Leisure, $5.99, ISBN 0-8439-4748-9
Historical Romance, 2000

Northern Nights is just one of those books that just can’t seem to hold my attention. It is very hard for me to finish more than a few chapters at one sitting before being distracted by other things such as the TV or radio. The writing style just don’t grab me. I don’t like the hero, so there’s no help from that department either.

Isaac or his Indian name Fights with Wealth (don’t ask) is an Indian halfbreed. He is a “shamed man” because his mother’s tribe, the Tsimshian, has disowned her after she was abducted and forced into marriage with a Haidan chief. Now, to become an honored member of the Tsimshian tribe, he will abduct the murderers of the nephew of the chief.

He abducts the murderer’s niece as well. Elizabeth and he do the deed, she gets pregnant, and when the unforgiving Tsimshian dudes want to kill her Isaac offers to die in her place. She goes off, in mourning, and marries someone else. Isaac comes back, angry. Obviously he’s not dead after all.

So now what?

If it was up to me, I’d have Elizabeth show Isaac the finger and walk off into the sunset. The end. The poor Other Man has to die tragically and no doubt painfully, and our Lizzy immediately asks Isaac to marry her. Poor guy, unmourned after all the things he has done for her.

Isaac says no, even after Lizzy has demonstrated her willingness to adopt his culture and his ways. No. No. No. Because she isn’t one of them (the old and wise adage “good enough to fuck but not good enough to marry” comes to mind), because she marries after she has thought he died (according to our hero, a good woman who loves her man would mourn for the rest of her life), because, because, because.

It really becomes boring fast. Especially when I can’t see why Isaac is such a catch. He’s a prude, a bore, a mule, and a chauvinistic pig all rolled in one. Elizabeth could do better.

Still, if she has a thing for stubborn guys, who am I to say anything? To each her own.