Under A Painted Sky.

☆☆☆☆☆

under a painted sky.

stacey lee.

Publisher  G.P. Putnam's Sons Books

Publication Date:March  17,2015

Genre: YA Historical Fiction | Adventure

Format|Pages:Hardcover|384

 Source:Goodreads|Library.

Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush.



Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.

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What a beautiful, heartwarming debut novel.



Have you ever come across a novel that got impossible to get out of your mind? Once you reach the last page of the novel you find yourself thinking about everything that happened? An Inspirational story. UNDER A PAINTED SKY was that story for me, I couldn’t get enough and I felt like I could connect with these characters. To me all of the characters became my friends in a way. I needed to know what was going to happen to them next, what journey they would have to face next. Tell me how can you not enjoy story like this one? I was blow away by Samantha & Annamae’s story; they are type of characters that you can’t help but love. Sam & Annamae is not your typical characters that you usually come across, even in historical novels. One is Chinese and another runaway slave and both of them stay by each other’s side till the end. UNDER A PAINTED SKY is a book about survival and the true meaning of friendship. A book that deserves at least ten stars, at least in my opinion. A book that I can’t get out of my mind, hours after finishing it.




I always loved historical fiction; history had always been one of those subjects that always fascinated me. What I loved about UNDER A PAINTED SKY was that it’s wasn’t only a historical fiction but it always had a western mix into it. Cowboys, criminals, girls undercover as boys. How can you not getting addicted to the story? It had me wishing that I had more time to read, and the day I was off I was reading it till I had to put it down. History wasn’t the only interesting thing about this book but all the descriptions within their journey. I saw it all and it was like I was there along with everyone. It was beautiful. I can tell already that STACEY LEE will go a long way; I am already excited to see what she has in store for us next. I loved the friendship between Annamae and Samantha, now that’s a bond that will survive anything. Through the journey, the two of them became sisters. The two of them went through everything together, but no matter what happened, they were always there for one another. I loved their friendship; it reminded me a lot of my best friend Mariah and I. A bond that can survive anything.




Of course I loved the boys. They are cowboys, how can you not love cowboys? Of course it could be just me. I loved how they stick with the girls all the way through even once they found out the truth. I believe that through their long, difficult journey all of them became almost like a family. My favorite, West and the bond that he and Samantha had. I know that West felt something but I feel that maybe at same time he felt confused, because he assumed that she was a boy. Though I did wonder that maybe somewhere deep down he knew, he was just waiting for Sam to confess it to him. I was grinning by the time all the truth came out, I was glad to see that she found someone she could depend on, someone to love. It made it more realistic that they didn’t act on their feelings right away, but then their situation was different than in most romance novels.




A MUST READ. If you love westerns and historical fiction, pick it up today.