I absolutely loved this book and am so grateful to NetGalley for providing me an uncorrected digital galley. This is the last (I think) in the trilogy written by Jim Fergus about the destruction of the Native Americans as the west was being developed. As the story goes, in exchange for 1000 horses, a group of women from prisons and asylums , also numbering 1000, were offered an opportunity for freedom in return for marrying the Indian warriors of the Cheyenne Nation in an effort to bring about lasting peace. Their metamorphosis of Christian women from so-called civilization to a fierce band of survivors and their growth in understanding the Native American culture is a wonderful read. They witnessed first hand the destruction of an entire civilization’s way of life, while embracing it for their own survival. The characters are so well developed that they literally leap off the page, and the description of the wilderness in the late 1800’s makes you yearn for its’ return.

I LOVED 1000 White Women and was looking forward to this installment in the trilogy.
Im sad to say that it didn't measure up to the other books. ALthough it presented the same
compelling characters, there was something lacking in this final book. I read the others in one sitting.
Couldn't get enough. With Strongheart, I had to push to get to the end.
The topic is still interesting and more relevant than ever.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.. Will start this by saying I loved "One Thousand White Women". But this book just could not hold my attention. The writing style was different from the first book. Maybe give it a go when it comes out in audio... I didn't like it but someone else might...

I read about 50 pages and wasn't interested enough to continue. Even though it was a diary/journal, it was just too disjointed to capture my attention for long. #NetGalley, #Strongheart

Loved it! This was my first taste of Jim Ferguson's writing and I found it clever and engaging.

This book alludes to the previous book by Jim Fergus 'ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN: THE JOURNALS OF MAY DODD' despite this being a follow up it is also a stand alone novel.

The story is set in present times and through the reading of the journals it takes the reader back to the settlement of the west. Based on true events this story is an intricate retelling of history that keeps you engaged and wanting more.

I was very excited to see the next book in this trilogy! However, I wound up disappointed. Don't get me wrong...Mr. Fergus is a great writer. I just think there was a lot of repetition of the first books and it dragged on. I also think that perhaps, because it had been a while since I read the first two in the series, maybe I just felt lost.

My recommendation is that you need to read from Book 1 and end with this one. If it had been out at the same time as the first 2, I would have at least remained in the zone.

I am sure this is a first hand account of the Native American narrative but I just could not read it in its written form. Some books just are not for everyone.

Strongheart is the name of this book,as I found out the third in a series which I have not read. As not reading the first two books none of this made any sense to me. It's a journal about two different people and their experiences as Indians and what they went through. I will be honest,I read like not even half way and had to stop because too many people started to get into the story and I had no clue who they were and why these things were going on, so I did some checking and that's when I found out there are two books before this. Sometimes you can read a book in a series out of order and be ok,but I really don't think you can with this one. To me,this story is way too important to read out of order to do this book any justice. So,I am going to leave a favorable review on this book now. I am going to go back and read the first two,review them and then come back and read this one and then I can give Jim Fergus a honest review.. You can tell that a lot of research went into this book and to get the facts down on paper correctly and that is so very important especially when you are writing about something this important and the experience that these two and others went through and how they were being treated as a Indian! SO,I am doing 5 stars..

I did not finish this book because I was not able to follow the story line or keep track of the many characters. This is the third book in a trilogy; I have not read the other books. Maybe If I had, I would have a better understanding of what is happening in this book. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and St Martin’s Press. All opinions expressed are my own.

I read the first book One Thousand White Women a number of years ago, and I really enjoyed it. I've also read the second in the trilogy, The Vengeance of Mothers, as an ARC, but was disappointed in it. Although I wanted to know what happened to May and the other brides, The historical parts of this narrative are told in two voices, those of May Dodd and Molly McGill. While the journal writers are engaging and interesting, there was some overlap in their timelines that was strange. Why do the meet up in Molly's journal, but then aren't in May's when we next read it? The ending of this book and the trilogy certainly left me with more questions than answers. Why introduce Molly Standing Bear in book 2, only to have her just disappear in book 3. Also, "allowing" her editing rights to the manuscripts (which have some continuity issues) and then JW saying that he left in her "mistakes" feels like a cheap way of not editing a novel, What was the purpose of her and JW's relationship? I was definitely more interested in the historical fiction of the novel rather than the contemporary storyline. I didn't like how Molly Standing Bear just lectured JW and the reader the whole time. She was featured quite a bit in this book, which was really off putting to me, and I found myself wanting to skip long passes of her and JW's stunted dialogue. Also, the whole idea of the dead world and the living world behind it, felt cheap. For three books these characters have been running from the Army and Jules Seminole, and when they're finally safe they decide to go back to running from the Army? What? Why?

