read!!
Native Stranger is a sweeping saga that is rich in history, filled with passion and emotion. The author delves honestly into subjects such as slavery, unrequited love, and and perceived sins and debauchery, on this journey to Charleston and the Great Plains in the mid 19th century. This is the third book of this series, and I encourage you to read the first two, to learn firsthand the history of this family, their loves, their losses, and their pain.
Native Stranger is book #3 in the Lazare Family Saga. Elizabeth Bell has a way of pulling me in until my world recedes and I’m experiencing the story. I do admit to having a bit of an obsession with this series! I am a huge fan of sweeping family sagas like Gone With the Wind and The Thorn Birds and this series fits the bill. I fell in love with Easter, Esh and Clare and didn’t want the book to end. Now I wait (im)patiently for book #4, the final book in the series.