Книги

The Civil War created countless spinsters and widows. Anna Olson was one of them.

With no prospects for marriage and family, Anna pins her future on the frontier and heads west to stake a claim on the wide-open prairies.

“Most women go from their father’s house to their husband’s house,” Anna said. “Here, I have my own house. I am my own person.”

But the Dakota Plains are not empty.

Anna’s new life collides with a Lakota warrior. Two Hawks MacKenzie, the son of a Scots fur trapper and a Lakota woman, takes an unusual interest in his new neighbor. In turn, Anna begins to the see the land through the eyes of the Lakota people.

Together, they forge a bond that could connect their two worlds – despite prejudice and intolerance they encounter.

Romance, adventure and history – a trifecta!
If you liked the television series 1883 and Yellowstone , you’ll love Proving Her Claim, the debut novel from author CK Van Dam.

CK Van Dam a daughter of the Dakota prairies. With degrees in History and Journalism, she has embarked on a second career to create stories about the strong women who have built our nation and our world.

Will Anna successfully claim a piece of the new western lands? Will Anna and Two Hawks be able to blend their two worlds? Pick up your copy today by clicking the BUY NOW button at the top of this page and immerse yourself in the Dakota Frontier.

The Civil War created countless spinsters and widows. Anna Olson was one of them.

With no prospects for marriage and family, Anna pins her future on the frontier and heads west…

James Wade, whose first two novels were praised as rhapsodic and haunting, delivers his most powerful work to date--a chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and love, trauma and goodness, vividly set in the landscapes of Texas and Louisiana.

Beasts of the Earth tells the story of Harlen LeBlanc, a dependable if quiet employee of the Carter Hills High School's grounds department, whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend, while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice.

Twenty years earlier, young Michael Fischer dreads the return of his father from prison. He spends his days stealing from trap lines in the Louisiana bayou to feed his fanatically religious mother and his cherished younger sister, Doreen. When his father eventually returns, an evil arrives in Michael's life that sends him running from everything he has ever known. He is rescued by a dying poet and his lover, who extract from him a promise: to be a good man, whatever that may require.

Beasts of the Earth deftly intertwines these stories, exploring themes of time, fate, and free will, to produce a revelatory conclusion that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

James Wade, whose first two novels were praised as rhapsodic and haunting, delivers his most powerful work to date--a chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and…

Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a novel destined to be an American classic: a sweeping masterwork set during World War II about the meaning of family and the limitations of the American Dream.

Rockwell "Rocky" Rhodes has spent years fiercely protecting his California ranch from the LA Water Corporation. It is here where he and his beloved wife Lou raised their twins, Sunny and Stryker, and it is here where Rocky has mourned Lou in the years since her death.
As Sunny and Stryker reach the cusp of adulthood, the country teeters on the brink of war. Stryker decides to join the fight, deploying to Pearl Harbor not long before the bombs strike. Soon, Rocky and his family find themselves facing yet another incomprehensible tragedy.
Rocky is determined to protect his remaining family and the land where they've loved and lost so much. But when the government decides to build a Japanese-American internment camp next to the ranch, Rocky realizes that the land faces even bigger threats than the LA watermen he's battled for years. Complicating matters is the fact that the idealistic Department of the Interior man assigned to build the camp, who only begins to understand the horror of his task after it may be too late, becomes infatuated with Sunny and entangled with the Rhodes family.
Properties of Thirst is a novel that is both universal and intimate. It is the story of a changing American landscape and an examination of one of the darkest periods in this country's past, told through the stories of the individual loves and losses that weave together to form the fabric of our shared history. Ultimately, it is an unflinching distillation of our nation's essence--and a celebration of the bonds of love and family that persist against all odds.

Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a novel destined to be an American…

Sometimes the past just won't stay buried

San Francisco music store owner Inez Stannert agrees to provide financial assistance to boardinghouse proprietor Moira Krause. When the common wall of the abandoned house adjoining Moira's is breached to expand her business, the corpse of a murdered man tumbles out, along with a worn canvas bag holding a fortune in gold coins.

Then the locksmith who made the house's unbreakable locks is brutally slain, and the keys vanish. Inez and private detective Wolter Roeland de Bruijn set out to uncover the truth behind the killings..

