ReviewTheBook.com
Heartland On the Side of Angels is the
first novel in the Liberty & Property Legends by new author Terri
Sedmak. She has done a superb job in setting the scene for the reader to travel
back to a time in 19th Century Wyoming. An accomplished story teller,
Ms. Sedmak wastes no time in her opening as she grabs the reader and immerses
him into the lives of the Taylor and Keaton families. They are frontier men and
women committed and devoted to their deep-rooted Alliance who will fight and die
for the land and water that is rightfully theirs. The setting is Wyoming and the
place is the Diamond-T ranch; the select target of 19th century land
wars and water rights.
Ms. Sedmak superbly developed her male and
female characters and cast a light of heroism on each of them in their rightful,
respective moments. She toys with the reader to presume the obvious between Luke
Taylor and Kelley Keaton; only to surprise them with the outcome.
In true frontier style, Ms. Sedmak skillfully
guides the reader on a tremendous adventure. At no point in this novel is it a
labor to turn the page. She artfully keeps the story moving forward through her
knowledge of revolutionary American history. Without question, there is a clear
balance between tragedy and celebration which makes her first novel in the
series a great read.
Hands down, Terri Sedmak saved the best for
last as she ends her first novel. She has left her readers with a craving for
the continuation of the ongoing saga of the Liberty & Property Legends
series.
Reviewed on 08/26/2012 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Diane Lunsford
http://reviewthebook.com/index.php/book/view/974/HEARTLAND-On-the-Side-of-Angels.html
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WaveCloud.com
WaveCloud.com included HEARTLAND On the Side of Angels in its 2012 Top 10 Summer Reads:
HEARTLAND, On the side of Angels by Terri Sedmak: An Aussie author with better insight into our western past then most Americans. This book takes you back in time on an adventure that meshes well with a trip to the lake or campsite. Her writing is so descript it is easy to imagine life 125 years ago, all the while swiping your e-reader for the next page… love her writing and hear the third book in the series will be out this fall! - Tara
HEARTLAND, On the side of Angels by Terri Sedmak: An Aussie author with better insight into our western past then most Americans. This book takes you back in time on an adventure that meshes well with a trip to the lake or campsite. Her writing is so descript it is easy to imagine life 125 years ago, all the while swiping your e-reader for the next page… love her writing and hear the third book in the series will be out this fall! - Tara
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PS NEWS BOOKS: BOOK REVIEW by Rama Gaind
Heartland: On the Side of Angels by Terri Sedmak
(Vivid Publishing, softcover, 523 pages)
It was an “on-going appreciation of American history, and an idea that wouldn’t go away” that propelled Australian author Terri Sedmak to write this sweeping historical fiction. Wyoming, 1883 is no different to the 21st century: themes in the book apply even today. One of them is the threat posed to democracy and basic rights from two main sources, capitalism and terrorism.
Heartland is about “liberty, freedom, how to get it, fight for it, understand it, use it … the abuse of it, and ultimately, its effects and the cost of it”. It is the first novel in the Liberty & Property Legends series that takes you on a journey of intrigue, loyalty, love and a fight for freedom. You will live and breathe the lives of 20-year-old Kelley Keaton, who finds lots of changes at home after five years in New York. Her brother Mart is behaving mysteriously and she now has an intriguing connection to her childhood nemesis Luke Taylor. It’s only after a cold-blooded murder that sensibilities are touched, distrust sets in and the fight for truth unfolds. Along the way, this adventurously brave novel tests loyalties in the most trying circumstances.
Being a part of the so-called “Gilded Age”, it’s interesting to note that people in the 1880s were doing what we are doing now - they just did it all without software and hard drives. Technology has changed our world, but not the people to a great extent. Heartland is meaningful, entertaining and high-spirited. Terri Sedmak paints a lucid picture in the course of her writing: stories are revealed through the characters who live in a contemporary world – and the readers are there with them.
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Review by Sweta Lal on BookRack.in
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Heartland- On the Side of Angels
By TERRI SEDMAK
Kelly and Luke form the heart of this epic novel. The chapters are written in a very unique manner dedicated to the protagonist on the scene at that moment of the story. The stories are written in a conversational mode and one feels like it’s been enacted in front of the eyes with lots of emotions which the readers tries to visualize and enact through the verses. That’s one unique USP that has resulted in this huge compilation. The story is well written and plots have been woven well.
