Frontier Woman

Frontier Woman by Joan Johnston is set in a fascinating period of United States history. Texas is its own country and is struggling to hold its own against the United States on one side and Mexico on the other. Having little defense, Texas turns to a fairly wild bunch of "Texas Rangers" to patrol its borders and keep its citizens safe from attack. Don't forget the threat of Comanches, too, who are less than pleased with these newcomers staking claim to their homelands.

In this wild territory is a father, Rip, and his three daughters. Sloan, Bay, and Cricket are 19, 18, and 17, and this first story is about Cricket. The other older sisters get their own stories told in subsequent books. It's pretty interesting that it's the youngest sister that we hear about first. Often in these types of trilogies we start with the eldest and work down. Here we go with the wild, impetuous one first, and that's a nice change.

Rip was a take-no-prisoners man, and he equally raised his daughters to be wild. In an era when parents routinely beat children as a normal course of discipline, and children were considered "free farm labor", Rip was fairly average. Modern readers might be upset that he belt-whips his grown women - but remember this was a time period where even wives were routinely whipped by husbands for disobedience. So his behavior, while inappropriate in modern times, *is* period appropriate. As is Cricket's desperate desire to earn his respect.

Now, I say this because Rip is an "instigator" in the story - someone Cricket has to learn to rebel against. However, I do NOT feel as accepting about heroes who are abusive. Yes, certainly, one could make the same argument that abusive men existed in the 1800s. Heck, abusive men exist NOW. However, I am not eager to invest my precious leisure time in extolling the traits of an abusive man as a hero. I want to read about an ACTUAL hero with traits I would want to have in my own life.

So my key issue with Frontier Woman is that I simply am not that fond of Jarrett Creed. He thinks it's delightfully fine to SPANK Cricket to discipline her. Literally every time he has sex with her up until the very end, she's fighting him first. He ignores her refusals and takes her anyway because "he knows best". It makes me extremely upset to think women are OK with the idea that a man can ignore their NO messages because "he knows best" for her. But the scene which makes me most upset is the scene where he literally rapes her while she's a virgin. She says no - just like she does throughout the rest of the book. And what we get is that he ignores her because (trimming to keep this kid-safe):

" ... he was no longer man, but animal, responding to the dictates of his barbarian nature and its unassailable command to procreate the species. When he finally emerged from the red well of pleasure into which he'd descended ..."

So the clear statement here is that men - during sex - are completely out of control and whatever they do is just nature taking its course. What??? So if a woman says NO, it doesn't matter because he's simply "responding to the dictates of his barbarian nature"? How incredibly disrespectful of men, and what an insidiously awful message to even suggest to any woman! Absolutely men CAN hear no, and they CAN STOP. I'm having difficulty even expressing how much this whole scene bothers me.

It is especially disappointing because I had such high hopes for this book. The scenario was great. I love women who can stand up for themselves and protect themselves. I loved the rugged terrain and descriptions of the interesting political situation. I loved that Comanche were going to be involved. However, it devolved into stereotypes. The Texans simply hated the Comanches. The Comanches simply were rape-enthused maniacs (with a tiny few exceptions). The hero loyally rescues his damsel from one situation after another had abandoned his previous beloved wife and child for a fairly inane reason. Cricket puts people into danger time and time again and seems not to care much at all.

The writing style had been great. Compared with so many other poorly written books I've had to slog through recently, I was thrilled at how smooth the writing was, how clearly the scenes were presented, how the visuals were always extremely well laid out. But those technical details all get lost when the plot itself suffers serious issues.

It seems almost minor compared with what I've just covered, but I did want to mention one last point. Cricket is only 17 years old. Yes, I realize absolutely that some women married young in the 1800s. However our stereotypes about all girls marrying at 17 seems to be misguided. The average age of marriage was about 25 years old meaning that half married OLDER than this. This was because children / young adults were needed as farm help and they would only go start their own household when they had stored up the money and means to do that. So all of that being said, the period expectation was that women would be mature and fairly independent before they married. They would often have built up a status in the community - maybe as a schoolteacher, maybe as a seamstress. They would have "broken their parents' guidance" for the most part.

But not Cricket. Cricket is still a rebellious teenager, the age of a high school junior. She is still firmly under her father's thumb and is obsessed with pleasing him and rebelling against him. She has not in any way begun to think of herself as an independent woman. And then along comes Creed and now she is "transferred" from one man to another. In fact at the end of the book she's back under both thumbs! So she has double men telling her what to do! I found that very unappealing. I want to read about what a woman chooses to do and the impact her choices have in life. I'm less interested in reading about what a child complains about while first fighting with her daddy and then fighting against her daddy-surrogate who spanks her when she's bad. There must be a word stronger than unappealing. I can enjoy stories about 17 year olds when they clearly are on their own two feet and acting as an adult woman. Cricket is not that person.

So despite my high hopes and the good quality writing style, there are too many issues with the plot and characters, and especially with the repeated rapes, to make this book one I'd enjoy. Which is a shame, because I was intrigued about the other two sisters. However, if it's going to be more of the same of this, I don't want to read that.

Buy Frontier Woman from Amazon.com

Books with Medieval Swordswomen


Medieval Romance Basics
Medieval Romance for Villagers
Medieval Romance for Nobles
Medieval Romance for Men
Medieval Romance for Women


Life in Medieval Days

Lisa's Medieval Romances
Seeking the Truth
Knowing Yourself
A Sense of Duty


Online Literary Magazines

Lisa Shea Website Main Page