Sometimes the past just won't stay buried

San Francisco music store owner Inez Stannert agrees to provide financial assistance to boardinghouse proprietor Moira Krause. When…

Wish Upon a Crawdad takes place in rural America during the waning years of the Great Depression. Times are still lean, but there are glimmers of hope—especially for resourceful kids, like Ruby Mae Ryan.

Ruby isn't your typical, depression-era twelve-year-old. For one thing, she's got a jar full of coins, thanks to her crawdad business and other odd jobs. But she doesn't let the money go to her head. She's too busy trying to make more. That's because she's got something special in mind, and time is running out. So, Ruby calls on crawdads for help.

A lot of people wish on the first star at night. Ruby does that, too, but she also wishes on the first crawdad of the day. She figures the odds are better. "Not many folks wish upon a crawdad," Ruby says. To convince doubters of their magic, Ruby points to a wish coming true as the story unfolds. Electricity: she's never had it--no one in the valley has--until she wished upon a crawdad.

But now, Ruby has another wish. She wants something so badly she won't even say what it is out loud, afraid that might jinx the wish. Instead, Ruby calls it her "secret surprise." The only other people who know about it are Daddy and her best friend, Virginia. And they'll never tell. Or will they?

Wish Upon a Crawdad is all about friendship and adversity, courage and fear, heartbreak and triumph, and it has as many channels and curves as the creek running through it. Along the way, Ruby searches for a legendary place called Crawdad Haven, kisses a pig, "dances" with an angry dog, escapes death, and even has a chance encounter with a famous dignitary. Not bad for a twelve-year-old, crawdad-catching girl from farm country.

Historical note: The story unfolds during a pivotal time in America. The Great Depression is not yet a memory, and the country is only eighteen months from another world war. Ninety percent of villages and farms don’t have electricity. But that’s begun to change, thanks to rural residents banding together to form their own power companies called rural electric cooperatives. Such is the backdrop for the story, which takes place in 1940 in a valley near the fictional village of Crossroads, Oregon. It’s a fitting name, given rural America—and the entire country—are at the brink of a new age.

Wish Upon a Crawdad takes place in rural America during the waning years of the Great Depression. Times are still lean, but there are glimmers of hope—especially for resourceful…

From historian and critically acclaimed author of The Three-Cornered War comes the propulsive and vividly told story of how Yellowstone became the world’s first national park amid the nationwide turmoil and racial violence of the Reconstruction era.

Each year nearly four million people visit Yellowstone National Park—one of the most popular of all national parks—but few know the fascinating and complex historical context in which it was established. In late July 1871, the geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a team of scientists through a narrow canyon into Yellowstone Basin, entering one of the last unmapped places in the country. The survey’s discoveries led to the passage of the Yellowstone Act in 1872, which created the first national park in the world.

Now, author Megan Kate Nelson examines the larger context of this American moment, illuminating Hayden’s survey as a national project meant to give Americans a sense of achievement and unity in the wake of a destructive civil war. Saving Yellowstone follows Hayden and two other protagonists in pursuit of their own agendas: Sitting Bull, a Lakota leader who asserted his peoples’ claim to their homelands, and financier Jay Cooke, who wanted to secure his national reputation by building the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Great Northwest. Hayden, Cooke, and Sitting Bull staked their claims to Yellowstone at a critical moment in Reconstruction, when the Grant Administration and the 42nd Congress were testing the reach and the purpose of federal power across the nation.

A narrative of adventure and exploration, Saving Yellowstone is also a story of Indigenous resistance, the expansive reach of railroad, photographic, and publishing technologies, and the struggles of Black southerners to bring racial terrorists to justice. It reveals how the early 1870s were a turning point in the nation’s history, as white Americans ultimately abandoned the the higher ideal of equality for all people, creating a much more fragile and divided United States.