Jim Fergus concludes his ”One Thousand White Women” series; the first installment published more than twenty years ago and which the passing of the author shortly thereafter complicated. His son, JW Dodd, took over as editor-in-chief of “Chitown Magazine,” the main carrier of the series, with the title of “The Journals of May Dodd,” one of the women enlisted by the United States government to enter the Native American population, marry a male native, and produce children with the aim of smoothing relations as the Natives were assimilated into the American population. This program was never actually implemented but it formed a wondrous background for Fergus’s epic story. I have read both of the original stories, found them highly informative and interesting, and filled with the author’s imaginative and lyrical language.

It’s obvious, with this final installment, that the story has reached its logical conclusion and, hopefully, will be allowed to die a dignified death. There’s not much more to tell. JW tells of a young Cheyenne woman, Molly Standing Bear, who approached him with what she claimed were the final installments of the Journals, then for reasons unknown to him, originally withheld those entries. His supposition at the time was that she didn’t quite trust him and had withheld the documents. The result was that an unsatisfactory ending occurred after two installments and the publishers were inundated with gripes and complaints about the ending. JW set out to convince Molly Standing Bear to give him the rights to the remainder of the story. He had to make certain concessions about the provider’s role, including giving her exclusive control over the publishing of the material with no interference from JW as to its content. This is the basis for this book with Standing Bear telling about it during the introduction. There seems to be an obsession with maintaining authenticity in its contents. I’m here to tell you that the book is as authentic as it can be, allowing to reader to marvel at the customs, mores, and way of life of these authentic first Americans.

So, the story continues as the main participants continue with their lives, giving the reader the opportunity to gather all the disparate thought they might have engendered over the past two installments and to have some closure to the story, something I, for one, appreciated. Although these books have frequently been criticized for wooden dialogue and boring exchanges of Indian lore, I found them immensely informative and thoughtful for the information gained about the lore of American Indian tribes. They are very readable and with plot lines that reveal much about the intense persecution of such people.

This book is set in 1873, a Cheyenne chief offers President Grant the opportunity to exchange one thousand horses for one thousand white women, in order to marry them with his warriors and create a lasting peace. These women, "recruited" by force in the penitentiaries and asylums of the country, gradually integrate the way of life of the Cheyenne, at the time when the great massacres of the tribes begin.

This is a book I will remember for some time!
Jim Fergus really knows how gran your attention.
I loved the storyline this book told.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jim Fergus and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read Strongheart in return for an honest review.
I fell in love with One Thousand Women, the first book in this trilogy so I was very excited to have a chance to read the final chapter in May and Molly's story. It was a good conclusion to the trilogy but, for me, it didn't pack quite the punch as the first two books in this trilogy. The writing as always is good but, I just didn't get as involved in this one as the others. If you have read the first two books, you have to finish this one.

I received a complimentary copy of Strongheart from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

The first two books in this series were FANTASTIC! However, this novel fell pretty short of that. As a stand-alone it might be an mediocre read, but as a finale, it did not come close to comparing to the others. Too much time was spent in the present (rather than the journals) and some of the best characters were long gone. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I did not love this one as much as the previous pair.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is the 3rd in the 1000 White Women trilogy. It continues the stories of the women who have survived the government experiment of white women marrying the Indians to help them assimilate better when they are moved to reservations.

I somehow missed the 2nd book and had to get caught up on what I had missed. This book is written in diary form by two different women as well as a narrator who is allowing the story to be told to a journalist from today. It gets a bit confusing at times but Fergus does a good job of describing the life for these white women and the Indians as well as some issues that are happening in our current times.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

The continuing saga of May and Molly. Jim Fergus did a great job telling us the”rest of the story”! We will purchase this book for the library.

Final book in One Thousand White Women Trilogy
Book 2 - The Vengeance of Mothers

Molly Standing Bear from Tongue River Indian Reservation is editor and annotator of her tale.

Tells their story her way, "another bend in the long trail"
Grieving mothers of murdered children shared experiences are foundation of bond and mutual respect.
Journal or diary entries that take us along beside them share their lives with us.
Strongheart warrior society women!
Legendary women I want more of!

I got to escape society and live among amazing women
We are ALL Tsistsistas - "people"

I did not like when I was interrupted while reading this as I only wanted to keep reading.

This was a confusing story supposedly written by two women as diaries. It relates to their time in the 19th century when the U.S. government was trying to eradicate the Indians. There were a lot of characters which was confusing at times and hard to distinguish between them. This was the third in a series about women who were sent out west to marry Indians. I don’t know if this was supposed to be an historical novel. It is a story of hardship, relationships and perseverance. It might have been more interesting if I had read the first two novels in the series as it was it was confusing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 4
Pace: 3
Plot development: 3
Characters: 4
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of Reading: 3

Overall rating: 3 out of 5