As usual, Brooks has a beautiful way with words, giving us sentences that please our minds' ears and help to immerse us in the book's setting. She brings us a sympathetic narrator, whose interactions with those around us, especially Caleb, are very interesting. I enjoyed learning how women (and native Americans) were viewed in 17th century North America.

If I had to pinpoint a problem I had with the book, it was how certain momentous events were trivialized, often by foreshadowing. For example, one character`s death is foreshadowed almost from the time the reader picks up the book, but once it occurs, it springs from nowhere and is dealt with in perhaps a sentence of two. If an event is known in advance, all that`s left to give the reader is a novel or beautiful way of relating the event, and this was not done here.

Still, a largely engaging story, and most pages were a delight. I'll keep looking for more Brooks.