Friday 56: Tennessee Bride by Rosanne Bittner

He held her more firmly. "You will not die, Emma. I will not let you die."

Posted for The Friday 56, which is hosted by Freda's Voice

Title: Tennessee Bride
Author: Rosanne Bittner 
ISBN: 9780445206342
Publisher: warner books/1998
Pages: 384

Sixteen year old Emma Simms, born in a small village in the Tennessee mountains. Her mother dies in childbirth and Emma is now all alone with her cruel stepfather, Luke Simms.

Tommy Decker, a lecherous neighbor attempts to rape Emma, but she manages to escape and gives Tommy the beating of his life. Tommy is angered and swears she will pay for it. Meanwhile, Luke decides to sell Emma to Sam Gates, a man who uses the women he bought to service men in his saloon in Knoxville. 

But Emma has always been under the watchful eye of River Joe, a white man, who was taken in by the Cherokee when he was only five years old after his parents were attacked by a band of white marauders- his mother raped and both parents killed. By the time he comes for her, Emma has been sold to Hank Toole, and is on her way to Sam Gates. River Joe manages to rescue Emma, and they return to his people's village, at the top of the mountain.

However, their problems are far from over. Sam Gates is anxious to retrieve Emma and Tommy Decker is even more so. Emma and River Joe are afraid of their past coming back to haunt them, and the Cherokee people. Will they ever be free from their past?

It paints a realistic portrait of what women had to go through in those times, and how life was hard for the Native Americans. They were treated unjustly, which is well depicted in this novel.