Through the Fire also finaled in the 2008 Golden Heart ® Contest

Through the Fire~by Beth Trissel

Will love inflame these two natural born enemies in fiery destruction?

Hear the primal howl of a wolf, the liquid spill of a mountain stream. Welcome to the colonial frontier where the men fire muskets and wield tomahawks and the women are wildcats when threatened. The year is 1758, the height of the French and Indian War. Passions run deep in the raging battle to possess a continent, its wealth and furs. Both the French and English count powerful Indian tribes as their allies. The Iroquois League, Shawnee, and others bring age-old rivalries to the conflict—above all the ardent desire to hold onto what is theirs. Who will live, and who will fall?


Rebecca Elliot is an English lady, Shoka a half-Shawnee, half-French warrior. Rebecca fled an abusive father in London to elope to America with her young British captain. Shoka was a guide for English traders, befriended by an itinerant priest and betrayed by his wife. Rebecca left Philadelphia a widow, courtesy of the French and Indian War, to seek a beloved uncle in the Virginia colonial frontier. She has unwittingly entered a dangerous world of rugged mountains, wild animals, and even wilder men. The rules are different here and she doesn't know them.









Shoka is the hawk, swift and sure, and silent as the moon. He knows all about survival in this untamed land and how deadly distraction can be. He makes Rebecca his prisoner, but the last thing he wants is to lose his head and already shredded heart to another impossibly beautiful woman...this one with blindingly blue eyes and a blistering temper.


Rebecca wants Shoka to guide her to Fort Warden where her uncle and cousins may be sheltering. Shoka wants to sell this furious Englishwoman to a Frenchman before she draws him under her spell, but if he lets her go he can no longer protect her. If he holds onto her can he safeguard his heart? Rebecca is torn between a growing attraction to her magnetic captor and loyalty to her people. With dark forces gathering against them, will Rebecca and Shoka fight together or be destroyed?


Through the Fire is "meticulously researched...a cascade of bold action and passion." ~ Film consultant and author Jim Great Elk Waters (View from the Medicine Lodge, Seven Locks Press), a retired Shawnee URB sub-chief

7 comments

  1. Nightingale // April 14, 2008 at 6:19 PM  

    Way to go Beth. If this were a race, you'd be Seabiscuit! Very happy for you.

  2. Beth Trissel // April 14, 2008 at 8:42 PM  

    Thanks Linda. Didn't he have to be put to sleep? :)
    Actually, I'm thinking of retiring and being put out to pasture, resting on my laurels. How can I top this?

  3. Holly Greenfield // April 15, 2008 at 2:37 PM  

    Congratulations, Beth!!! That is wonderful.

  4. Sarita Leone // April 15, 2008 at 6:02 PM  

    Big congrats! What exciting news! :)

  5. Beth Trissel // April 15, 2008 at 9:58 PM  

    Thanks ladies! I hope to soar with this one!

  6. Mary Marvella // April 16, 2008 at 8:09 PM  

    You can't imagine who hard it was for me to keep the news to myself. So proud of you.

  7. Beth Trissel // April 17, 2008 at 8:58 AM  

    Thanks Mary! And to think I thought you forgot me. Until I remembered the fab cruise you were on.