He’s the bad boy she needs to help her lay down the law…

Assistant District Attorney Georgia Star is on the ballot in Last Stand, Texas to finally take the top job—but popularity has never been this overachiever’s forte. When her big-city outsider opponent begins wooing her constituents with lies, Georgia knows she has to stop playing nice. She turns to the infamous Cy Powell for advice, but his provocative solution might be worse than a defeat.

Cyrus “Cy” Powell is a property mogul, rancher, and entrepreneur—and a scion of Last Stand’s most notorious criminal family. Despite his legit success he’s never outrun his last name, so when Georgia asks for his help, Cy decides a fake relationship is the perfect pretext to infiltrate her world.

Dating Cy will connect Georgia with her voter base, and squiring Georgia through her influential social circles will polish Cy’s reputation and facilitate his latest business deal. Their chemistry is undeniable, but as the election looms, they’ll need to decide if their fake alliance is real and where their loyalties lie.

Dear Ms. Crowley,

Tropes, tropes, get yer tropes here! Small town, friends to lovers, bad boy, across the tracks, fake relationship, (a slight touch of) enemies to lovers, Jewish women in Texas. Wait, what was that last one? It’s the second in The Stars of Texas series about four sisters who are slowly getting back in touch with family and falling for friends in Last Stand, Texas where 150 years ago their Jewish Austrian great … Grandfather put down roots and established himself in a new land.

Georgia Star the ADA in this district is doing what she’s done since getting a job in her hometown – seeking justice rather than trying to be popular. She knows she’s made a few enemies along the way but she’s tried to do her best for everyone she’s seen in court. But now a Hot Shot from out of town has arrived to campaign for the position of District Attorney which Georgia knows is just for show until he can move on to bigger and better political things.

Cy Powell is a certified bad boy from a bad family. The local cops even called the Powell homestead “DFW” (after the largest airport in Texas) since so many of his relatives are frequent flyers through the justice system. Cy uses his reputation for his own purposes but it’s also one he’s been trying to outgrow since he can’t seem to outrun it.

Cy’s (legit) business partner suggests that Cy needs to put in some face time with major bigwigs for the land deals that they’re trying to swing. Looking for someone to give him credibility, Cy devises a plan. If Georgia will be his fake girlfriend, he’ll help her campaign among the outcasts, bikers, rednecks, and other working class rural people of the area whom Hot Shot has spurned. Can Georgia and Cy keep it private and professional until after the election?

The deal that Georgia and Cy have worked out makes a bit more sense to me than other fake dating scenarios. Georgia is really, really bad at campaigning for the position of DA. Cy is really good at hiding his pain and anger at how and what the town thinks of him. She provides the credibility that helps him with the fancy stuff he needs in order to get on the inside of property development deals and he delivers the votes of the barflies and Hermanos Guapos motorcycle gang for her election. To her credit, Georgia does think about this a bit but then decides that telling one little white lie to save her hometown from the city slicker with fancy boots who thinks he can just swoop in for a few years and pander to a few interests then exit to bigger things is something she can do.

For all that they appear as opposites, Cy and Georgia are actually very similar inside. Both feel responsible for family members. Georgia for her three younger sisters and Cy for his younger, feckless, brother. Both also feel like outsiders. Cy because of his ramshackle family and upbringing that caused him to build walls around the trust that he gives to no-one and avoid the pain that giving love would bring. Loyalty is a currency that Cy trades in. And Georgia for her religion and her single-dad father who couldn’t take her to school things which isolated her from peers while she was growing up. Georgia had thought that antisemitism was a thing of the past and not something to affect her in this day and age. To discover how it had shaped her mother’s life is a shock.

Georgia was parentalized at age seven when her mother died. She champions the underdogs and works for real justice for the three counties for which she works. Which might actually work against her in the election as twisted by her opponent. Cy dispenses much needed advice about money and navigating government paperwork to those who have no one else to turn to. They both help their community.

Georgia and her sisters are digging deeper into and having to mentally deal with the antisemitism that separated their mother from her family when mom married their dad and converted. This began in book one, played a minor role here – except for when Georgia out and out calls out a relative for not keeping up with Caroline Star after the family cut Caroline off for marrying a Jewish man. Cy is worrying about his younger brother who might be mixed up in something that threatens the local community.

