Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

La Belle Famille by A.M. Vergara is a thrilling tale of two young women’s courage and perseverance on the wild Canadian frontier in the middle of the eighteenth century. With France and Great Britain seemingly at war with each other forever on the Canadian border, both sides fought for control of the wild hinterland. Lidia and Sofie, young sisters who had been orphaned after the French troops attacked and massacred their fellow citizens of German Flatts, have lived in a cave for two long years with Sofie’s husband Will. When the girls stumble across a wounded French soldier, Adam, Lidia’s immediate instinct is to finish the hated Frenchman off. After all, he could well have been one of the soldiers who participated in the murders of their parents and friends. Sofie, however, insists their faith and belief in non-violence will not allow them to hurt the young man. When they realize Adam is carrying a note that French reinforcements are on their way to Niagara Falls to assist the French forces, Sofie realizes she must warn the British of this planned ambush. She sets off on a perilous journey, with her newborn baby strapped to her back, to warn the British, as well as her beloved Will who is now working for them as a translator with the local Indians.

La Belle Famille is a delightful read, telling of great courage, immense fortitude, and familial love that crosses warring factions. Author A.M. Vergara has perfectly captured the ruggedness and unforgiving nature of this virgin territory. That the main characters in this story are two young women is a testament to how this wild country had forged a depth of courage in their very beings. I particularly appreciated the conflict Lidia found within herself as she desperately struggled to hate the young man whose healing and future she was now responsible for. The action and drama flow from page to page and readers will find themselves relentlessly caught up in the separate struggles of Sofie, Lidia, and Adam, not only to survive but to overcome the odds they all face. The story is related from different perspectives which give the depth and breadth a tale of this magnitude deserves. Although this is a fictional story, the author has done considerable research into the historical elements and battles described in the narrative. I was particularly amused by the promises made to the local native tribes to encourage them to fight on the side of either the British or the French. Each side of this conflict assured the natives that if the other side won this war, they would ultimately be treated abysmally by them. History has certainly shown us throughout the world that the colonizers of countries invariably used and abused the resources of those lands, including the native populations, merely as a means to increase their wealth and power. This is a wonderful read with a thread of moral conviction running through the plot which I certainly appreciated. I highly recommend it.