Joy That Long Endures - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

     If you like historical fiction set in the Old West, you'll enjoy Joy That Long Endures as much as I did. Author Alethea Williams tells the tale of men and women working to succeed in Wyoming Territory in the days after completion of the Great Transcontinental Railroad. Although hordes of men and women headed west in search of gold, the people who were most successful were those who provided services to the fortune seekers. This book tells the story of Devin Cavanaugh, a former ironworker who now hauls freight; Dulcinetta Jackson, who owns a saloon; and other characters with ambition and drive.
     This book stands alone; however, it is the second volume in Williams's Irish Blessings series. I blogged about the first book (Walls for the Wind) HERE.
I have also enjoyed and blogged about Alethea Williams's other books: 
Náápiikoan Winter
Willow Vale

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Joy That Long Endures in exchange for an honest review. The author also included a dictionary with the book, defining the colorful slang of the times.

Beginning: 
     HAAWWWW, HAAAWWWW!
     Well might the mule sound amused, Devin Cavanaugh thought, as he pondered the present state of his life while hoisting another bag atop the pile in the wagon. It took only a glance for the man to resolve anew that this Wyoming Territory was a rough, raw place. The harsh landscape proved hospitable to equally raw weather: the wind had finally let up after an earlier blow so ferocious that loose dirt spiraled in a brown cloud two miles high. Now, with a sudden streak of lightning and vicious crack of thunder, rain cascaded in blinding sheets, turning the normally mindless job of loading the wagons into a wet, miserable business indeed. And to top off the whole soggy mess, there was Caleb Wilson and his fit of temper, accompanied by a veritable geyser of raw language. Wilson's tantrum was coarse enough that Devin almost expected clouds of steam to emanate from the man's mouth along with the steady flow of heated cussing aimed at one of the lead mules.
     "Ya bacon-faced baggage, I'll strip the hide from yer jingle-brained gawdamned bones! Hold still, ya stinkin' Tom turd jilt! By gawd, I'll whip the skin clean off from yer scrawny fundament once I get ya fully hitched, ya useless scraggy whorepipe!"

Teaser (from Page 96):
     Devin said, "I was a big city guttersnipe. My parents died within a few years of arriving in this country - at least I know my mam is dead and I think my da is. He just never came home one night, and Mam died a year or so after that."

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 170 Pages (trade paperback) plus a reader's group guide.
Amazon Link: Joy That Long Endures
Author Blog: Alethea Williams - Western Historicals

Synopsis:
Joy that Long Endures is the second of the Irish Blessings series of historical novels that began in Cheyenne with Walls for the Wind. The series tells the stories of Irish immigrants set along the tracks of the new transcontinental railroad in Wyoming Territory. A former iron man for the Union Pacific, Devin Cavanaugh labors day after day to transport loads from the little railroad town of Bryan 100 miles over dirt trails to South Pass City. He wants only one seemingly unattainable thing: to be his own man. Dulcinetta Jackson, taught from childhood how to profit from the dreams of desperate men, wants the one thing denied her by her life of fabulous wealth: the place bestowed on those accepted in respectable society. What happens when very different people with different ambitions team up to gamble on achieving their dreams? 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at I'd Rather Be At The Beach

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

Náápiikoan Winter - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

    Readers who enjoy stories set in the era of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada and the western U.S. will love Náápiikoan Winter by Alethea Williams. Told from the point of view of Native Americans, as well as through the eyes of an indentured employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and others, this epic adventure kept me enthralled. The story is even more meaningful because it's based on a real person's experiences.
    Although at first the unfamiliar Native American names slowed down my reading, I soon became comfortable with them. Their inclusion adds color and authenticity to the story. (The author includes a list of "connections.") The author's meticulous research shows up in her portrayal of the characters and their way of life. No wonder Alethea Williams has won so many awards for her writing!

Disclosure:
The author provided me with a free ebook copy of Náápiikoan Winter. I have featured other fine books by Alethea Williams on my blog before: Willow Vale and Walls for the Wind.

Book Beginning:
     Isobel, a light sleeper, woke in darkness to the sounds of her parents' habitual nighttime dispute.
     "Will you do nothing? Stupid, lazy bitch! No better than a dog in heat - you breed bastard children from different men and leave them to raise themselves. You're like a mangy cur bitch on a leash of gold. I wish I'd never set eyes on you!"

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
All the chiefs stood, extending a hand, and Saahkómaapi and the Orator grasped each in turn. Then the Piikáni approached the Whites, a short line of oddly-dressed, stunted and pale men who reminded Saahkómaapi of the tobacco spirits, in Piikáni legend dwarfs no more than one foot tall. Every one of them looked wan and sick, the mature one’s faces matted with hair just like dogs, exactly as the Káínaawa messenger had described them.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 295 Pages
Amazon Link: Náápiikoan Winter
Author Website: Actually Alethea

Synopsis (from Amazon):

At the turn of a new century, changes unimagined are about to unfold.

THE WOMAN: Kidnapped by the Apaches, a Mexican woman learns the healing arts. Stolen by the Utes, she is sold and traded until she ends up with the Piikáni. All she has left are her skills--and her honor. What price will she pay to ensure a lasting place among the People?

THE MAN: Raised in a London charitable school, a young man at the end of the third of a seven year term of indenture to the Hudson's Bay Company is sent to the Rocky Mountains to live among the Piikáni for the winter to learn their language and to foster trade. He dreams of his advancement in the company, but he doesn't reckon the price for becoming entangled in the passions of the Piikáni.

