Why am I passionate about this?

I am a lifelong history lover. I was the kid who hung around the feet of the elders, listening to their stories and learning about the past. That led to a deep interest in tracing family history, which has been a passion since about the age of ten. I still can get lost for hours finding ancestors or reading about their lives. That interest led me to a double major in college and I earned a Bachelor of Arts in both history and English with a two-year degree in journalism. I live a short distance from Oklahoma and one of my favorite pastimes is to go to powwows whenever possible.


I wrote...

Tall, Dark, and Cherokee

By Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy,

Book cover of Tall, Dark, and Cherokee

What is my book about?

Shane Raincrow is a U.S. Marshall. He's also tall, dark, and Cherokee. Kaitlin Corbin is a bride who doesn't really…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Silk and Stone

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Why did I love this book?

It's a heart-wrenching tale of lost love and a second chance at happiness with edge-of-the-chair suspense. It appeals to me because I have some Cherokee heritage which resonates. I love second chance at romance stories because I married the man I fell in love with in high school – at the age of 32!

By Deborah Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Silk and Stone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

He was home from prison.
Ten years compressed in the nerve-racking space of a few seconds.
This tall, broad-shouldered stranger was her husband. Every memory she had of his appearance was there, stamped with a brutal decade of maturity, but there. Except for the look in his eyes. Nothing had ever been bleak and hard about him before. He stared at her with an intensity that could have burned her shadow on the floor.
Words were hopeless, but all that they had. “Welcome back,” she said. Then, brokenly, “Jake.”
He took a deep breath, as if a shiver had run…


Book cover of The Warrior

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Why did I love this book?

Sharon Sala is one of my personal favorite romance authors. She lives in Oklahoma – not far from the southwest corner of Missouri I call home. Her writing is rich and filled with powerful emotion. This story appeals – the hero, John Nightwalker, is everything I find appealing – he's dark and handsome, strong and sexy, capable and caring, yet he is also intense, not to be messed with and amazing.

By Sharon Sala,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Warrior as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

John Nightwalker is a strong, rugged Native American soldier who has seen many battles. While hunting down an old enemy, he crosses paths with Alicia Ponte. On the run from her father—a powerful arms manufacturer—Alicia seeks to expose her father's traitorous crimes of selling weapons to our enemies in Iraq. But Richard Ponte will do anything to stay below the radar…even if it means killing his own daughter.

Drawn to the mystery that surrounds Alicia, John feels compelled to protect her. Together they travel through the beautiful yet brutal Arizona desert to uncover deadly truths and bring her father to…


Book cover of Ride the Free Wind

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Why did I love this book?

I have a passion for history and did one of my history thesis in college on white women and their Native American captives. In this story, there's a strong attraction, a commitment to abandon the life she knows by the heroine to embrace her lover's culture. Zeke's transformation back into Lone Eagle is one that really touched me emotionally.

By Rosanne Bittner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ride the Free Wind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The second book in Rosanne Bittner’s bold Savage Destiny series continues the love story of Zeke and Abbie Monroe. For the first five years of her marriage Abbie lives among the Cheyenne, learning their customs and beliefs and giving birth to a son who is as wild and free as his Native American family, and a daughter who will one day be forced to choose between her Indian and white blood. Through real historical events involving the government and Native Americans, Zeke and Abbie cling to one another through danger and torn loyalties. This story vividly depicts the “right” and…


Book cover of Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Why did I love this book?

This is based on an actual captive woman in the early Colonial years. Since the topic was the subject of my thesis (Captive Or Captivated) I was enthralled in the way that the author brought the true story to life as fiction. Great historical accuracy and detail as well as a story sure to be remembered for a very long time.

By Amy Belding Brown,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Flight of the Sparrow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of Emily's House comes a “compelling, emotionally gripping”* novel of historical fiction—perfect for readers of America’s First Daughter.

