Cherokee Steel is the third installment in Regina McLemore’s Cherokee Passages series. It’s set primarily in rural Oklahoma in the early part of the twentieth century. As a continuation of the story of Bluebird and Grey Wolf’s descendants, it’s a satisfying conclusion, but it does have scope for further development in a fourth novel; or at least this fan is hoping the story continues because I don’t want this story to end.

Amelia is now aging, and she still holds the Bluebird stone inherited from her family and passed down through generations. It represents both traditional Cherokee beliefs and the survival of historical abuses experienced by both Amelia and her ancestors. She needs to find someone worthy to carry the heirloom to the next generation, but she can’t find any family member worthy of the guardianship. 

Amelia’s sons, Ross and Clay, are both smitten with the teenage temptress Bonita. But she has her own tragedies to deal with. When her alcoholic father falls ill, and her brother abandons her, she is forced to quit school and any dreams of finding a better life for herself are ever more distant. She makes poor decisions and has bad taste in men, with each one more weak, controlling, and violent than the last. As Amelia says to her, “You’re just like your father, lovely to look at, but weak at your core.”

Regina McLemore tells a rich and compelling story that effectively uses its compelling characters to tell a story that is steeped in history and hard to put down. Cherokee Steel doesn’t rely at all on its previous books to prop it up. While readers can certainly benefit from reading the previous books, there’s enough here to make it an engrossing read all on its own. This is an epic historical fiction story that spans generations but covers years in just a couple of pages. I would have loved to have had more detail about the lives of these interesting people and their tumultuous paths through life.

Cherokee Steel is an engaging family saga with memorable characters that will stay with the readers long after the series is over. This is an impassioned historical drama that has depth and layers to the emotional turmoil in the story.

Pages: 312 | ASIN: B0BCTWBKQF