As Far as the West

Curtis (Angel from the East) continues the Blooms of the Bitterbush series with this propulsive if heavy-handed historical. It’s 1920 when Curtis and Eliza Morgan’s daughter, Lizzie, heads from her parents’ rural Idaho home to Boise in search of adventure and money to prop up her family’s struggling ranch. Things start out badly when she discovers the restaurant where she’d planned to work has burned down. They get worse when she finds a seamstress job at a tailor’s shop that turns out to be owned by Benton Calloway—a thief who’d been jailed for stealing from her father but is now out of prison and plotting revenge. Benton’s terrible to work for, but Lizzie’s determined to stay long enough to uncover what he’s planning. In the process, she forges an improbable bond with Benton’s good-hearted son Josiah, an accountant who’s working to repay people his father has cheated. But when Lizzie’s suspicions are stirred up by some incriminating evidence, it seems unlikely she’ll ever see Josiah as anything other than a Calloway. While the message of forgiveness is overdone—everyone except Benton preaches its value—the romance between the opposite-sides-of-the-tracks leads has enough momentum and twists to keep readers invested. Those seeking a fast-paced western romance will be satisfied. (Sept.)