Dialogue from heaven and storytelling fresh as a gunshot grip each page about the true West.
The greatest living writer of Western historicals (Jericho’s Road, 2004, etc.) sets spurs to a new trilogy.
Looking for the next dream in 1816, Mordecai Lewis leaves Tennessee—and his wife and kids—to head west in search of fresh land to settle. He returns empty-handed but dream-packed. The Lewises have little truck with surveyors and boundaries, they just move west and take up empty land until civilization encroaches on them. Now Mordecai has Homeric tales of the Spanish land called Texas, a limitless spread of golden earth bending past the horizon, whose population of wild horses is protected by the Mexican military, led by the murderous Lieutenant Armando Rodriguez. When Lewis gets a band together to round up a herd of those wild mustangs, self-righteous thief and neighbor Cyrus Blackwood insinuates himself into it. Also along is the series hero, young Michael Lewis. At the Sabine River, Michael meets Marie Villaret and loses his heart, as does she. The backwoodsmen round up a herd and head back to the States, but they’re betrayed by Cyrus Blackwood. Rodriguez and his troops stop and murder the Tennesseans; Michael sees his father’s brains blown out. He manages to get back to the Villaret ranch, where he recovers enough to head home and find Cyrus Blackwood. Trying to bushwhack Michael, young Finis Blackwood gets his arm shot to pieces and later removed. The Blackwoods vow to kill Michael. Rather than ignite a feud that could go on for years and cost his family many lives, Michael sets off west. At the Villaret ranch he hears that Spain will allow 300 American settlers to create farms in Texas. He asks Marie to marry him when he returns with some land to settle.
Dialogue from heaven and storytelling fresh as a gunshot grip each page about the true West.Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-765-31021-X
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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