The Tribute -- Malloy Family #6 -- by Beth Williamson

It has been said that it is ". . . better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all." Brett Malloy, a quiet, internal, reticent man who typifies the "strong, silent type" of Western hero, no longer believes this. Having won a broken down, falling down ranch from one of the old-timers in Cheshire, Wyoming, Brett is now starting his own ranch and comes to the conclusion that he needs a wife. He is envious of his siblings and their burgeoning families, but most of all he is lonely. However, there is only one woman he wants and only one woman who truly exists for him: the town doctor. Alexandra and Brett have history and it is a hurtful one.

How many of us can look back on our "first love", perhaps someone we met in high school and for whom we developed a significant crush. Some of those teen relationships ended in friendship and quiet realization that people move on and grow up. Some are meant to continue on to adulthood and don't. Some end in terrible hurt. Such was the relationship with Brett and Alex. He loves her still and mourns the 12 years since their relationship ended so quickly, almost as if they stopped existing for one another. But Alex is back, serving as the town doctor because her dad has retired as the community physician. Determined to win her back, Brett begins his assault on Alex's dislike of him and her stated mindset to have nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Assisted by his somewhat new friend Kincaid, a former gun-for-hire, Brett continues to rebuild the ranch and to resist the attempts of a wealthy and self-centered neighbor to take over not only his property but his woman as well. King Dawson is one of those characters that often pops up in stories of the Old West--a person who has always had too much money and too much given to him without any effort on his part. He has a core of evil that permeates everything he owns and everything he does. Together with his hired "army" of mercenaries, he commits murder and fraud, all to gain that to which he has no right. Alex and Brett survive the attacks and in the midst of injury and destruction, begin to own up to their continued love for one another. Their relationship grows in spite of all that Dawson does to destroy them and their future.

I especially like the thought that seems to run through all these stories: that people are not throw-away creatures, that lives can be redeemed through love and caring, that family and its ups and downs are the salvation of all of us. Kincaid is a case in point: a person who has killed for money but who recognizes that what the Malloys represent is what he wants. He exits the story by actually seeking to "kill" Kincaid -- by becoming someone else who has not earned his living over the carcasses of his victims, who is now wanting to breathe the air of caring and kindness. I also appreciate the fact that Brett is brought out of himself in this tale. He is learning that loving is about giving as well as receiving, that communicating is the stuff of which loving relationships are made. Alex's love and her enthusiasm for living fill his heart, heal his insecurities, and make a new man of him.

I think Williamson is so adept at the writing task and she helps us identify with these characters so far removed from us in time, but so relevant to people who have lived throughout history. Their struggles become our struggles and are people who project the thoughts and concerns that face people today. I hope you will read these Malloy Family stories and come to appreciate them as individuals who could have just as easily lived in today's world as they did in 19th century Wyoming. I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

The Gift -- Malloy Family #5 -- by Beth Williamson

Trevor Malloy is a unique and gifted human being who glories in his ability to charm the ladies and who works as hard at getting people to like him as he does at his parents' ranch. He is a "silver-tongued devil" -- a term that has been used repeatedly about him. He loves women, any kind of woman is a pleasure to him and when he sees someone he likes, he spares no effort to charm them into his bed. He is also a demon of a poker player. There is one very large problem, however: Trevor's extra-curricular activities are beginning to impinge on his ranching responsibilities and his brothers and his dad are beginning to chafe from his long absences, his hangovers, and what appears to be a growing irresponsibility. Feeling sorry for himself at all this "persecution," Trevor packs up his saddlebags and leaves home.

Trevor's will-o-the-wisp lifestyle comes to a crashing halt when he encounters Adelaide Burns, a championship quality poker player and owner of Cheyenne's own Last Chance Saloon. Almost before he knows it, Trevor is in debt to Adelaide for $5,000 and she insists that he work off the debt as her employee at the saloon. He believes that he will be indentured to her for over a year. He finds that he is now doing "women's work" and for the first time in his life he begins to respect the mountains of dishes, pots and pans, laundry, cleaning, scrubbing, and household chores that his mother has endured in past years. He is also attracted to his boss, for Adelaide has a full head of stunning red hair and a voluptuous figure to go with it. This ladies' man has met his match!

