Book Review: A Colorado Christmas by William W. Johnstone

A Colorado Christmas by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every time I read a Johnstone Western, it keeps getting better and better. From the action to the cozy days spent in Big Rock, each time I read these books, I oddly feel cozy and warm inside.

A Colorado Christmas tells the story of a Christmas in Big Rock, with Smoke and his wife, Sally, and Chance and Ace Jensen, who may or may not be related to Smoke, and also his brother, Luke. Preacher, the old mountain man, does appear to come to the Sugarloaf, but he came to hide from another mountain man named Eagle-Eye Callahan...for a misunderstanding that doesn't even sound right. Eagle-Eye thought that something was going on between Preacher and his wife after he found some letters that Eagle-Eye's wife wrote to Preacher. Preacher swore up and down that he had nothing to do with it, and that it was all up in poor Eagle-Eye's head.

While the town of Big Rock is preparing for Christmas, someone from the sheriff's past gets out of jail and wants revenge, while a group of people from New York, that is hired by William Litchfield to kill a boy who witnessed his family murder (ow...but why, though?), along with a group of orphans who got stuck on a train, and a private detective following the orphans and the people around, to make sure that they boy called Caleb is the one he's looking for.

This book was pretty funny at times, and also very sweet. The action was there, and it was nice looking up what a bear sign was-which I do believe is cowboy slang for doughnuts. I also really liked how the Jensens opened up their homes to the orphan children, Chance and Ace, and Preacher and Eagle-Eye, through them meeting up again and almost scrapping was funny. At the Christmas Eve pagent, I did get worried that this might be the day something really bad happens to Smoke, but thank god for Luke Jensen (which this is the first time I've meet him, to be honest).

This might be my favorite book to read and come back to every year that Christmas comes around, and I'm glad that I read it.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Die with the Outlaws (a Matt Jensen, The Last Mountain Man novel) by William A. Johnstone

Die with the Outlaws by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

CW: Lynching

No gun. No horse. No water or food.

That is how this western started, when our last Mountain Man, Matt Jensen, woke up. He was in the desert when he did, and he started to remember that he was helping a couple who was targeted by some horse rustlers, thieves-basically the first thing I thought of when the “bad guys” appeared in this novel was “oh no, here come the republicans” (have no idea why I thought that.) But as I read on and saw how they did what they did to their competitors, I was wholly shocked as hell. Like WTF??? You lynched a couple and falsely accuse them of stealing some cows that wandered over to their farm, using the paper to put out a false story about the couple that got married a couple weeks ago and was living happily.

And don’t get me started on the judge that O’Neil and Kennedy was bribing to let the ones that did the damn lynching go. That pissed me off to high heaven when they did that because the judge was letting them off scott free. And then the worst thing they can do was hire someone called the Undertaker, to try and take out Matt, only to turn around and have Matt kill him.

This is gonna be my shortest (and last) read/review of 2020, so I’ll say that I did enjoy it, but I just didn’t like the lynching part of it, it just made me mad.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: Pray for Death (Will Tanner #6) by William A. Johnstone

Pray for Death by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pray for Death is just a straight up ‘get the bad guys and lock em up’ type book, but at the same time it’s also about the bad guys trying to get away from him and also trying to outsmart him. But sadly as time goes on, Will Tanner always outsmart the criminals as much as he can, even when he’s just trying to make sure everyone is safe.

But I find it kinda funny that he’s about to miss his own wedding, which when I read that made me go ‘ooohhhhhhh’ because he’s been chasing Ward Hawkins and Tiny MceGee, but I hope once I get done with this book that he does, because I really want him to get married. I also do like the fact that he acts like a marshall of the law and giving people the choice.

And the Hawkins gang...I started to give them the side eye because there’s something about them that I don’t like-I mean, Fanny basically shot Tiny McGee in the back of the shoulder because she couldn’t get a clear shot, and she told her boys to chase down the Marshall and string him up, which is really, really bad, though it was funny when Hawkins tried to maneuver him and tried to overpower him, but it doesn’t even work.

Then when they got back into town (he and Hawkins), and they had to see Doc, Hawkins THOUGHT that he could escape one last time, but at the end, it didn’t work as he got stabbed in the neck by Doc’s cook, and then got shot, which was bad on his part because he didn’t expect the cook to stab him in the neck.. But in the end, he got what he deserves, and Will came home, only to get punched in the face by Sophie when he came back, but at least he got married at the end.

I think this one is my least favorite one because yes there was a lot of action in it, and he was trying to get the bad guys and bring them back home. The last couple books of his were about rustlin’ cattle and fighting the bad guys, but this one changed the pace and I love it so, so much. I liked the lingo that I’ve been hearing almost all my life, like likker (liquor), and other words I can’t remember.

