Tough Luck
A Novel
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
In this homage to True Grit, a young woman makes a perilous journey west in 1863 in search of her gold-mining father.
After their mother dies, Haidie Richards and her younger brother, Boots, are put to work in an orphanage. Their father left four years earlier to find a gold mine in Colorado Territory, and since then he’s sent only three letters. Still, Haidie is certain that he is alive, has struck gold, and will soon send for them.
But patience is not one of Haidie’s virtues, and soon she and her brother make a break for it. Boots and Haidie, disguised as a boy, embark on a dangerous journey deep into Western territory. Along the way, Haidie learns fast not only how to handle mules, oxen, and greedy men, but also that you are better off in a community. Hers includes a card shark, independent “spinster” sisters, and a very fierce dog. Once she arrives in Colorado and finds out the truth about her father, Haidie will need all her new friends for a get-even plot worthy of The Sting.
Filled with vivid period detail, colorful characters, and the irreverent voice of our scrappy heroine, Tough Luck celebrates both the tenacity of youth and the persistence of the heart in the great American West.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dallas (Little Souls) serves up a lively if simplistic tale of a spirited 14-year-old girl's journey by wagon train across the American West in 1863. After Haidie Richards's mother dies, her conniving older brother sells the family farm in Illinois and puts her in an orphanage, their father having left years earlier in the gold rush and dropped out of contact. Desperate to find her father and set things right, Haidie escapes the orphanage and disguises herself as a boy to win a job on a mule team. On the way west, she faces dangers typical to the genre, including bandits who steal a mule and an attack on horseback by a band of "savages." She also meets such colorful characters as a good-hearted gambler and a preacher's wife who was forced into prostitution. After Haidie reaches Denver and discovers her father's fate, she sets into motion a plan to redeem her family. Haidie, a self-confessed liar and sharp judge of character, is an entertaining narrator, and Dallas keeps the story moving at a brisk trot. Readers looking for an old-fashioned western will be satisfied.
