Lakota Dawn

A combination of dreams and destiny lead Chase Martin (aka Cloud Chaser), who's half-white, half-Native American, to return to his Plains tribe in 1854. Having been presumed dead by the Red Shield Oglalas for over a decade (he was raised by whites), he must prove his identity and reassure his tribe of his loyalty. Complicating matters are Chase's immediate attraction to the beautiful Macha--the ""Dawn"" of the title--who is also desired by Chase's angry and distrusting cousin Two Feathers. Once Chase wins the tribe's acceptance, he becomes instrumental as a spy, since he can easily pass in the white and the Native worlds. Self-consciously awkward prose and stilted dialogue mar the adventure/romance mood Taylor attempts in the second volume of her four-book Lakota Skies Series. Readers new to her sugary style may cringe rather than swoon every time Chase addresses Macha as ""sunshine of my heart."" In Taylor's hands, Chase's attempts to make the whites deal fairly with the Indians and to get the Indians to adopt a stronger survival strategy don't ring true enough to persuade readers to suspend their knowledge of what ultimately happened, to the Indians, beyond the pages of this melodrama. (Feb.)