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: North of Laramie: A Buck Trammel Western by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone

North of Laramie by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This would be my third western of William A. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone’s books. I have to say, I quite enjoy them. They have surprised me more than one, and on top of that, I get so immersed in this world that sometimes I don’t want to leave.

Buck Trammel is one interesting character-one I really would like to fall in love with since he’s tall (Tall men + Brittany=Brittany Bait). But he is traveling with a man named Adam Hagen, which I’ve kept an eye on because one, there’s something about him that I don’t like. Yes, he’s a drunk and a gambler, but behind all of that is a schemer. I don’t know what it is about Adam Hagen that I don’t like, but I just...don’t...like...him.

And on top of that, the Bowman gang is coming after the both of them after Trammel killed two of their kin (which sucks, by the by). I understand you want revenge on the men who killed your family, but come on now. It is NOT that bloody serious (I mean, two people dying, yes. Getting revenge? Stupid as hell. At least, on my side of things). And they’re trying to make new lives in Laramie-Adam’s a hotelier and Trammel’s a sheriff after the other one just up and left and died after swearing him in.

I do like the characters in the story-Buck, Adam, Emily (I actually ship them). But my favorite parts have to be when we stay alone in Trammel’s mind and him trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law after being a Pinkerton man, then being in The Golden Lilly in Witchita as the bodyguard. I found those parts interesting, almost as character development because he’s trying to figure out if he wanted to stay being the law, or settle down somewhere, get married, have a couple kids. But with the Bowman gang after him, he didn’t think that he would, though I wish he did because he deserves everything (Adam doesn’t, but that’s another story for another time).

My least favorite would have to be Madame Peachtree (ha ha) and her men, because she wanted Trammel to look the other away while she did what she wanted to do (opium, her saloon), but he arrested her and her men, but then he found her leger that only Adam and Emily can read...oh BOY that’s all I have to say. OH BOY. That’s when I have to keep my eye on Adam, because it seems like the Bowman gang is in the background, and he’s working his own plans in the front of the story.

And boy, was I right-when they came into Laramie, and Lefty showed up to try and kill Buck, Adam went to talk to Lucien Clay, striking up a deal with him (and basically using Buck was a bargaining chip) which he didn’t like in the end. There was a gunfight between Buck and Lefty and his men, and he killed them all in self-defense. Then the end, when Hagen told him what he wanted to do in Blacktown (turn it into a Opium den) in which Buck downright refused to let happen.

I did enjoy this book so much and I want to read more! In! This! Series!

View all my reviews

 

Book Review: A Hill of Beans (Chuckwagon Trail #3) by William J. Johnstone

A Hill of Beans by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Hill of Beans...a book I was in the mood for, and was okay, to say the least. Even though it was book three of the Chuckwagon Trail series, this is my second western I've read by Mr. William W. Johnstone, and I have to say, I really enjoyed reading this one. Yes, I gave this book three out of a five stars, but it was because it stared real slow, and then it picked up and it felt like a real western.

This book introduces Dewey "Mac" Mackenzie (well to me it introduces Mac), a man on the run from his past who one night hears a rumbling of a cattle stampede. He had two choices: either get stomped on by the cattle, or help the cattle rustlers get the heard under control. He gets them under control, and joins up with the group called the Rafter B.

At first, they didn't like him-no one warmed up to him. But the more they spend time together, even firing the horrible cook and making Mac the Chuckwagon cook, they liked him so much that they kept him on the trail till they meet trouble-trouble in the form of Van Horne and his men, and of course the Forrests, Belinda and Herbert. The Rafter B outfit moved across the trail, and they have narrowly escaped the Kiowa Tribe (I'm trying to write this in a respectful manner because Mr. William did a good job depicting them), and the action was just so beautiful. Even the scrap between Mac and Roman over Belinda was really good.

The one thing that made me a bit upset was that Mac and Colleen didn't get together. I thought it was okay for him to finally let his guard down and be with her, but it looked like it didn't happen as she fell for Malloy, the new member of the group and also a Texas Ranger. But one thing ticked me off SO MUCH was Belinda betraying them, using her feminine wiles to try and get what she wanted, even having to lie to poor Mac about what was going on until he overheard her and her husband talking and then making love (which was uncomfortable to hear.)

I wish I read the rest of this book series (or the first two books introducing Mac to me) because I really like Mac and I wish he didn't have to go to California and stayed with the Rafter B...but maybe one day it'll happen....one day....

View all my reviews