Something Wilder

 Fiction by Christina Lauren

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of this book Lily Wilder, daughter of the famous treasure hunter Duke Wilder, thinks she's finally found happiness and home with her boyfriend Ian on her family's ranch. But suddenly it's ten years later, and Lily is still single and living out a semi-nomadic existence bartending and running "treasure hunts" of her own (taking city dwellers on Wild-West-themed vacation excursions.) What happened in between?

Well, the reader is about to find out when circumstances bring Ian back into Lily's life and the two of them have to face why their seemingly perfect relationship ended... while on a treasure hunt, of course!

This was a fun and exciting romance/mystery story.

I also read by this author: Roomies

Borders of the Heart

 Fiction by Chris Fabry

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

J.D. is living on a remote farm in Arizona, trying to escape his past and stay disconnected from people in general. Then he finds a beautiful Mexican woman in the desert, half-dead from crossing the border, and he has to decide if he wants to get involved.

This was a good-enough romantic suspense story, but not as good as most I've read by Chris Fabry. I felt like it was a little too formulaic.

I also read recently by this author: Under a Cloudless Sky

Honk and Holler Opening Soon

 Fiction by Billie Letts

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a folksy little story about a small town in Oklahoma and the people who live there. It was a fun and easy read.

The Four Winds

 Fiction by Kristin Hannah

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This a very good story, set in the Dust Bowl era, which is a terribly depressing time. In high school I read Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and I'd say this was a better book, but I don't know if my English teacher would agree.

The family in this book lives on a farm in Texas that was incredibly prosperous in the 1920's and then goes sharply downhill in the 1930's. As neighbors lose their homes to the bank and set out for "better lives" in California, I was hoping against hope that this family would resist that idea. With our historical hindsight, we know that California was a bad bad idea, but of course, the characters in the story don't know that, and they were starving and trying to grasp at any kind of hope.

It's not a happy story, but still a good one.

I also read recently by this author: The Great Alone

One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow

 Fiction by Olivia Hawker

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

On a lonely prairie out west in the late nineteenth century, there are only two houses anywhere near each other, and a fight between the two homesteaders leaves one man dead and the other in jail. The two women are left alone with their children to fend for themselves through the winter.

This story is about how the two families learn to put differences aside and help each other. Apparently it is loosely based on some of the author’s own family history.

The Replacement Child

Fiction by Christine Barber.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a pretty good mystery set in Santa Fe, although the ending was a little unsatisfying.