Of
all the novels I’ve written so far and all of the research I’ve done for these
novels (and believe me, I’ve done a lot!), by far the most fascinating
discoveries I made were when I began researching the lives of Native Americans
after the “Cowboys and Indians” era for In Your Arms. The entire Montana Romance series takes place
in a fictitious town in western Montana near the mountains—an area that is rich
in Native American history and culture.
I wanted to show as much of that culture as I could within the context
of a romance.
What
surprised me the most was not how shamefully the Native American population was
treated. I knew that as Americans of
European descent moved west they displaced the native peoples, forcing them to
live on reservations or to give up their lifestyles completely. I knew the long, sad story behind the near
decimation of that culture. All of these
things are what inspired me to tell Lily’s story in the first place.
What
I didn’t realize was how bittersweet the efforts of missionaries and
well-meaning but misguided people were.
I knew that I wanted my heroine, Lily, to have been taken from her tribe
as a small child and raised in one of the many Indian schools that popped up
back east. I knew a little bit about the
Indian schools, but the reasons why they were built, the goals that they had,
and the results of their efforts was even more heartening and heartbreaking
than I had imagined.
The
white Americans who founded, funded, and ran the Indian schools were coming
from a place of genuine charity, thoughtfulness, and good intentions. They were moved by the plight of the Native
Americans and wanted to help them. The
problem was that what they saw as helping them—educating Native American
children in European ways, removing all signs of the culture they were born
into and making them look like white people, and training them for ‘useful
employment in society’—was, in fact, destroying their cultural identity. It truly was a case of the path to hell being
paved with good intentions.
It
was bittersweet to learn about what happened to the thousands of children who
went through these schools. Many of them
did go on to successful careers in the white man’s world. Many became teachers, like Lily. But also like Lily as I have portrayed her,
they lost all ties with who they were.
They were turned out into the world in a cultural limbo, no longer
fitting in with their past but never completely accepted by the ‘civilized’
world they were trained for. The result
was a generation of people left with huge psychological scars. Those scars also extended to the older
generation, whose children, whose future was taken from them.
It’s
heavy stuff for a romance novel! But at
the same time, I was driven to tell this story.
Ultimately, In Your Arms is a story about finding love and finding where
you belong when everything has been taken from you. It is a story about hope and the ability of
love to overcome even the most tragic barriers.
It is my deepest hope that I have remembered the young men and women on
both sides who endured this painful chapter of our history and that I have done
them justice.
In Your Arms is the third full-length novel in Merry Farmer's sweeping, engaging, and extremely historically accurate Montana Romance series. Never one to shy away from difficult or controversial topics while still imbuing her tales with more than a dash of romance and steam, Merry depicts a tale of love, trust, and stubborness against the backdrop of the turn-of-the-century American frontier. "[In Your Arms is] a book that intelligently tackles racial tensions of post-Civil War era...a highly engaging romance between two fiery-spirited individuals...I highly recommend this book to all fans of historical romance." --Mary Chen, Amazon reviewer Get In Your Arms on Amazon, Amazon UK, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks. Add In Your Arms to your Goodreads to-read shelf!
About In Your Arms
Lily Singer has never belonged. Taken from her tribe as a child and raised in a white man’s school, she no longer has a place in either world. Teaching has become her life. When that life is threatened by rumors and prejudice after a string of robberies, she must turn for help to the one man who spells disaster for her carefully ordered existence. Will he save her or steal her heart?
Christian Avery, Justice of the Peace, is used to having things his way. Cold Springs is his responsibility, and when its citizens blame the local Indian population for the mysterious robberies, it’s up to him to restore order and maintain calm. The one person who refuses to follow his lead is the beautiful, native-born Lily. Her defiance turns his life upside down.
But when town gossip shifts from robberies to romance after a foolish indiscretion, Lily’s job and reputation are on the line. She must choose between the only life she has ever known and the only place she has ever felt at home, in Christian’s arms.
About Merry Farmer
Merry Farmer lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats, Butterfly and Torpedo. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always having something to write about. Today she walks along the cutting edge of Indie Publishing, writing Historical Romance and Women's Sci-Fi. She is also passionate about blogging, knitting, and cricket and is working towards becoming an internationally certified cricket scorer.
Find Merry Farmer on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon Author Page.
