Where the Wildflowers Dance (A Good Wind Western)

Written by Phil Mills Jr.
Review by Jeff Westerhoff

After teaching four years in Nebraska, Sarah Meadows returns home to her father’s ranch in Wyoming. It’s the 1870s, and Chugwater is the closest town that supplies the local ranches, including the Box T, where Jake Summers is the foreman. Jilted after a marriage proposal to Sarah in Nebraska, lawyer Jason Kelly Neal travels 400 miles to Chugwater to try and win Sarah’s hand. He attempts to take over the town and its citizens, hires gunmen to control the town, and then cuts off access to the only water supply. His goal is to eventually ruin Sarah’s ranch, thereby forcing her to marry him. The Box T foreman, Jake Summers, tries to help her and her father save the ranch.

What a dastardly bad man Jason Neal is! As I turned from one chapter to the next, I found myself hating this man more and more and hoped he would meet his just deserts by the end of the book. A Spur Award winner, the author managed to keep me involved in the story from start to finish. A must read for western lovers.