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1676. Even before Mary Rowlandson was captured by Indians on a winter day of violence and terror, she sometimes found herself in conflict with her rigid Puritan community. Now, her home destroyed, her children lost to her, she has been sold into the service of a powerful woman tribal leader, made a pawn in the ongoing bloody struggle between English settlers and native people.

Battling cold, hunger, and exhaustion, Mary witnesses harrowing brutality but also unexpected…


Book cover of Lakota Dreaming

Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Why did I love this book?

This book blends the past with the present and takes the heroine Zora Hughes from New York City to South Dakota where she and John Iron Hawk. The story combines history with mystery and romance with suspense in an engaging way that kept me turning the pages to see what happened next.

By Constance Gillam,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lakota Dreaming as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Her visions brought her here. Her heart tells her to stay. But someone dangerous wants her gone…

Zora Hughes is haunted by someone else’s past. Plagued by dreams of her ancestor fleeing captivity, the former NYC fashion editor travels to South Dakota to uncover the truth. And until she can put her visions to rest, she won’t let anyone stand in her way… not even the handsome captain of the local tribal police.

John Iron Hawk is on a mission to clean up his reservation. Trying to raise a teenage daughter on his own while working to expose a corrupt…


You might also like...

Down a Bad Road

By Regina Buttner,

Book cover of Down a Bad Road

Regina Buttner Author Of Down a Bad Road

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a close girlfriend who was once involved with a man she wanted to marry. The trouble was, the guy was always hanging out with this other woman who he’d known since childhood. Just friends, he said. Nothing going on. Ha! The shenanigans they got up to were unbelievable, and extremely upsetting to my girlfriend, who eventually broke up with the cad. Her unlucky experience got me interested in the psychology of the love triangle, and why some people remain mired in these dead-end relationships. My reading jam is anything twisty and suspenseful, and what’s more fraught than a three-way competition for someone’s affections.

Regina's book list on love triangles that turn deadly

What is my book about?

Jealousy can be deadly.

Ron Burley has a rule against messing around with married women, but lovely Lavender has convinced him to break it. Their steamy affair sets someone off, but it isn’t Lavender’s clueless husband—it’s Marta, Burley’s clingy childhood friend and ex-lover. 

Hoping to win Burley back, Marta dangles a lucrative job offer. Though he’s sorely tempted, Burley’s afraid to trust her due to the sketchy circumstances surrounding their bitter breakup years ago; but this might be his only chance to get back at her for what she did. Meanwhile, Lavender has become suspicious of Burley’s romantic history, and…

Down a Bad Road

By Regina Buttner,

What is this book about?

"Gripping and unforgettable suspense-think North Country, New York noir laced with dark humor. Don't plan on setting this fast-paced thriller down until you read the last page!" –Cam Torrens, author of Stable

Jealousy can be deadly.

Longtime bachelor Ron Burley has a rule against messing around with married women in his rural upstate New York town, but sassy, lovely Lavender has convinced him to break it. Their steamy affair sets someone off, but it isn't Lavender's clueless husband-it's Marta, Burley's clingy childhood friend and ex-lover.

Marta knows Burley is on the verge of going broke, so she secretly tries to…


Don't forget about my book 😀

Tall, Dark, and Cherokee

By Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy,

Book cover of Tall, Dark, and Cherokee

What is my book about?

Shane Raincrow is a U.S. Marshall. He's also tall, dark, and Cherokee. Kaitlin Corbin is a bride who doesn't really want to get married to a man she suspects is dealing drugs and double-crossing a cartel. When gunfire interrupts her wedding, Shane takes her into custody as a material witness. Instead of delivering her to a safe house, they hit the road and head for the only place Shane thinks is safe. 

By the time they get hitched in a one-hour wedding chapel and reach his grandfather's home deep in the Oklahoma hills, they're falling in love – for real. The survival stakes are high, especially when the drug cartel comes after them and they make a stand, backed by Shane's family. If they can survive, maybe the marriage will too.

5 book lists we think you will like!

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