I liked the way that their similarities bring them together over dealing with the threat to the community. Then I like how this turns into a realistic third act breakup that temporarily pushes them apart. They act in ways that are authentic to how their characters have been built on page. Bonus points that after the initial dust settles, they think about what’s happened, what they want, and, after not storming off nor vowing that they’re done with the other, they offer apologies as they work things out. And though I can take or leave epilogues, this is a nice one. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. B+

~Jayne

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Sisters Rose Tillman and Marvina Nash haven’t spoken in decades—not since Rose sent Marvina $40 to register their business and Marvina spent it on something else. Rose begins a long career at the post office and Marvina spends her weekends cooking chicken dinners for the church fundraiser. Marvina never leaves the canister of their mama’s special spice mix in the church kitchen, and she shares the recipe with no one.

Rose never forgave Marvina for that $40 betrayal, but when she retires, she’s still dreaming of opening a restaurant with her sister, using mama’s secret spice mix to make their fortune in fried chicken and Southern comfort food. To her horror, Rose realizes she’s forgotten the spice mix recipe. There’s nothing to do but get in her car to drive the two hours to Marvina’s house back in Fork City, Texas. Marvina’s determined never to speak to Rose again, but figures she’ll meet her on the doorstep to hear what she has to say, before closing the door in her face.

Of course, that’s not what happens next, as the sisters find a way to turn their mama’s legacy into a bright new future for their whole community.

CW/TW – mention of miscarriages, mention of past thoughts of suicide, mention of past homophobia, unwed pregnant teenager

Dear Ms. Stimpson, 

It was the cover that got me. And though the book has some heavier subjects than the cartoon cover might imply, it also has a lot of humor and heart. Plus enough talk of yummy sounding food that I wish I could actually try the Dewberry sisters’ magical seasoning.

Every family has got some grudge or misunderstanding that has soured relations among them. Some of them are honest to goodness “yeah, this isn’t something that we can come back from” and some of them are “we didn’t speak for decades because of this? Marvina and Rose haven’t been close for forty years for a lot of reasons which they’re just about to start exploring. That is if they can get past the anger that still simmers over what they think happened so many years ago.

With Rose now retired from her job with the USPS, she’s thinking about what she wants to do next. Can she revive her dream of opening a restaurant that will use her mother’s secret spice blend to bring in happy customers? It didn’t work forty years ago for reasons which each sister remembers differently. Her trip to see her younger sister Marvina in order to refresh her memory about exactly how many pinches of certain ingredients make up the closely guarded spice blend also threatens to bring up all their past issues which are numerous.  

Marvina is one of those people who live to be hospitable. Their mother raised them in a strict church and with a severe brand of religion. Thou shalt not go against Elders or the church hierarchy. When her church seems poised to pivot in order to try and pull in younger parishioners, Marvina is at risk of losing the thing she’s loved, which is cooking with the youth to sell plates of home cooked Southern food to raise money. The Elders are set in “new and improved” which will push Marvina and others, who have given generously of their time and efforts, out. 

Then the sisters discover there’s a young, unwed pregnant teenager who has been living in an accessory dwelling unit behind Marvina’s house. Kerresha’s relationship with her own mother is strained and Rose and Marvina can’t see putting her out on the street when she obviously needs help. 

There is a lot more going on in the book. Let me first tell people that the book is very Southern. Southern food, Southern culture, Southern dialect. Marvina is very dedicated to her conservative church and her religious beliefs – and Rose’s lack of them – figure prominently. The small town in which most of the book takes place is a hotbed of gossip. Past red-lining of Blacks into a certain section of town is mentioned and there is a reason why Marvina and her adult son don’t communicate much. I refer you back to the description of her church which I think will explain things. 

It’s not so much miscommunications that have separated the sisters as it is misremembering or not having the full picture of past events. Neither sister is at first willing to let go of her “truth” and a major reason they haven’t talked is due to not wishing to criticize their (now dead) mother who was a strong influence on them. It will take a long time before Rose is ready to test the waters about her plans with Marvina and even then things won’t go smoothly. 

At one point, one of the sisters (paraphrasing) describes Kerresha as an old soul in a young body. Nineteen year old Kerresha doesn’t initially understand some of the sisters’ expressions and Kerresha’s Insta-talk baffles Marvina and occasionally Rose but Kerresha isn’t one to not speak her mind. She doesn’t hold with sticking to old customs “just because” and her blunt observations give (mostly) Marvina a lot to think about. I could understand why her character was there – to (respectfully) shake things up and highlight where Marvina and Rose were butting heads for no good reason but after a while, her comments seemed a little bit too on point. Still I liked her freshness. 

