done and dusted

Denim and Dust by Harper Dale

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Review: Laurel never wanted to leave her small Texas hometown, and she knew she'd never really get over Calder, her first love, but she didn't feel as though she had any choice -- at the time.  Ten years later, having put up with her husband's cheating for the last time, she leaves Nashville with Bowie, her young son, to return home and start her life over again.  Inevitably, she and Calder can't avoid each other, and the sparks are definitely still there.  Readers will root for Laurel and Calder from the beginning, and will absolutely fall in love with Bowie.  Secondary characters come to life as well, as Laurel's parents thrill to be grandparents, and Laurel and Calder's best friends try to decide what their feelings are for each other (and set us up for a sequel).  The "denim and dust" metaphor is a little strained, a couple of minor characters are more like charicatures, and the author seems to have a vendetta against wind turbines, but this is still a western romance worth reading.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

spare feelings

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd has fought in three wars, starting with the War of 1812 when he was just barely 16.  Now, in 1870, he travels across Texas bringing the inhabitants news of distant places.  He reads from newspapers from Philadelphia to India to London, and steers clear of politics as best he can.

On a pass through Northern Texas, he is entrusted with a young girl, recently rescued from the Kiowa, after having been abducted four years earlier.  Now ten, Johanna has no real memory of her family, doesn't remember how to speak English, and, if asked, would consider herself a member of the Kiowa nation.  But nobody asked her.  The Kiowa are giving up all of their captives under threat of raids, and Johanna's remaining family has paid handsomely for her to be shepherded back to their home near San Antonio.  It's a long journey (handy maps in the endpapers of the book help the reader follow along) and one fraught with dangers.

The real story though, is what happens between Johanna and the Captain as they travel and begin to feel like family.  Unfortunately, Jiles's spare writing style doesn't really do justice to the feelings she wants the reader to understand the characters are feeling.

As for the movie, it is similarly spare, giving it the same overall tone as the book.  Several major plot points are changed, for what I'm sure were valid cinematographic reasons, but the overall story arc is the same, and being able to see the expressions on the characters' faces certainly helps in understanding the feelings that Jiles writes into her story.

teach your children well

Hap & Hazard and the End of the World by Diane DeSanders
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Hap and Hazard don't really have anything much to do with this story.  They're the family dogs.  The end of the world seem to factor into it much either.  This is the story of an unnamed girl, eldest of three daughters, as she tries to navigate being eight (give or take).  No-one will answer her questions about anything important, and she lives in a world of unexplained things (her father's short temper, her grandparents' various idiosyncrasies, whether there really is a Santa Claus, is there actually something wrong with her, and on and on).  While realistic perhaps, the method of relating a child's experience of the world around her with no explanations about what is really going on is predictably challenging and unfortunately, not very rewarding.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

in the army

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Shiobhan Fallon

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction, short stories

Review: In this collection of short, loosely connected stories, Shiobhan Fallon tries to give the reader an insider's view of military family life. The stories all deal with an army cavalry division deployed from Fort Hood, TX to Iraq; some stories deal with the soldiers, others with their wives, and they all touch on the difficulties military families face both when they are separated for long periods of time, as well as when they are reunited. Some of the stories ring true, like the story of a wife who is concerned that her husband has started an affair with a female soldier while he is overseas. Others strike a false note, like the one where a woman describes listening to the "wildly beating heart" of her fetus.

With other stories, it seems that Fallon wrote herself into a corner she didn't know how to get of. The best example of this is the story of Meg who becomes obsessed with her new neighbor, Natalya. Natalya’s husband is deployed with Meg’s, but Natalya herself is a mystery. At the end of the story, the husbands all return (Meg’s and Natalya’s among them) and that is that. No explanation is given for any of Natalya’s actions, nor is she even mentioned in the rather abrupt conclusion. By and large, though, these stories can be enjoyed by both military and non-military readers. They may resonate with members of the military or their family members, and will give a glimpse into military lives for those of us with no military connection.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.