A good adventure read with romance forming its binding knot. It’s an epic story of people who cannot be bogged down by anything life and who make you feel that the right to freedom and good living has a new meaning. The characters have been etched out very strongly and there are some beautiful verses courtesies Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These verses take you to a new high on top of the waves and you ride with the excitement and energy of the characters you are in.
You can find this fiction on the website www.terrisedmak.com.
http://www.terrisedmak.com./heartland.html
http://www.terrisedmak.com./heartland.html
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Daily Telegraph
Thursday 11/8/2011
by the
book
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEW by Troy Lennon
HEARTLAND On the Side Of Angels
By Terri Sedmak (Vivid $34.95)
Debut novelist Sedmak has written a grandiose saga reminiscent of those
sprawling Hollywood dramas set in America's frontier lands in the 19th
century. It centres on Kelley Keaton, a Wyoming farm girl who is sent to the
city to live with an aunt. She returns years later to find the family home
threatened by a war with a ruthless cattle baron, Ed Parsons, who wants their
land… Before the end of the novel there will be more bribery, some extortion,
two murders, a trial, romance and everything you expect from populist
novels… recreations of 19th century America are evocative and have a ring of
authenticity and once the novel grabs you it holds the attention until the end,
leaving the reader wanting more (which will come in part two).
Troy Lennon
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A review of HEARTLAND On the Side of Angels from Rebecca's Reads:
Heartland: On the Side of Angels
Terri Sedmak
Vivid Publishing ISBN 9781921787393
Reviewed by Kam Aures for Rebecca’s Reads (08/11)
"Heartland: On the Side of Angels" is Terri Sedmak’s first book in "The Liberty & Property Legends" series of books. The story opens in the Cheyenne Courthouse on August 28, 1884. "And so she sits there, wide-eyed, her blue gaze fixed on Cam, waiting to begin. He holds the journal and is about to give it to her. Her eyes follow it as he puts it into her hands. It happens slowly, as though time has changed its course, like a small stream that skedaddles round a bend and meets the wide, gainly river." (p.2) This is her brother’s journal that she is about to share with the courtroom and she hopes they believe the writings within.
After the initial opening, the reader is taken back to the year 1869 and we start to meet the main players in the story and learn the events leading up to the Cheyenne courtroom scene. Each part of the story is told through a different character’s eyes which I found to be very intriguing. I enjoyed having an insider’s view as to how each character felt about what has happening. I think that Sedmak’s choice to tell the story in this format was a good one as it amped up the storyline quite a bit and made it all the more interesting.
"Heartland: On the Side of Angels" is a very lengthy five hundred and twenty three pages, which for the most part is filled with substance. There were a couple of slower moving parts in the novel, but overall the storyline and the main characters held my interest. The characters were well-developed and the book flowed smoothly. If you enjoy historical fiction, then I recommend this first book in "The Liberty & Property Legends" series.
Terri Sedmak
Vivid Publishing ISBN 9781921787393
Reviewed by Kam Aures for Rebecca’s Reads (08/11)
"Heartland: On the Side of Angels" is Terri Sedmak’s first book in "The Liberty & Property Legends" series of books. The story opens in the Cheyenne Courthouse on August 28, 1884. "And so she sits there, wide-eyed, her blue gaze fixed on Cam, waiting to begin. He holds the journal and is about to give it to her. Her eyes follow it as he puts it into her hands. It happens slowly, as though time has changed its course, like a small stream that skedaddles round a bend and meets the wide, gainly river." (p.2) This is her brother’s journal that she is about to share with the courtroom and she hopes they believe the writings within.
After the initial opening, the reader is taken back to the year 1869 and we start to meet the main players in the story and learn the events leading up to the Cheyenne courtroom scene. Each part of the story is told through a different character’s eyes which I found to be very intriguing. I enjoyed having an insider’s view as to how each character felt about what has happening. I think that Sedmak’s choice to tell the story in this format was a good one as it amped up the storyline quite a bit and made it all the more interesting.
"Heartland: On the Side of Angels" is a very lengthy five hundred and twenty three pages, which for the most part is filled with substance. There were a couple of slower moving parts in the novel, but overall the storyline and the main characters held my interest. The characters were well-developed and the book flowed smoothly. If you enjoy historical fiction, then I recommend this first book in "The Liberty & Property Legends" series.