Book Review: Unbroken

Jamie Lisa Forbes’ debut novel, Unbroken, is a WILLA Award recipient and worthy of this prestigious honor.

Gwen Swan’s life is an unbroken chain of cooking, helping her husband on their family cattle ranch, managing their children, Rory and McKenna, juggling finances, and working through Wyoming’s harsh winters and sweltering summers with seemingly few days of reprieve between seasons. Gwen’s hard-working husband Will centers his life around the ranch. His father John, a widower for most of Gwen and Will’s married life, lives in his own house, but takes his meals with his son’s family. John still calls most of the shots on the daily ranch activities. Will occasionally takes his own initiative, but when he does his father can be counted on to share his opinion.

It’s up to Gwen to deal with her son’s teachers and their disapproval of Rory’s behavior at school. When Will becomes aware of Rory’s trouble at home, his impatience is obvious, but Rory’s grandfather helps smooth over hurt feelings. Rory especially basks in his grandfather’s love.

Will’s brother, long estranged from the family, appears and old bitterness and resentments resurface, further straining their lives.

Meg Braeburn and her young son Tim have broken away from her family’s ranch. She’s made mistakes but is determined to make a good life for them. She’s hired as a hand on a ranch neighboring Swan’s. The absent owner leaves all the work to her, with a stringy, unkept horse, rusty equipment and unrealistic expectations. Meg surprises them all with her ability and drive, and her resoluteness.

Before long Gwen and Meg become friends, their children play, though Rory often bullies Jim. The ranchers support and help one another with time, equipment and friendship.

The isolation and closeness of the two families begins to take their toll and boundaries are crossed. The dynamics of splintering families is painful and everyone’s way of life is affected.

Unbroken is a powerful, absorbing book from the first page to the last. Forbes’ Wyoming ranch background adds rich flavors to the story. The author draws realistic, complex characters. Unbroken is an unvarnished testimonial to a way of life that few of us know.

Book Review: Riding the Edge of an Era

Riding the Edge of an Era: Growing Up Cowboy on the Outlaw Trail (High Plaines Press) by Diana Allen Kouris is a heartwarming memoir of a girl raised on a ranch bordering Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.

The youngest of six children, Diana Kouris grew up well acquainted with hard work and hard play, with the resiliency to thrive in both. Brown’s Park Livestock Ranch is situated in an area rich with history. Brave pioneers lived on this land; so did Butch Cassidy and others of his ilk.

Riding the Edge of an Era takes readers into the daily life of a loving family dedicated to each other, their livestock and the land that sustains them. As little children, they were entrusted with responsibilities that would be tough for adults to accomplish. High expectations were a part of life for this family and a necessity to exist in this rough country.

The three youngest siblings remain close to each other and to their parents through adulthood, returning to the ranch to help trail cattle to distant pastures, or to bring them in for market.

Throughout the book, photographs give additional flavor to Kouris’ story. Some characters, such as her father, seem bigger than life, but when you see his picture, you can see why. He’s the epitome of a tough, successful rancher.

Riding the Edge of an Era: Growing Up Cowboy on the Outlaw Trail is an extraordinary story written by a woman steeped in a western ranching environment.

Book Review: Follow the Dream by Heidi M. Thomas

Follow the Dream by Heidi M. Thomas follows the life of Nettie Moser who finally has what she’s longed for–life on a horse ranch and the freedom to ride rodeo with her handsome cowboy husband, Jake Moser. Her dreams are coming true.

Then along comes an opportunity of a lifetime. Her friend, famous bronc rider Marie Gibson, offers Nettie an opportunity to go to London and ride with Tex Austin’s International Rodeo. It’s almost too good to be true. Riding rodeo in London!

But dreams don’t always come true. As family responsibilities become more of a reality, dreams sometimes have to take a back seat. Nettie still dreams, but the dreams become more distant. Survival occupies her time and energy now. Riding rodeo, let alone going to London, seems even farther away.

Life is hard in the late 1920s and 30s. Money is scarce and even the weather turns against them, leaving dust where once lush grass grew. It’s a constant struggle to find enough grass for the horses to graze. Although the Mosers own their stock, they don’t own the land. As the drought drags on, they decide to trail the herd of 50 horses to Idaho, 300 miles away. The drive, an exciting, pivotal adventure of the book involves excitement, hardship and many anxious moments.

