Friday, June 3, 2011

Silver Rush by J.A. Campbell














e-book - Echelon Press




Cowboy Boots, a rope, and the cowboy hat. I like these covers - even though I normally don't read westerns or think in terms of "cowboy/cowgirl" - there's no denying that having skills with a horse, boots and rope are good skills to have. I've always wished that I could ride horses or rope little cows (or my kids! lol) I like the representation of cowboy accessories on the cover.




Oh Boy! Now I absolutely have to make sure I get the next installment of Into The West. Because Silver Rush ends with a cliff hanger. At the end of the novella, I'm not sure if our Tina has actually been rescued or has fallen from the pan into the fire...




Tina - a typically "I'm pretty sure of what I'm doing" teen (weren't we all at that age? I know I was pretty sure I knew the best for me!) cannot get Pecos Rowe out of her mind. Rowe is the young cowboy that she ended up seeing both times she went back in time - once by accident, the second on purpose. This time she keeps having dreams - dreams that show up night after night.




Not only is she suffering from these nightly dreams, but her foray into town to a get together with other teens pretty much ends in disaster. Seems she's met the meanest bunch of kids in town. Luckily there's a couple that are nicer than the rest, and she does end up making a friend. Which is nice because her BFF from the big city doesn't quite sound so BFFish lately.




The nightly dreams have Tina convinced that there's something she has to tell Rowe...so despite repeated warnings from the Medicine Man, Eli - Tina makes a trip back through time. Even though she thinks she's prepared for hot weather, things aren't going very well for her and after wandering around in heat for a long time.....well. spoilers.




Even with the (evil!) cliffhanger ending, I once again enjoyed a peek into Tina's story. The characters are interesting and Tina's wandering around in the desert seemed so real that I really wanted some water!




Because I'm such a slow e-book reader, at least I don't have long to wait. The next installment will be coming in June, and I'm already planning to get it.




You can read an excerpt and buy a copy at Smashwords


the two previous books are also available there, and at Amazon, Omni, etc.

2 comments:

  1. My publisher was not happy with me for that ending. I figured, hey, people can deal, they only have to wait a month. LOL, now that she hasn't published it anywhere but smashwords, most people won't have to wait at all. I was feeling a little evil. Glad you liked it Mardel, thanks for the great review!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow - I thought the ending was a good one...giving some suspense. Y'think maybe she wanted less suspense for the young minds? although, I would think if you're trying to get reluctant readers to read, you need to make things exciting and give them something to look forward to. I see so many of our 5th and 6th graders (in ASES) absolutely bored with the novels available to them in our school. The books some of them get their parents to buy for them are way more suspenseful and up to date than what's available in most classrooms.

    I hope your editor gets your next one up at Amazon, and the other places. She needs to think about getting more exposure - it would help her also.

    ReplyDelete