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Book Review of Safe Passage

Safe Passage
Safe Passage
Author: Carla Kelly
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Romance
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
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Helpful Score: 1


First, this is a well-crafted story that takes place in the early years of the 1900s during the Mexican Revolution. A colony of Mormons that had taken up residence in Mexico many years ago, were ordered off their farms and ranches because of the fighting. Most of the people left their homes when their religious leader ordered it.

However, Addie Hancocks father begged her to stay behind with Grandma Sada Storrs, bed-ridden and having taken a turn for the worse. When all the travelers gathered in El Paso, Addies father came to Ammon Hancock (although married, Addie and Ammon had been estranged for 2 years at that point), and asked Ammon to go back for her.

Going back into the fighting was not a plan for continued health; Ammon prepares to go immediately. Ammon is truly a man to admire; he knows it is his responsibility to save his wife and he goes, even though the two have not spoken to each other for more than 2 years.

Most of the book recounts their adventures trying to get back to safety and it certainly wasnt the most direct route out of the country. I did have a problem with Ammon keeping Addie in war-infested territory beyond a time that seemed reasonable. I could see why Ammon, with their tenuous relationship rebuilding, would not want to deny Addie anything she asked. Going away from safety to pay a woman they did not know, money she did not expect seemed hard to take.

This book has stayed with me long after completing it; the story was unusual and engrossing. It seems to be ordinary people working together to do the nearly impossible.