As is true in all of Williamson's stories, there is a conflict of massive proportion--the owner of the Silver Spittoon, Adelaide's competitor in the saloon world, is bound and determined to run her out of business and to run her out of town. Of course, Trevor is drawn into the fray because of his growing attraction to Adelaide as well as his growing attachment to all the people of the Last Chance, a rather motley crew who have become family to each other. As one who understands the concept of family, Trevor easily becomes a part of this configuration.

The story is classic in many ways and there are not too many twists and turns here, but it is a very interesting book and not at all a waste of time. The relationship between the main characters is spicey and sometimes bawdy, but the growing love between them is winsome and sensitive. There are a few surprises and Williamson always contrives to bring some of those into her story. There are iconic characters here: the grumpy and muscle-bound bartender who is really trying to find a "place" called home, the scowling cook who is really mother to them all, the hired gun Kincaid, who will figure in several of the coming stories, and the various townsfolk who form the backdrop of the story. All are delightful in their own way and Williamson has taken the time to give us characters that have dimension and depth. Most of all, it is a story of how a gifted and caring man finally grows into his maturity and discovers the joys of living as a whole person. The Malloy family makes their appearance and affirms once again that their love for one another is enduring and able to be sustained, no matter the circumstances. I give this novel at 4.5 rating out of 5.

The Treasure -- Malloy Family #4 -- by Beth Williamson

This is the 4th in the Malloy family series and I think it just keeps on getting gooder and gooder!! The Malloy men are rockin sockin men of the Old West with muscles that are hardened by endless days of hard work and ranching demands, a vocabulary that would make a sailor blush, hearts that are as big as the state of Wyoming, and loyalty to family and friends that seems to be able to endure almost any challenge.

Ray Malloy is the oldest of the seven Malloy offspring and as the oldest sibling seems to take very seriously the responsibility to look out for his brothers and his sister Nicole. Life has not been good to him. He does not seem to have the easy charm of his brother Trevor or the endless sense of humor of Jack. In fact, he is not easy to be with and seems to be more reticent and quiet--except, that is, for his ever-present scowl and frown, a facial appearance that seems to never go away.

Ray had the misfortune of falling "in lust" with Regina Goodson, daughter of the owners of the General Store, a spoiled beauty that could charm the paint off a building, but who has no desire to be responsible or who has never had to grow up. As a result of their brief affair Regina finds that she is pregnant and Ray, always being willing to "do the right thing" marries her and brings her to live with him and his parents on their ranch. The pregnancy reveals Regina for the vacuous and empty person she really is, and two weeks after the birth of their daughter, Regina disappears. The extra complication which now becomes apparent is that one look at the baby affirms that the child could never have been Ray's, but he falls deeply in love with his baby daughter Melody. For the next five years he is faithful in caring for her and letting her know that she is the child of his heart.

However, all is not well with Melody. She is now five years old and as wild as the creatures who inhabit the hills around her grandparents' ranch. Knowing that Melody needs education and some consistent discipline, Ray hires Lillian Wickham, a 27 year old single lady from New York, who has been raised in an ophanage run by Catholic sisters, whose Mother Superior is a close childhood friend of Ray's mother. Lillian has been hired a number of times as governess by families in New York but has been dismissed each time because of her inherant clumsiness. She is truly an accident looking for a place to happen!! But Ray is desperate--he has searched for over a year to find someone who could be a governess to Melody and a cook/housekeeper for his ranch, and he hires Lillian, sight unseen. When Ray meets Lillian's train he is struck almost dumb at her graceful appearance, her petite form, and thinks that he should send her packing before he even thinks twice. However, they go on to the ranch and begin their story together.

Melody continues to be a problem but throughout the burgeoning relationship between Ray and Lillian there is a slow thaw in Melody's heart toward this unique woman who has experienced many of the emotional ups and downs that have already made Melody's life difficult.

There is romance here, to be sure, and deep love, friendship, and loyalty as the Malloys must band together to save one of their own from the depths of degradation in the bowels of old San Francisco. Lillian's gentle loving brings smiles to Ray's face for the first time in years. For this she is deeply prized and Ray's family embraces her in a way that gives her a family for the first time in her life.

Williamson has done such a great job of writing with grace and has brought the reader into the hearts and minds of the characters. I am also struck with her willingness to deal with the social ills that afflicted so many during the expansion of the Old West, with the realities of early death and abandoned children, with the horror of child enslavement and the hurts caused by the opium traffikers. I think you will like Lillian, a woman who was subjected to the worst that life could bring into the life of a child, but who has triumphed because of the care of the nuns and a deep determination to be a good person in spite of everything. I think you will like Ray in spite of his grumpy ways. Who would not love to be treasured as is Melody, and who will not like to see the "treasure" that grows and blooms as these two people become indipensible to one another as their acceptance of one another heals their hearts. I think you will like the suspense as well. This is a very good read and well worth the time. I give this book a rating of 4.75 out of 5.

