I adore Erin Bowman’s work. She knows story craft so well and she really shows off her skills in everything she does. Character motivations are spot on and there is an honesty to the way these characters live their lives and make their decisions. Erin isn’t afraid to let her characters be messy, make bad choices (the same way real people do), and learn from their mistakes (or sometimes not). My one issue with this book is that some of the effort to craft realistic dialect felt overly contrived and took me out of the story. I understood she was trying to convey the dialect of the western U.S. in the late nineteenth century, but I think you’re either Mark Twain levels of thorough, or you just scrap it for simple language. Overall, I would recommend this if you’re into westerns and YA. It was a perfect marriage of the two.

Character (4/5)
Plot & Pacing (5/5)
Setting & Surroundings (4/5)
Dialogue & Diction (2/5)
Craft & Voice (4/5)
Reading Experience (3/5)

Final Rating:
3.7/5