Reviewed by Marta Tandori for Readers' Favorite

Till Her Heart Dances is the continuing adventure saga, the third book in the Fury series, by talented author, Thomas Macy. It’s a perfect read that manages to capture the adventurous spirit of the frontier, somewhat reminiscent of the adventures of Tom Sawyer or Daniel Boone.

The year is 1851. Four unlikely friends had met up at South Pass and were now in Fort Laramie, Wyoming, still in the relatively early stages of their travels across the American frontier, on their way to Nantucket. The eldest of the group is Coonie, a sixty-year-old prospector who’d panned for gold in California; feisty Bekah, the youngest of the group, a young girl sold by her father and then later captured by the Cheyenne; Seth, a young man with a secret who is reluctantly coming to terms with the growing feelings he has for the last member of their small group, Ann, who’s taken it upon herself to become Bekah’s “Ma” during their arduous journey. Theirs is a hardscrabble and risky journey through Indian territory and an equally unforgiving land dotted by roaming buffalo, wildlife and frightening forces of nature with nothing more than a wagon, horses and dry supplies. Their journey appears to be better than most, thanks to Bekah’s remarkable talents as a hunter, supplementing their meager meals with rabbit, hens and even buffalo meat, but soon devastating revelations threaten their friendship in ways they could never have imagined…

There is much to love about Till Her Heart Dances. The adventurous spirit of the four characters is effectively conveyed in the author’s prose. Although the book would hardly be characterized as a character-driven story, it’s the very character of each member of the group and their vulnerabilities that provide the story's solid backbone and give it substance. No better example of this can be found than in the character of young Bekah. She is the feisty one and certainly the most resourceful. Despite her resourcefulness, her vulnerability is nevertheless palpable, given the horrific experiences she has encountered at the hands of other men, which comes to light in a series of flashbacks and panic attacks, leaving the others in the group feeling helpless as they watch her struggle, not knowing how to scale the formidable wall Bekah has erected around herself. Ann responds with gentle hugs and an encouraging demeanor that never wavers; Seth resorts to impulsive acts of kindness like giving Bekah prairie flowers; and Coonie, with his grandfatherly resolution to make Bekah talk, offers up no-nonsense advice which eventually draws Bekah out of her shell. Macy shows us evolution and growth with each of his characters while managing to stay true to his story and keeping it on track – no easy feat, to be sure.

Till Her Heart Dances has plenty of rugged landscape and endless primitive conditions. With his magic wand (and well-placed choice of words), Macy effortlessly paints a vivid picture of life more than a century ago, when one of the only ways to get from one end of the country to the other was by horse and carriage, facing untold dangers along the way. If you love a good old-fashioned historical adventure, then Till Her Heart Dances is the perfect story for you! Recommended.