The Discovery of Series

Having just returned to some serious fiction reading in the past few months, I must confess that I am liking the series of novels that are now available in a variety of genres and which make it possible to explore characters and contexts to a far greater degree than was done before. I have been wracking my mind and for the life of me I cannot remember that such a writing phenomenon was true in former years -- I am talking about lots of years ago. Decades ago when I first began reading Harlequins and similar fiction, it just wasn't possible to find your favorite characters living on in multiple situations and settings. Now the current crop of writers are focused very heavily on doing so. I have to say that I like that.

There are some books that, when I come to the end, I am really disappointed that they do not go on. Even some fiction with it's boundaries in the historical aspects of the stories are often disappointing in this way. I know that there is one book that I have re-read for over 50 years and every time I come to the end I am wanting to know more about the main characters and what happened to them and to their families. Reading a series can be very fulfilling in that way.

However, writing a series can also be a real challenge for an author. Such a writing task requires great application to detail, a very good memory, good editing, and a consistency in the story-telling. All of us have read the first or second books in a series and have been disappointed by subsequent novels. It seems that some authors just find this difficult to do well. Perhaps that is why some of us have our favorites: these authors have met the challenge and some of them have done so multiple times. I am currently posting reviews for the Malloy Family series from Beth Williamson. I think she has done very well in this series of stories and am hoping to read more of her work. Perhaps you can comment on series which have, in your opinion, have or have not met the challenges. Until next time . . .

The Reward -- Malloy Family #3 -- by Beth Williamson

Ms Williamson continues on with the saga of the Malloy family but brings us the story of one of the characters who float around the edge of the first two stories--the experience of a bandito named Hermono.

As the bastard son of a Spanish land owner in Texas, Malcolm Ross de Zarza returns from his 15 years as one who has lived outside the law and is the quintessential Mexican bandit. However, his mother is Scottish and was greatly loved by his father, but as a woman without wealth and without "connections" socially, Alejandro Zarza did not marry her. While he gloried in his oldest son Malcolm, he took a Spanish aristocrat as his wife and from this time on, Malcolm's life was one of pain and disappointment. His father cowtows to his Spanish bride and her son, and he does not own up to the empty and evil nature that is at the core of both his wife and her son. Finally, Malcolm is driven away from his own home and his mother disappears soon after.

Now Malcolm has returned to find his oldest friend a widow and owner of a the neighboring ranch to his father. His half-brother is in charge of his father's holdings as Alejandro is fighting for his life. Malcolm's stepmother and half-brother are also working with those who hate his widow-friend in order to drive her into bankruptcy so they can take her land. The railroad is laying new lines and they want the wealth that will come from selling the land to the government.

Leigh is a woman who has grown up with Malcolm--her parents were also employees at the Zarza spread and during their childhood, she and Malcolm became best friends. They also began to experience a budding adolescent "crush" for one another up until the time that Malcolm was driven away. Now, 15 years later, Leigh is a widow, trying to overcome the prejudice of her foreman again a woman running a ranch, working endlessly to prove that she can prosper in the ranching world. A series of small disasters have continued to plague her and her spread, and with the re-appearance of Malcolm she is beginning to realize that the Zarza family is behind these happenings.

I liked this story a great deal but don't think this is the strongest of the Malloy series. It does, however, expand the story of Hermano, a Mexican Bandido who befriends Nicky in her travels and who takes her under his wing as a surrogate sister. He is, in his own way, a man of honor who is now well and truly weary of the life he has been living, but his reputation and his contacts through the years makes it possible for him to continue to assist his friends, both in Texas and in Wyoming. I think Williamson did well to bring us Malcolm's story, to give us some insight into who he really was, as he will continue to waft in and out of the Malloy family story for many pages to come. And be prepared to see the Malloys continue to be people who stand by their friends as well as each other. I give this book a rating of 4 out of 5.