THE LAND: After centuries of conflict, Náápiikoan traders approach the Piikáni, powerful members of the Blackfoot Confederation. The Piikáni already have horses and weapons, but they are promised they will become rich if they agree to trap beaver for Náápiikoan. Will the People trade their beliefs for the White Man's bargains?

Alethea Williams is the author of Willow Vale, the story of a Tyrolean immigrant's journey to America after WWI. Willow Vale won a 2012 Wyoming State Historical Society Publications Award. In her second novel, Walls for the Wind, a group of New York City immigrant orphans arrive in Hell on Wheels, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Walls for the Wind is a WILLA Literary Award finalist, a gold Will Rogers Medallion winner, and placed first at the Laramie Awards in the Prairie Fiction category.

Partially based on the works of Canadian trader, explorer, and mapmaker David Thompson, Náápiikoan Winter spans a continent, examining the cultures in flux at the passing of one era and the painful birth of another.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
Click HERE to join other Friday 56 bloggers (sponsored by Freda's Voice)

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

Willow Vale - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     In Willow Vale, Alethea Williams tells a fascinating story of two people whose lives have been torn apart by The Great War. Francesca Sittoni's first husband dies, and she is forced into marriage to an abusive man who takes her and her daughter away from their small Tyrolean town to the United States. After her second husband's death in a mining accident, Francesca answers a newspaper ad to work as a housekeeper for Wyoming rancher Kent Reed.
     The war has damaged Kent Reed, both physically and emotionally. Through beautiful description and with believable character development, this book tells the story of how both Francesca and Kent overcome their hardships. It is obvious that the author has done her homework in her portrayal of life in rural Wyoming during this era. She has created a book that I enjoyed from beginning to end.
     By the way, I have previously featured another excellent book by this author: Walls for the Wind

Beginning:
Faces wet with tears, Francesca Sittoni and her mother clung to each other one final time. Her mother's bones felt as thin and fragile as those of a bird. With little enough to eat for any of them, Francesca knew her mother had been giving much of her own meager portion to her daughter and to her granddaughter, Elena, to build them up for the trip.

Friday 56:
The more Francesca thought about it, the more she pitied Kent Reed--and herself. She could see no happy ending for the two of them, and it made her sad to chop down the seedling of hope Agnes had planted before it had a chance to take root. But it was better so, that she destroy false hope, for her own sake and Elena's too.

Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance
Length: 162 Pages
Amazon Link:  Willow Vale
Author Website/Blog: Actually Alethea

Synopsis:
In this inspiring novel of hope, from opposite sides of an ocean two people wounded by the Great War are fated to meet and try to rebuild their lives. Francesca Sittoni was brought against her will to America by the husband she never loved. Now she finds herself alone-widowed, pregnant, and with a small daughter to support. Terrified of being deported back to the Tyrol valley of her birth in the Dolomite Alps of Italy, Francesca answers an ad placed by Wyoming rancher and former dough boy Kent Reed. As their contracted year together passes, Francesca begins to ask if she is cook and housekeeper to Kent...or a secretly sought mail-order bride as the meddling neighbors insist? Only Kent Reed, burned by mustard gas and his spoiled former wife's desertion, knows his heart's true desire when it comes to the beautiful Tyrolean woman now living in the uncomfortably close quarters of his small ranch house.
Sharon Wildwind of Story Circle Book reviews says, "This book is not only a fine read in itself, but it also could be a springboard to read with older teen-agers as an introduction to discussing what real love and real maturity mean. A lovely, hopeful story."

                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reader)
Click HERE to join other Friday 56 bloggers (sponsored by Freda's Voice)

Walls for the Wind - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

I've been interested in "orphan trains" for a long time. That's the name given a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned children from the crowded cities of the East Coast of the U.S. to the Midwest and beyond. The trains ran from the 1850s to the 1920s. So when I read this book's synopsis and saw that these trains were integral to the plot, I had to read it.

WALLS FOR THE WIND tells the story of a young woman (Kit Calhoun) who helps run an orphanage in New York City. She is given the task of accompanying groups of children on orphan trains to the Midwest. However, her story takes her even farther from her familiar home - to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Read my review on Amazon:  HERE.

The book begins with a prologue:

BOOK BEGINNING:
Cheyenne, Dakota Territory, January 1868
      Panic bloomed, threatening to choke Kit as she gasped for breath. Where could she be, the small girl brought all the way out to the wilds of Wyoming from New York City? So certain she could make the best decisions for the little golden-haired girl, Kit had gone against her own upbringing as well as the stern advice of those older and wiser in order to make this journey west. Now here was her little family plunked down in the raw boomtown of Cheyenne, and she had lost not only her own direction but also the child entrusted to her care.

FRIDAY 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
      A group of four long-haired Indians walked in on silent feet. Any rebuke died on Kit's lips. She sucked in a breath. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. No one else in the depot was aware yet of the danger.

Genre: Western Historical Novel
Length: 221 Pages
Amazon Link: Walls for the Wind
Other Books by Alethea Williams: Amazon Author Page

                                              *********

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and The Friday 56. 

   Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts  

   (sponsored by Rose City Reader)

   Find other Friday 56 bloggers here 
   (sponsored by Freda's Voice)