Moving back to Montana, life changes. The need for horses in the work-a-day world is dwindling with tractors replacing plow-horses and engines replacing the need for horse-drawn logging equipment. Their treasure isn’t worth what it once was. Their home becomes what they can find for shelter–tents, tarpaper shacks, a run-down hotel, even a granary. Jake takes whatever work he can find. Enduring love make the hardships easier to bear and again Nettie watches their dreams shift and change.

Thomas weaves an exciting, strong, credible tale with this story of love, hardship and adventure that spans 14 years. Follow the Dream is a sequel to her previous novel, Cowgirl Dreams, but each book stands alone as strong and engaging.

Follow the Dream is available through your favorite bookstore, through publisher Treble Heart Books www.trebleheartbooks.com/sdheidithomas.html in both print and e-book formats and autographed copies from www.heidimthomas.com

Book Review: Counting the Cost by Liz Adair

Counting the Cost by Liz Adair captures the essence of love: not always practical, often destructive, but present and undeniable nevertheless.

The fast-moving story takes place in 1930s New Mexico. When eastern society lady Ruth Reynolds moves onto a ranch where cowboy Heck Benham works, sparks instantly fly. There is a big problem though--Ruth is married and Heck is as honorable as he is hard-working.

Fate draws them together, but not without pain and heart-wrenching sacrifice and challenges. Yet, their love shines through at every turn, though the cost is perhaps more than anyone would bargain for.

Adair does a magnificent job of describing the New Mexico setting–its rugged people and stark countryside at a time when nothing came easy. A New Mexico native, she paints the story with meticulous detail and historical accuracy to the ranching and social norms of the era.

Counting the Cost is available through Inglestone Publishing Bookstore www.inglestonepublishing.com, the author’s website www.lizadair.net,or Amazon.com.

Review: The Last Cowgirl by Jana Richman

Jana Richman’s The Last Cowgirl, chronicles the Sinfield family’s move from the Salt Lake City suburbs to a small, ill-equipped ranch near Clayton, Utah. The novel spans over a forty year period, toggling from Dickie Sinfield’s career as a successful journalist in Salt Lake City to flashbacks of her childhood. A family tragedy takes Dickie from her comfortable city life to visit the family ranch, and forces her to come to terms with her childhood.

The move from city to country satisfies her father’s cowboy fantasies. Dickie’s older brother thrives and happily sheds his city skin while her mother and older sister ignore the move and manage to carry on their lives as before. Seven years old at the time of the move, Dickie finds herself excluded from either extreme. Although there are good times with a neighboring boy, Stumpy, and a wise neighbor, Bev, Dickie, accident-prone and without a shred of self-confidence, spends much of her childhood in fear of her environment.

The novel is at times hilarious with the enactment of the cowboy lifestyle, at times sad with the struggle of being placed in an environment foreign to familiar comforts. The Last Cowgirl, however, is always entertaining with its strong characterization, vivid images of the countryside, and deep personal insights. Jana Richman’s honest approach to her characters make you feel like you’ve known them for years.

The Last Cowgirl (William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers) won the 2009 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction.

First Blog, Nov 3, 2008

Hello,

I'm a writer with two books published, Rosemount and McClellan's Bluff, and another book, Tenderfoot, on the way. I've also had 400+ articles published in magazines and newspapers, mostly travel articles but also articles of interest to homeowners (like, How to Protect Your Home from Wildfire, which appeared in Log Home Living).

One of my great interests is research. The idea for my first book was the result of my husband, Bruce, and I researching camping spots in Eastern Oregon. I saw a teenager with one of those huge backpacks, alone, trudging down a hot country road. I wondered what her story was. I would never know, but out of that came my first book, Rosemount, a story about a runaway teen. All three books are set in Washington and/or Oregon. I call them contemporary westerns; in other words, they are set in ranch country, but are contemporary novels.

Bruce and I live on five-acres on Camano Island, in northwest Washington. When we can get away, we travel in our pickup and a camper.

That's it for now--I plan to post once a week.