From historian and critically acclaimed author of The Three-Cornered War comes the propulsive and vividly told story of how Yellowstone became the world’s first national park amid…

There weren’t many women in the late 1800s who had the opportunity to accompany their husbands on adventures that were so exciting they seemed fictitious. Such was the case for the women married to the officers in General George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. There were seven officers’ wives. They were all good friends who traveled from post to post with one another along with their spouses. Of the seven widows, Elizabeth Custer was the most well-known. As the wife of the commanding officer, Libbie felt it was her duty to be present when the officer’s wives at Fort Lincoln were told their husbands had been killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The women were overwhelmed with letters of condolence. Most people were sincere in their expressions of sorrow over the widows’ loss. Others were ghoulish souvenir hunters requesting articles of their husbands’ clothing and personal weapons as keepsakes. The press was preoccupied with how the wives of the deceased officers were handling their grief. During the first year after the tragic event, reporters sought them out to learn how they were coping, what plans they had for the future, and what, if anything, they knew about the battle itself. The widows were able to soldier through the scrutiny because they had one another. They confided in each other, cried without apologizing, and discussed their desperate financial situations. The friendship the bereaved widows had with one another proved to be a critical source of support. The transition from being officers’ wives living at various forts on the wild frontier to being single women with homes of their own was a difficult adjustment. Without one another to depend upon, the time might have been more of a struggle. The Widowed Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn tells the stories of these women and the unique bond they shared through never-before-seen materials from the Elizabeth Custer Library and Museum at Garryowen, Montana, including letters to and from politicians and military leaders to the widows, fellow soldiers and critics of George Custer to the widows, and letters between the widows themselves about when the women first met, the men they married, and their attempts to persevere after the tragedy.

There weren’t many women in the late 1800s who had the opportunity to accompany their husbands on adventures that were so exciting they seemed fictitious. Such was the case for…

Gallup, New Mexico, is a place like no other. It is disproportionally and simultaneously wonderful and terrible. It is a place of constant struggle, where the forces of good and evil collide. The former frontier mining town, bordering the Navajo Nation at the far western edge of New Mexico, is one of those few places on earth that have the power to change the course of our lives and transform us deeply.

With its rugged, violent history and otherworldly landscape, Gallup has ignited the imaginations of famous Americans from John Wayne to Bob Dylan. Tony Hillerman’s novels put Navajo culture and Gallup on the map. For the Navajo people for whom the region has been home for millennia, the town and its alcohol-fueled economy has a more sinister pull.

As an outsider who became an insider, Bob Rosebrough shares the historical realities of this enigmatic town, and gives readers a rare and true insight into Gallup’s iconic stories and long-hidden secrets.

This book isn’t just for Gallupians. It is a memoir about regular people going up against Goliath issues, and it’s for anyone interested in spiritual conflict; Navajo people, history, and culture; political maneuvering; true crime; alcohol abuse awareness; taking on city hall; working with city hall; and rooting for the underdogs in a dog-eat-dog world. And it is the long overdue story of the death of a Navajo warrior named Larry Wayne Casuse.

Gallup, New Mexico, is a place like no other. It is disproportionally and simultaneously wonderful and terrible. It is a place of constant struggle, where the forces of good and…

Many stories have been written about the exploits of Billy the Kid, the charismatic outlaw of the Old West. Some have been pure fiction, designed to entertain and excite. Purple prose writers began chronicling the exploits of Billy as early as the late 1870s. Others have been biographical, researched by historians or recorded by those who knew him, including his murderer, Sheriff Pat Garrett. But there was once a different side to the famous gunfighter, a softer more artistic side that seems at odds with Billy’s reputation for shooting, killing, and robbing. Born Henry McCarty, he was also known by the names Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim, and William H. Bonney. He didn’t shoot twenty-one men, as has been claimed. Four is a more likely number, three in self-defense. In Before Billy the Kid, author Melody Groves explores the early life of the infamous outlaw, the teenage boy who loved to sing and dance. The young man who was polite, educated, and popular. A boy who had the bad luck to be orphaned at fifteen and left with no one to guide him through life. How different history might have been if Billy had pursued his love of music instead of a life of crime.

Many stories have been written about the exploits of Billy the Kid, the charismatic outlaw of the Old West. Some have been pure fiction, designed to entertain and excite. Purple…