Marvina and Rose have a lot to learn about what really happened in the past and unlearn a great deal of what they thought they knew. Given how long these wounds had festered and how settled the sisters were in believing they were right and the other was wrong, it’s understandable that it takes most of the book to work these out. Brava that these things causing the estrangement between them are believable even if I wanted to throw my hands up at times. In the end, they both get a new outlook on the past and move forward with a plan that suits them both. B             

~Jayne

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The land they love might tear them apart…

Josie Star knew one day she’d step into her father’s boots and take over the Lone Star Ranch, but she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. When her father collapses, she trades her corporate desk for a dusty tractor to shoulder the legacy of generations of Jewish Texans. She’s ready to take her place in the Lone Star’s history – with a little help from Easton McKinney. The ranch foreman is her lifelong best friend – and a man for whom her feelings once ran much deeper.

The Lone Star gave Easton the stable home his upbringing lacked, but when Josie returns, the dirt beneath his boots crumbles. She broke his heart when she left – and now she’s his boss. He’ll help her find her feet, but he won’t abandon his dream of running his own ranch. Maybe her homecoming is the kickstart he needs to finally move on from the Lone Star – and from her.

When Josie uncovers troubling family secrets, she needs Easton more than ever. But can he stay knowing she’s forever out of reach?

Dear Ms. Crowley,

Hurrah that there’s more to this book than beef prices and drought. Yes, there’s a lot about the Star family ranch and how important this is to both main characters but it’s more focused on people working out their issues instead of fighting the elements.

Josie Star has always known that when her father was ready to put down the reins – so to speak – she would be the one picking them up. Still when the unexpected phone call arrives, she does feel a bit of bitterness and regret that she can’t have a few years to enjoy the corporate executive position that all her sacrifices and hard work earned her. Arriving home, she begins the chore of fitting back in and jump-starting the plans she has for the ranch.

Easton McKinney practically grew up on the Star Ranch. His teen parents never married, his grandparents weren’t thrilled to be raising him but Mike Star accepted him, trained him, and eventually made him a foreman. Ranching, with all its challenges, runs in Easton’s blood. When Josie returns, Easton swallows his (small amount of) resentment that he won’t be allowed to run the place. When his mother, who has moved on with a new husband and children, questions what Easton really wants in life, he has to admit to his long held dream of owning his own land and running it himself.

Then there’s the Star sisters’ stunning discovery that what they’ve believed about their parents’ marriage might not be the whole truth, younger sister Amy’s attempts to matchmake Josie and Easton (with other people) and Josie and Easton’s slow realization that what they feel for each other might be more than friendship. A whole lot is going on down in Texas.

Josie and Easton have more in common than just loving ranching. Both have grown up feeling, at least somewhat, pushed away. Josie’s distant father was emotionally stuck grieving the early death of his wife plus running the ranch so didn’t have much time for four daughters while Easton has never felt truly accepted into his mother’s life or new family. While Josie has turned this into a tough shell and the determination not to need anyone, Easton has developed the habit of trying to ride to the rescue of damsels in distress (as Josie calls them) whom he can help. Neither is married so it’s not working to get them life partners. Their actions make sense given how their characters’ backgrounds are written.

Josie decided early on to push herself to be the best, head out to college, then work her way up the corporate ladder. She’s got plans for the ranch but needs to stop seeking her father’s approval of them. Easton has sort of drifted into where he is and what he’s doing. When his mother sighs in frustration at his lack of planning, he decides that at age thirty, if he’s ever going to get what he wants, he needs to do more than just wish for it. But both love ranching, even the dirty stuff, and they’re both smart though Easton might need reminding that just because he doesn’t have a fancy degree in econ-ag as does Josie, that doesn’t mean he’s dumb. Kudos for competence from both of them.

One thing I really like is that neither person has been pining for the other since their teen years. There was no relationship between them to have a break-up from and they enjoy an easy, comfortable friendship. So of course when both decide they want to be in relationships, they double date and spend those dates showing the world that they ought to be together. The last date (when they’re already a little mad at each other) is hilarious as grievances pour out before their stunned dates. A hot kiss in an alley behind the bar follows that but it’s the horseback trip in a thunderstorm (to round up loose cows) that leaves them taking shelter in an old barn which dropkicks the hotter sex.

