Legacy by Danielle Steel

              It took me by surprise when my mom recommended this book to me.  To my recollection I have never read a book by Danielle Steel as they are not ones I tend to gravitate towards.  After reading this book, I think I will start to pay more attention to Ms. Steel’s works as I enjoyed nearly every minute.

              Brigitte is going through a rough patch.  Actually, that is an understatement.  She has been dating a man for six years.  Although they never really discussed it, she always thought they would get married and have children.  Instead, he goes on an archaeological dig in Egypt and breaks up with her.  On top of it, he tells her he does not know if marriage and children are really his thing.  If this was not bad enough, two days later Brigitte is let go from her job.  The school she works for feels her duties can be done by a computer and she is no longer necessary.  With six months of severance pay, she applies to jobs and unsuccessfully works on her nonfiction book.

              Pretty much at her breaking point, Brigitte agrees to do some genealogical research for her mother.  She travels to Utah and discovers an ancestor she never knew she had.  The ancestor is a Dakota Sioux by the name of Wachiwi.  She lived centuries ago and had an adventurous and daring life.  Kidnapped from her tribe and family, Wachiwi manages to escape her captors, fall in love, and make her way to France. 

Determined to find out as much as she can about her ancestor, Brigitte begins her own adventure.  She travels to South Dakota and eventually to France.  The journey brings Brigitte new opportunities and changes her life in ways she never would have thought of before.

            This book is written in alternating parts between Brigitte and Wachiwi.  Being honest I found Wachiwi’s parts much more interesting and I anxiously waited for her pieces to begin again.  In so many ways Wachiwi was the main character of this book, and that was fine by me.