Release Date: May 16, 2011
Series: #3 of Into the West *strongly suggest that you read in order
More Info: Amazon Smashwords
Book Blurb:
Tina is finally starting to adjust to Arizona. Being a cowgirl in training is hard work and it keeps her busy. She still wishes she were home in Jersey, and going to Prom with her friends, but at least she has something fun to do. Then her parents decide to take her to a youth group. Things go bad right away. The other teens make fun of her and exclude her from the activities, and even though she manages to find a new friend, the day leaves her sad and missing home, and her cowboy.
On the upside, her cowgirl training is paying off. When the Taggarts have an emergency with some of their pregnant mares, they turn to Tina for help. She also starts learning to drive. In the city it was too dangerous for her to learn, but in Golton, being able to drive is a necessity and Tina is excited to learn. Then Tina discovers some information that might be vital to her cowboy’s survival. She’s been forbidden to see him again, but if she doesn’t, the whole future could change.
My Thoughts:
In this installment of "Into The West" we see more of Tina and her everyday life. There's more teen angst than in the previous installments but also more character development. Tina is a teen age girl who's been uprooted, as is common, by a parents job, in case her father, to new town, worse, a new state. They live out in the middle of nowhere, she doesn't have a car and there's no public transportation (having grown up in a small, rural/suburban New England town that also lacked public transpo, I really felt her pain) which makes it difficult to meet people her own age. To top it off, her friend Jessica from back East is slowly pulling away. When Tina does meet some local kids her own age, it doesn't go well. Being the new kid sucks. Still, she starts to make connections.
I liked that we got to see more of Tina acting in normal, everyday situations. She even misses her boyfriend, though the circumstances of that are certainly not normal. :D Tina acts rashly towards the end, leaving us with a bit of a cliff hanger. At one point, I thought to myself, "Not smart, Tina, not smart."
It's a less action packed story but as I said earlier, we get more character development and in this one Tina really seems like your average American teen. There were more typos and copy edit problems in this one. I know the turnaround time on these stories is very, very tight, but it was frustrating that such a short story had so many. Some examples: Missing word - "Tina rubbed her face and tried soothe.", "His ungainly legs too cute."; typos or grammatical issues - "A couple went off to nurse when their mom's nickered to them.", "She'd already out the plastic bags in her saddlebags at the barn." I know that not every reader is bothered by this but it does bother me, especially when there are so many in such a short story. (And I can't wait to publish this post and see how many I missed in my editing. :P)
Overall, a solid installment.
The reviewer owns this ebook.