From the time he was four years old, Joseph Jacob “Joe” Foss (1915–2003) found flight fascinating. As an adolescent, he followed the career of flyer Charles Lindbergh and could hardly wait to get into the air himself. In college, he took private flying lessons, and as war broke out across Europe in 1939 and 1940, he joined the South Dakota National Guard, preparing himself for combat by earning more flight time on weekends. After graduation, he joined the United States Marines Corps’ flight training program. Finally, in 1942, Joe was ready to be a fighter pilot, just as he had always dreamed of being. But he was now twenty-six years old, and the military deemed him too old for combat. Instead, the Marine Corps assigned Joe to teach men eighteen to twenty-three years old how to fly. Joe accepted his role but also volunteered for special assignments. He became an aerial reconnaissance photographer, hoping the job might lead him to the battle front. He pestered his superiors until he was allowed to take combat training in the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the carrier-based dogfighter of the Pacific theater. Still, he found himself stateside rather than at the front. He continued to volunteer for dangerous assignments, and his determination eventually won him a spot in a fighting unit just as the war in the Pacific heated up. Joining the Marine Corps’ VMF-121 fighter squadron as executive officer, Capt. Joe Foss and his unit shipped out to Guadalcanal, code-named “Cactus,” in the Solomon Islands. They arrived in early October 1942, just weeks after the Allies had taken Henderson Field on Guadalcanal from the Japanese. By mid-October, Joe had shot down five enemy airplanes, which officially made him a flying ace. With his leadership and his pilots’ daredevil tactics, the VMF-121 became known as Foss’s Flying Circus, the heart of the Cactus Air Force. Shooting down a total of twenty-six enemy planes between October 10, 1942, and January 25, 1943, Foss became America’s Number One Ace and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in Guadalcanal. He was a hero known around the world for his prowess in the skies. Using pen and ink, Hector Curriel draws readers into his subject’s triumphs and trials as Joe Foss overcomes difficult and dangerous situations. He is shot down twice, contracts malaria, and loses his friends and comrades in battle. American Ace places action at the forefront, using the escapades of Foss during World War II to showcase the experience of many fighter pilots, while highlighting the perseverance that made this man unique.

From the time he was four years old, Joseph Jacob “Joe” Foss (1915–2003) found flight fascinating. As an adolescent, he followed the career of flyer Charles Lindbergh and could…

U. S. Army Major General Frederick Funston (1865-1917) held the highest filled rank at his death, which was nationally mourned, including by President Woodrow Wilson. This is volume one of Becoming Frederick Funston Trilogy and explores Funston's formative years in late 19th century rural Kansas. It is an examination of the world in which he matured. This world has been recreated in detail, including farming, schools and church, prairie fires, crime including lynchings, family and friends, and even the visit in 1879 of President Rutherford B. Hayes. Endorsements include one by General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (Ret). The balance of the trilogy includes Funston's exploration of Death Valley, Alaska, and the British Northwest Territory (volume two) and fighting with the revolutionary forces in Cuba against Spain in 1896-1897 (volume three). These two volumes will be released later this year.

U. S. Army Major General Frederick Funston (1865-1917) held the highest filled rank at his death, which was nationally mourned, including by President Woodrow Wilson. This is…

Rugged action. Daring stunts. Spectacular showmanship!

Rowdy Randy is back, and this time instead of aggravating all the creatures in her path, she’s rounding them up to put on her very own Wild West Show. Now critters from every rock, den, and tree are lining up to audition. And what a show it is! From rope stunts to high jumps, and aerial tricks to climbing competitions, this cowgirl’s show has got it all. But there is one unwanted character lurking in the shadows who is ready to take credit for it all.

Rugged action. Daring stunts. Spectacular showmanship!

Rowdy Randy is back, and this time instead of aggravating all the creatures in her path, she’s rounding them up to put on…

The first in a bold, new, gun-blazing Western series introducing Carson Stone. He may be reformed, but he’s still a wanted man. Unless he can track down the biggest, baddest outlaw on the Dead Man’s Trail!

Reformed outlaw Carson Stone, in this razor-sharp Western, stakes his claim in the untamed, bloody Idaho Territory, only to find himself trapped in a bullet-riddled nightmare he may not walk away from . . .

Former thief and wanted man Carson Stone dreams of a peaceful life on a ranch built by his own hands, but dreams don’t always come without a steep price. To earn a stake, Carson rides west to collect the reward on a claim-jumper. The land is beautiful, but times are hard as the territory is ravaged by the latest Indian war and a mining boom gone bust.

When Stone steps in to defend a family ambushed by murdering marauders, he makes a terrifying discovery: one of the hired killers carries a death list full of names and dollar amounts. But the names on this list belong to upstanding citizens, not criminals. When the local sheriff is gunned down in broad daylight, Carson takes on the one job he never wanted—pinning on a lawman’s tin star to protect the innocent.

A gang of ruthless killers are storming back to finish their work—and Carson Stone has just moved to the top of the death list.

