Montana Feathers – Penny Hayes
On the About page I wrote about Les Bises, the mail order company I started with my then partner. It was the 1990’s and books like Montana Feathers got me hooked on lesbian fiction. These were books published by Naiad, nowadays Bella Books. I remember we carried a lot of Naiad titles. And I read all of them 🥰. I recently reread this book by Penny Hayes, and it was as enjoyable as it was all these years ago when I first read it.
Montana Feathers tells the story of Elizabeth Reynolds, a 23-year-old upper class woman from New York and Vivian Blake, a 35-year-old widowed sheep rancher. The story takes place in the Montana Territory, when homesteading, sod houses, and sheep ranching were central to Western expansion, just prior to Montana achieving U.S. statehood in 1889.
Elizabeth is engaged to be married and wants a year of independence and freedom before she marries the man she is engaged to. She decides to spend that year with her aunt and uncle in Montana. It is not enough to be away, she wants to experience total independence and tries to build a soddy for herself so that she can be all by herself. It is during this impossible endeavor that she meets Vivian. Vivian explains she can’t build anything anytime soon in the extremely dry Montana soil. She lends Elizabeth her own soddy she regularly uses with her hands while tending her herd.
This is the beginning of a friendship and a deep awakening for Elizabeth. She realizes that she starts to have feelings for Vivian, romantic and passionate feelings. Vivian seems to be feeling the same way about her. But she also gets what she wanted, independence and freedom, in a way she never thought possible. Summers are harsh in Montana, but the winters are gruesome and devastating.
It is during the wintertime she finds her strength and her confidence. She sees there is so much more to life than the fancy and comfortable life she will be leading in New York, made possible by her husband. The New Yorker grows to appreciate the Montanans and all that Montana brings. The two women grow closer the more time they spend time together. They share difficult times and victories, overcoming the Montana hardships. Still, she is bound by her engagement to Jonathan, her fiancé. And she will honor her fate. But will she?
It was a delight to read this book again. I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel there was a different feel to these lesbian romance novels of the 90’s. In any case, I am glad I can still read them. More of these rereads will follow 🥰.
