EDWARDS, Susan

PERSONAL:

Married; children: two. Hobbies and other interests: Quilting, sewing, gardening, raising birds, camping, fishing, music, and reading.

ADDRESSES:

Home—P.O. Box 766, Los Altos, CA 94023-0766. E-mail—sedwards2u.aol.com.

CAREER:

Novelist.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

White Wind, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 1996.

White Wolf, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 1999.

White Flame, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 1999.

White Nights, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2000.

White Dreams, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2000.

White Dove, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2001.

White Dawn, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2002.

White Dusk, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2002.

White Shadows, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Romance author Susan Edwards's novels are set in the American West during the days of wagon trains, gunfights, dusty trails, and encounters with Native Americans. Each of her novels shares the word "white" in the title, and most of them explore the theme of what happens when a full Caucasian character falls in love with a full or mixed-race Native American.

In White Wind, Edwards's first novel, Sarah endures the cruelty of her cousin and guardian, Willy, who threatens to expose her half-Indian heritage and kill her elderly caretakers unless she agrees to marry him. Before Willy can carry out his threats, a Native-American war party led by Golden Eagle descends, seeking revenge for Willy's abuses of women in Golden Eagle's village. Sarah is captured, and when she meets Golden Eagle, she realizes that he is the young Native American who had saved her life years ago—and he recognizes her as the blonde-haired white girl he had continued to think about for all those years. "White Wind quickly becomes unputdownable," commented Cyndie Dennis-Greer on the Romantic Times Web site, and "the twists and turns in the story make the characters lovable and real."

When young Jessie Jones finds out that wagon train leader White Wolf refuses to let any women join his train, foiling her plans to travel with her three brothers to a new life in Oregon, she plans to confront the title character of White Wolf with her displeasure. However, the still physically immature Jessie is mistaken for a boy and finds herself traveling with the train under this pretense. White Wolf eventually discovers the error—too late—and the wagon master and fiery tomboy drift toward romance on the dangerous trail west. "The element I most enjoyed was Ms. Edwards's skill in painting word pictures, bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of a pioneer wagon traveling many dusty miles through a virgin land," remarked reviewer Mary Ann Lien on the All about Romance Web site.

Reviewer Gerry Benninger, writing on the Romantic Times Web site, called Edwards's White Dawn "a moving, believable Indian romance." When young Emily Ambrose inadvertently tempts a priest, her deeply religious but mentally unstable father gives her a savage beating. Abandoned, then orphaned when her parents are killed by marauding tribesmen, she encounters half-white Sioux chief Swift Foot, who works to return her to white society. Swift Foot grows to love Emily, but he knows he cannot take a white wife and remain chief. Although he grieves to do so, he abandons her where she will be found by John, a white trapper. While John hopes that Emily can learn to love him, she must readjust to the life she once knew, coping with deep hurts, feelings of abandonment, and her own broken heart. Swift Foot returns in Edwards's next novel, White Dawn, where he prepares to marry Small Bird, creating a union designed to forge a peaceful alliance with a neighboring tribe. Swift Foot believes he is marrying solely out of duty, but Small Bird cannot deny the vision that showed her they would be together—just as she cannot deny that she has been in love with Swift Foot for years. Benninger, writing on the Romantic Times Web site, observed that Edwards's "wonderfully poetic prose captures the naturalism of the traditional Sioux" and their lifestyle.

In White Shadows half-white Cheyenne warrior Night Shadow kidnaps Sioux woman Winona in order to force the Sioux medicine man to reveal the whereabouts of Night Shadow's younger sister, Jenny. As Winona grows to care for her captor, Night Shadow recognizes that he is also strongly drawn to her, as his hatred of the Sioux begins to melt away, little by little. In another Romantic Times Web site review, Benninger remarked that "Edwards creates her Native American romance with high regard for the realities of tribal life and captures the spirit of these native peoples."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, November 15, 1998, Kristin Ramsdell, review of White Wolf, p. 58.

ONLINE

All about Romance Web site,http://www.likesbooks.com/ (July 22, 2004), Mary Ann Lien, review of White Wolf, Blythe Barnhill, review of White Nights, Noelle Leslie de la Cruz, review of White Dove, and TaKiesha Smith, review of White Shadows.

Romantic Times Web site,http://www.romantictimes.com/ (July 22, 2004), Cyndie Dennis-Greer, review of White Wind and White Flame; Gerry Benninger, review of White Dawn, White Dusk, and White Shadows.

Susan Edwards Home Page,http://www.susanedwards.com (August 5, 2004).*