All the Cowboys Ain't Gone

Hang onto your hats when you open the cover of All the Cowboys Ain't Gone, because you are in for one heck of a ride! Lincoln Smith is living in the wrong time. He longs for the days of the Wild West, when his now-missing father was one of the best Texas Rangers out there, when there were wide-open spaces, when the cowboy was king. His mother makes sure he gets a proper education, but he longs for a life of adventure, far from the clutter and noise of modern machinery. After his heart is broken, he aims to head off and join the French Foreign Legion, as any adventurous young man would.

I've always been a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, and Lincoln has a touch of Indy about him, with a little Clint Eastwood for good measure. He gets into some crazy scrapes, and the story includes hidden passages, a hermit in the desert with a message for him, a crocodile-worshiping cult, and of course, some good ol' fisticuffs. It might seem like Lincoln has better luck than is reasonably possible, but that's part of this book's charm! You just suspend your disbelief, jump into the story, and enjoy.

The good guys are good, the bad guys are clearly bad – no question about who you want to be cheering for. There's a little sparkle of romance with a strong-willed ambassador's daughter. After all, it wouldn't do to have our hero's heart broken for good. The latter part of the book brings a twist that I DID NOT see coming, and it was glorious. I might have actually teared up a bit when I read it.

And I think a story like this might be just what we need right now. In a world that's gone mad over the past year or so, a rootin' tootin' gun-slingin' cowboy with a zest for life and a thirst for the epic is a bright spot whose antics we can laugh and cheer and gasp over, simply because it's fun.

Five shining Texas-sized stars from me!