The first in a bold, new, gun-blazing Western series introducing Carson Stone. He may be reformed, but he’s still a wanted man. Unless he can track down the biggest, baddest…

When the governor of Wyoming gives Joe Pickett the thankless task of taking a tech baron on an elk hunting trip, Joe reluctantly treks into the wilderness with his high-profile charge. But as they venture into the woods, a man-hunter is hot on their heels, driven by a desire for revenge. Finding himself without a weapon, a horse, or a way to communicate, Joe must rely on his wits and his knowledge of the outdoors to protect himself and his companion.

Meanwhile, Joe's closest friend, Nate Romanowski, and his own daughter Sheridan learn of the threat to Joe's life and follow him into the woods. In a stunning final showdown, the three of them come up against the worst that nature--and man--have to offer.

When the governor of Wyoming gives Joe Pickett the thankless task of taking a tech baron on an elk hunting trip, Joe reluctantly treks into the wilderness with his high-profile…

Growing up in the rural impoverishment of post-Depression Oklahoma, and surrounded by feuding family factions, free-spirited Jacob Roland hungers for knowledge and a world beyond his reach.

But dark forces are growing in Jacob, twisting with the same ruthless, relentless power of a tornado across the Oklahoma prairies. Jacob battles against these aberrant forces, but, trapped by poverty and a growing mental illness, he is thwarted at every turn. For every light-a chance at college, the love of a poised, sophisticated woman-there is a greater darkness within him.

Failed by circumstance, community, and his own mental health, is there an escape for Jacob's bright, wounded spirit, or will he forever be a prisoner of a particular madness?

Growing up in the rural impoverishment of post-Depression Oklahoma, and surrounded by feuding family factions, free-spirited Jacob Roland hungers for knowledge and a world beyond…

FROM WESTERN WORD-SLINGER AND ANTHROPOLOGIST W. MICHAEL GEAR, COMES AN ENTIRELY NEW TYPE OF WESTERN - A CONTEMPORARY APOCALYPTIC WESTERN.

For anthropology graduate student Sam Delgado, headed to the wilds of Wyoming, this is his last chance to save his graduate career. He and his urban classmates see this as the adventure of a lifetime: They are going to horse-pack in the wilderness to map and test a high-altitude archaeological site.

Until a cyber attack collapses the American banking system, and an already fractured nation descends into anarchy and chaos. All credit frozen, Sam and his archaeological field school is trapped in their high-altitude camp. With return to the East impossible, Sam, the woman he has come to love, and the rest of the students must rely on hard-bitten Wyoming ranchers for their very survival.

Guided only by an illusive Shoshone spirit helper, Sam will discover the meaning of self-sacrifice. Even at the cost of his life.

Haunting, provoking, frightening and prescient - in the end, all that stands between civilization and barbarism is one young man's courage and belief in himself.

FROM WESTERN WORD-SLINGER AND ANTHROPOLOGIST W. MICHAEL GEAR, COMES AN ENTIRELY NEW TYPE OF WESTERN - A CONTEMPORARY APOCALYPTIC WESTERN.

For anthropology graduate student Sam…

The thrilling, long-awaited return of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant.

In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks out on the western frontier--a clash of cultures between a young, ambitious nation and the Native tribes who have lived on the land for centuries. Colonel Henry Carrington arrives in Wyoming's Powder River Valley to lead the US Army in defending the opening of a new road for gold miners and settlers. Carrington intends to build a fort in the middle of critical hunting grounds, the home of the Lakota. Red Cloud, one of the Lakota's most respected chiefs, and Crazy Horse, a young but visionary warrior, understand full well the implications of this invasion. For the Lakota, the stakes are their home, their culture, their lives.

As fall bleeds into winter, Crazy Horse leads a small war party that confronts Colonel Carrington's soldiers with near constant attacks. Red Cloud, meanwhile, seeks to build the tribal alliances that he knows will be necessary to defeat the soldiers. Colonel Carrington seeks to hold together a US Army beset with internal discord. Carrington's officers are skeptical of their commander's strategy, none more so than Lieutenant George Washington Grummond, who longs to fight a foe he dismisses as inferior in all ways. The rank-and-file soldiers, meanwhile, are still divided by the residue of civil war, and tempted to desertion by the nearby goldfields.