The Prize -- Malloy Family #2 -- by Beth Williamson

Jack Malloy is the youngest child of the Malloy clan, an artistic, part-time rancher who really finds his greatest joy in creating furniture and sculptures out of wood. But beneath his kind and humorous exterior resides a terrible memory, a secret that has been awakened by the revelation of Owen Hoffman's evil. Because of the newly activated memories, he hasn't slept the night through for nearly six months, waking sick and hung-over every night because of the nightmare as well as the effects of his use of alcohol to somehow blank out the awfulness that just doesn't seem to want to go away.

Featured prominently in these nightly horrors is Rebecca Connor, a woman who had been kidnapped, raped and terrorized by Owen and his cohorts and who has returned to Wyoming to assist Tyler in preparing his home to welcome his and Nicky's first-born child. Rebecca is a professional seamstress and one of Nicky's closest friends, and her journey to Wyoming for this labor of love brings her once again into Jack's real-life experience as he has come to the Bounty Ranch to assist Tyler in expanding their small ranch house to make room for the baby.

Somehow he has forgotten that Rebecca has gone through the tortures of the damned as well, and this bond between them is renewed, so much so that he cannot fight the attraction he feels for this tiny, unobtrusive woman who, in spite of her diminutive size is determined to carry her share of the ranching load and to be a true partner in the tasks that all must share in their daily lives.

Through the challenges of a horrible Wyoming winter, family difficulties, cougar attacks, the return of some of the brutes who were involved in Rebecca's imprisonment at the hands of Owen Hoffman, the discovery of genuine affection, and the joy of greeting Nicky & Tyler's twin babies, the relationship between Jack and Rebecca grows and matures. Williamson again writes a story of family loyalty and surprising friendship that is breathtaking in its scope and it is sometimes as surprising to the reader as it is to the main characters.

I continue to be captivated by these characters and by the on-going saga of this family. They each have their own problems, and in Jack's case, he discovers the depth of care that comes when people love each other to the exclusion of all else. The various members of this clan appear and disappear throughout these stories in such a way that the main story is never diluted but only enhanced. Each tale leaves one hungry for the next "installment" and Williamson's writing never seems to get old. I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 rating.

The Bounty -- Malloy Family #1 -- Beth Williamson

Oh my!! Those Malloy Men!! Beth Williamson has written a series about several members of the Malloy Family of Cheshire, Wyoming, set in the 19th century American West. And as usual, Ms Williamson has managed to bring these characters alive through her gifted writing skills and has made these people seem, at one time, normal and caring people who are trying to live their lives and raise their families with all the grace and patience we all need, and on the other hand, makes them all larger than life.

Nicole Malloy is the "baby" of the family with six brothers, one of whom is her twin. Forced into an engagement with landowner Owen Hoffman, a man who Nicole (Nicky) despises and about whom floats an aura of evil, Nicole is determined to abort the engagement and reveal Owen's evil. However, she is unprepared for her discovery of the true nature of his perversion and in the process her twin brother Logan is murdered. Seeking to pin the death of Logan and his brother on Nicky, Owen swears out a warrant for her arrest and hires bounty hunter Tyler Calhoun to bring her back for $3,000 and offers double that amount if she is brought back alive.

Tyler is one of those strong, silent, mysterious men of the old West. He has been a successful bounty hunter for 12 years and is considered the best of the lot. He thinks that finding a woman is about a 2-week task and is surprised that it takes three months to find Nicky and take her into custody. She has successfully alluded the authorities for three years. In the process of returning her to Cheshire, Tyler begins to doubt Nicky's guilt even as he is becoming more and more attracted to her.

There are twists and turns, fun and romance in this first of the Malloy series. The multilayered characters, the complexities of the plot and the underlying family dynamics are the stuff of which wonderful novels are made. Throughout this book one is rooting for Nicky, and in spite of being a big, bad, rough, seeminly heartless bounty hunter, Tyler Calhoun will win your heart before it is all over.

I think Ms Williamson has done some of her best writing about this family. They are regular people but there is an undeniable bond of affection and loyalty that binds them together--the kind of caring and grace that we want to experience in our own relationships. There are the usual characters -- the bad guys -- and they are iconic in nature--just what we would expect in the stories of the Old West. But they are not used in such a way that they cause the action and movement of the story to bog down. I really liked this book -- Nicky is a devil-may-care kind of woman who knows her own skills, is comfortable in her own skin, and is not afraid to be up front about who she is. Tyler is a person who will never be cowed by a female, that is, until he comes squarely up against a born and bred woman of Wyoming who isn't intimidated by anyone.

If you like strong characters and very readable stories, you will enjoy this book! I give this novel 4.75 out of 5 rating.