Things get a touch repetitive as Easton gets a new job and they mentally dither about their feelings. He wants Josie to ask him to stay while she feels that doing anything that might thwart his dreams is selfish of her. Rinse, repeat, and nope the other still isn’t reading your mind.

The book touched lightly on how unreligious the sisters are but the stuff they found out about their mother’s family promises that this, plus some past anti-Semitism, will be delved into in the coming books. So there’s some cattle, some sisterly quarrels, Family Secrets, and a nice “friends to lovers” plot without anyone leaping off ledges of angst and drama. B

~Jayne

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Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post–Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World.

Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered.

Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down.

Traveling through the unforgiving landscape of a shattered nation in the midst of Reconstruction, John braves winter storms and confronts desperate people in pursuit of his quarry. Untethered, single-minded in purpose, he will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he’ll choose to embrace a life with her instead.

And as he trails Dodd deep into Texas, John accepts that this final reckoning between them may cost him more than all he’s already lost…

Dear Ms. Jiles,

I saw that you were going to have a book coming out and I immediately requested it, no questions asked. Reading the blurb I figured it was going to be bloody, brutal at times, harsh, perhaps bittersweet with “morally complex” characters, and told at a slower pace. That didn’t stop me at all. It was everything that I thought it might be as well as having female characters who are smart and courageous. It is a book that will not uplift people and make them smile. There is little that is happy about it for a long time. But it sucked me in and I could not stop reading until I knew “what happened.”

He wakes up, confused as to where he is, and startled at the amazement with which someone – a nurse? – reacts to him speaking. Then a doctor appears, also delighted at his consciousness. He begins to think, groping for answers to their questions. Slowly John Chenneville remembers bits and pieces of his history and learns of the terrible accident that landed him for months in a military hospital in Virginia. He learns the war is over and – from one of the letters his uncle wrote to the doctor – that he must not be told something that could disturb him.

Traveling slowly back home to MIssouri – that land of Civil War lawlessness now under martial law – John continues to relearn the basics of life, regain his balance, and his memories. At home he finally learns the truth. His lovely, laughing sister, her husband, and their year old baby were murdered and their bodies tossed in a spring to be found and identified by those who knew and loved them. But John can’t set out yet to avenge the loss. It takes another year before his body can support his quest. Then he learns that his family are not the only victims of this man, this former soldier who has worn a badge and been protected from answering for his crimes in the chaos that still pervades the area. But now he knows that John is after him and the killer is on the run.

This is another book set during the post-Civil war years of early Reconstruction. Travel is again important and this occurs at the slow pace of horseback. Even a man who mercilessly drives the horses to lameness and death that he buys or steals from others in order to stay ahead of John Chenneville can only go so fast. John has the aliases the killer uses (extracted from an brutal associate in a not so nice manner), the intuition of what environments the killer would seek (after talking to witnesses and near victims), a set of forged discharge papers ($20 but worth every penny) for when he doesn’t want others to know his real name, and the driving determination to kill his sister’s murderer.

Before condemning John, remember that his family sought justice from the law and got nowhere. At one point John encounters someone who knows the killer, might know what the killer has done but who refuses to tell John where the killer is.

Along the way, John meets and interacts with others trying to move forward with their lives. The country is wrecked but John has little empathy for those in Confederate states who built it from the enslaved labor of others. He just wants to keep moving and close in on his prey. The man he seeks is out there, maybe a few days before him or perhaps falling a day or so behind but John is close. Things get more personal when the murderer strikes again, killing another person John met. And though John meets a young woman who knows his quest and with whom John feels he could happily live his life, his goal remains paramount. So anyone looking for a romantic HEA, just put that aside. This is historical fiction.

As the pages left to read dwindled, I got more anxious. Would John find the man he seeks and would John deal out the justice that burns in him to deliver? Another character says “There’s the law and then there’s justice. Sometimes the two overlap.” I didn’t see this wrap up coming, no not at all. And yet it fits and for Reasons I’ll take it. It also makes me wonder who among the many characters in this book (with nods here to Jefferson Kidd and Simon Boudlin) will be seen again in your next one. B

~Jayne

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