Linda Clarke

Linda Weaver Clarke

 


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Linda Weaver Clarke received her Bachelor of Arts Degree at Southern Utah University and received the Outstanding Non-Traditional Student Award for the College of Performing Arts in 2002. She writes articles for several newspapers and teaches a Writing Workshop, encouraging others to turn their family history into a variety of interesting stories. She has written a historical/fiction love story, Melinda and the Wild West, published by American Book Publishing. This novel is the first of four in a family saga. Linda is happily married and is the mother of six daughters and has four grandchildren.

Melinda and the Wild West: A Family Saga in Bear Lake Valley, Idaho

Linda Weaver Clarke
Bedside Books (2006)
ISBN 1589823672
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (10/06))

Read the review on ReaderViews.com

Synopsis: Melinda and the Wild West, a Historical Fiction novel, is a love story filled with intrigue, adventure, and romance. This story blends fascinating characters with Idaho’s Bear Lake history and is based on several true experiences, published by American Book Publishing. Both adult and young adult will enjoy this story.

This story takes place in 1896. Melinda is from Boston and has come to Paris, Idaho to teach school. The idea of going to the Wild West appeals to her. She wants to do some good in someone’s life and maybe she could do it by teaching school. Intertwining fact and fiction, Melinda is confronted by many obstacles, such as a bank robbery by the notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy, a rebellious student that is marked as a trouble maker, an irritable grizzly bear, a blinding blizzard that leaves her clinging to her life, and the most rugged and stubborn rancher she has ever met in her life.

Melinda and the Wild West is not only full of intriguing obstacles, but has the tenderness of romance. A rugged rancher and a determined schoolteacher from the east tend to butt heads and clash with each encounter, but at the same time there seems to be an underlying interest in one another. Why Gilbert is guarding his heart is a mystery to Melinda, but she knows it has something to do with his past. Gilbert happens to be a caring and loving father to little eight-year-old Jenny, the rebellious student.

In this story, Melinda is desperately trying to help a rebellious student through acceptance and love, and at the same time, she is trying to understand her own heart.