A fast-paced adventure tale of the Wild West with a strong female sleuth.
A debut historical novel follows young homesteaders who investigate a wave of violent crimes in 19th-century New Mexico.
Elliot begins her tale with Iragene Jones discovering intruders departing from her property and a severed scalp they left behind, presumably as a threat. Disgusted by the long blonde locks that have been separated from their owner, Iragene resolves to uncover the identities of the criminals. Shockingly independent for the era in which she lives, she sets off on her own, visiting various neighbors and questioning them about any odd occurrences. After conversing with a few locals about unexpected deaths and strange cattle diseases, Iragene begins to realize there is a larger, nefarious plot at play. When she stops at the family home of her love interest, Alejandro Gallegos, he insists on joining her in the probe. Alejandro and Iragene grow closer during their travels and fact-finding, much to the dismay of his mother, who cannot abide her son’s affection for someone with such a self-reliant nature, and a white woman to boot. When Alejandro and Iragene finally reach the sheriff’s office to discuss the worrisome incidents they have unearthed, the official is blasé, uninterested in the concerns of a Mexican man and a single white woman. Iragene and Alejandro realize that they must solve the mysterious crime wave on their own or fall victim to its consequences. Elliot deftly creates one obstacle after another for Iragene and Alejandro as they inch toward finding the cause of the strange affairs in their town. Although several events are recounted multiple times throughout the narrative, the superfluous repetition does not prevent this action-packed story from building suspense. The book is also rife with historical details about the lives of homesteaders in 1800s New Mexico, with a focus especially on the difficult race relations permeating the area in the aftermath of the Civil War. A testament to the benefits of perseverance and fortitude, this engaging novel also examines intolerance and its consequences.
A fast-paced adventure tale of the Wild West with a strong female sleuth.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Torrid
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.
A novel tells the story of two spirited girls who set out to save a lame foal in 1952.
Mary, age 12, lacks muscle control of her legs and must use a wheelchair. Her life is constantly interrupted by trips with her widower father to assorted doctors, all of whom have failed to help her. Mary tolerates the treatments, hoping to one day walk unassisted, but her true passion involves horses. Possessing a library filled with horse books, she loves watching and drawing the animals at a neighboring farm. She longs to own one herself. But her father, overprotective due to her disability and his own lingering grief over Mary’s dead mother, makes her keep her distance. Mary befriends Laura, the emotionally neglected daughter of the wealthy neighboring farm owners, and the two share secret buggy rides. Both girls are attracted to Illusion, a beautiful red bay filly on the farm. Mary learns that Illusion is to be put down by a veterinarian because of a lame leg. Horrified, she decides to talk to the barn manager about the horse (“Isn’t it okay for her to live even if she’s not perfect? I think she deserves a chance”). Soon, Mary and Laura attempt to raise money to save Illusion. At the same time, Mary begins to gain control of her legs thanks to water therapy and secret therapeutic riding with Laura. There is indeed a great deal of poignancy in a story of a girl with a disability fighting to defend the intrinsic value of a lame animal. But this book, the first installment of the Dream Horse Adventure Series, would be twice as touching if Mary interacted with Illusion more. In the tale’s opening, she watches the foal from afar, but she actually spends very little time with the filly she tries so hard to protect. This turns out to be a strange development given the degree to which the narrative relies on her devotion. Count (Selah’s Sweet Dream, 2015) draws Mary and Laura in broad but believable strokes, defined mainly by their unrelenting pluckiness in the face of adversity. While the work tackles disability, death, and grief, Mary’s and Laura’s environments are so idyllic and their optimism and perseverance so remarkable that the story retains an aura of uncomplicated gentleness throughout.
A short, simple, and sweet tale about two friends and a horse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hastings Creations Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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