The Homecoming

Picture an Irish character doll come to life--long red hair, fiery temper, big heart, tiny waist--and you have predictably feisty Bryna Cassidy. En route to join relatives in the colonies in 1763, Bryna is suddenly orphaned when a villain throws her gambler father overboard. She travels to New Eden, Pennsylvania, only to discover that, except for her five-year-old cousin, all of her relatives have been slaughtered or kidnapped by Indians. In order to survive, penniless Bryna accepts the marriage proposal of rich landowner Dominick Crown, an exiled English lord who dresses in deerskin and refuses to powder his hair. She learns a lot about the persecution of the Lenni-Lenape tribe and meets the challenge of the New World while living in Dominick's cushy Old World mansion. Even with Michaels's attempts at historical and political correctness, this is flat, self-righteous stuff. (Apr.)