Throughout this taut saga--based on real people and events--Michael Punke brings the same immersive, vivid storytelling and historical insight that made his breakthrough debut so memorable. As Ridgeline builds to its epic conclusion, it grapples with essential questions of conquest and justice that still echo today.

The thrilling, long-awaited return of the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant.

In 1866, with the country barely recovered from the Civil War, new war breaks…

Classically trained pianist and singer Natalie Curtis isolated herself for five years after a breakdown just before she was to debut with the New York Philharmonic. Guilt-ridden and songless, Natalie can't seem to recapture the joy music once brought her. In 1902, her brother invites her to join him in the West to search for healing. What she finds are songs she'd never before encountered--the haunting melodies, rhythms, and stories of Native Americans.

But their music is under attack. The US government's Code of Offenses prohibits American's indigenous people from singing, dancing, or speaking their own languages as the powers that be insist on assimilation. Natalie makes it her mission not only to document these songs before they disappear but to appeal to President Teddy Roosevelt himself, who is the only man with the power to repeal the unjust law. Will she succeed and step into a new song . . . and a new future?

Award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick weaves yet another lyrical tale based on a true story that will keep readers captivated to the very end.

Classically trained pianist and singer Natalie Curtis isolated herself for five years after a breakdown just before she was to debut with the New York Philharmonic. Guilt-ridden…

Eldon Quint is a farmer in the frontier Dakotas. The widowed father of two moves through the world leaving as mild a footprint as possible. His twin brother Clayton Quint is known to most as Jack Foss, a violent outlaw whose visage is prominently displayed on handbills across the American west.

When Eldon is mistaken for Clayton one snowy Dakota morning, his son Shane is killed in the crossfire. Wracked by grief, the quiet farmer has two aims: to bury his son next to his dead wife in Springfield and to get revenge on his outlaw brother.

Eldon Quint is a farmer in the frontier Dakotas. The widowed father of two moves through the world leaving as mild a footprint as possible. His twin brother Clayton Quint is known…

"Frank Whittaker is just an unemployed trail hand trying to recover from a night of celebration when he witnesses a bank robbery and is deputized into a posse to track the outlaws. Frank is reluctant and resentful until he finds a way to make money at it by signing on as a guide for a U.S. marshal in pursuit of the same bank robbers, Dandy Jim Beudreaux and his gang. Marshal Dayton Howard and his manhunters leave a bloody trail in their pursuit of Dandy Jim through Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, a trail that forces Frank to confront his own morality. But capturing Dandy Jim is only part of the puzzle Frank will have to solve before justice can be done"

"Frank Whittaker is just an unemployed trail hand trying to recover from a night of celebration when he witnesses a bank robbery and is deputized into a posse to track the…

Thirteen-year-old Wilder has spent his boyhood watching men like his grandpa Papa Milam . . . and wanting to be like them. Now he is leaving on a two day cattle drive through river and canyon country with his aging Papa and another older man, Red Guffey. In big ranch country full of livestock and wild animals, Wilder is forced to recognize that his own instincts and abilities may have become greater than those of his heroes.

Thirteen-year-old Wilder has spent his boyhood watching men like his grandpa Papa Milam . . . and wanting to be like them. Now he is leaving on a two day cattle drive through…

Thunderation and Toad’s Toes!

How does one nearly thirteen-year-old Montana cowgirl get herself in so much trouble?

Maddie McDowell can’t take it anymore. Running away from boarding school seems like her only choice after feeling betrayed by her family and left out and left alone by everyone else. When the Monte Decker Rodeo Show pulls out of town on the morning train, Maddie intends to be on it, leaving all her hurt behind.

All, however, does not go as planned.

Mistaken for the rodeo’s newest star, who appears to be missing, Maddie must prove she’s got the talent, skills, and guts to make it. But it’s not that simple. There’s the rodeo queen who hates her on sight, the handsome cowboy who seems strangely familiar, a mysterious man in a bowler hat, and a sack full of stolen cash. Is someone trying to hurt her, or the missing cowgirl she’s impersonating?

Yep. Maddie is in deeper than a yearling calf in a sinkhole.

With all this trouble, Maddie must decide if the rodeo life is what she truly wants, or if there’s something else missing, something even bigger pulling her along—not counting that dog, of course.

Thunderation and Toad’s Toes!

How does one nearly thirteen-year-old Montana cowgirl get herself in so much trouble?

Maddie McDowell can’t take it anymore. Running away from…