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The Last Rancher
With The Last Rancher: A Novel, a family saga and contemporary western set on a ranch in southwest Kansas, Robert Rebein adds his distinctive voice and vision to those of an earlier generation of fiction writers of the American West that includes Larry McMurtry, Louise Erdrich, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas McGuane, and Annie Proulx.
Leroy Wagner has given his heart and soul to the Bar W Ranch. He knows no other way. His wife, Caroline, born in the city, struggles with the loneliness of marriage to a man committed first to his land. When tragedy robs them of their first-born, the handsome and talented Wade, it’s all either can do to face the world.
Their second-born, Michael, attempts to fill his brother’s shoes, and their only daughter, Annie, searches for a way to reconcile her love for the Bar W with her feeling that she must flee it if she is to survive. Finally, there’s Jimmy, the Wagners’ unplanned replacement child, born too late into a world of broken hearts.
When a near-fatal accident befalls Leroy, the Wagner children must return to the Bar W to save the ranch and what remains of their family ties. Secrets are unearthed. Truths are told. Consequences are faced.
Featuring a well-drawn setting full of complex male and female characters, The Last Rancher is a perfect read for the beach or for book club selection.
Editorial Reviews
Dodge City, Kansas, has found its bard. His name is Robert Rebein, and his debut novel, The Last Rancher, showcases an assured new voice of the contemporary American West. Prepare to be lassoed in an unforgettable and utterly satisfying family saga.”
—Will Allison, What You Have Left and A Long Drive Home
In The Last Rancher, a stunning new novel by Robert Rebein, an emergency forces Leroy and Caroline Wagner’s grown children home to the Bar W Ranch. Crises converge on Dodge Annie stalls on her PhD, Michael interrupts his law practice, and Jimmy pillages his parents’ medicine cabinet. In memory lives the looming specter of Wade, son and brother who died too young. The novel intimately follows a jarring collision of selves—not to mention cars, motorbikes, and a nun. In this ranching community, lives are intertwined like barbed wire, like tree roots that run under fences and buckle the ground, unearthing secrets into the blinding prairie light. I loved this book. A family drama with humor and heart, The Last Rancher gives you the prized shotgun seat and guns the gas. You’d be wise to buckle up.
—Sarah Layden, Imagine Your Life Like This and Trip Through Your Wires
Love and horses, whiskey and weed, land and The Last Rancher has it all. Robert Rebein has written a big-hearted literary page-turner to rival the family sagas of Richard Russo, Richard Ford, and John Irving.
—Kyle Minor, Praying Drunk
With The Last Rancher, Robert Rebein has crafted a story as timeless as storytelling itself—a patriarch in decline, a family marked by loss. By rooting these elements firmly in the Dodge City of today, though, Rebein has created a narrative unique to himself and the place. Reading The Last Rancher, I came to feel that I know these people in some elemental way and, just as importantly, know what their land means to them.
Leroy Wagner has given his heart and soul to the Bar W Ranch. He knows no other way. His wife, Caroline, born in the city, struggles with the loneliness of marriage to a man committed first to his land. When tragedy robs them of their first-born, the handsome and talented Wade, it’s all either can do to face the world.
Their second-born, Michael, attempts to fill his brother’s shoes, and their only daughter, Annie, searches for a way to reconcile her love for the Bar W with her feeling that she must flee it if she is to survive. Finally, there’s Jimmy, the Wagners’ unplanned replacement child, born too late into a world of broken hearts.
When a near-fatal accident befalls Leroy, the Wagner children must return to the Bar W to save the ranch and what remains of their family ties. Secrets are unearthed. Truths are told. Consequences are faced.
Featuring a well-drawn setting full of complex male and female characters, The Last Rancher is a perfect read for the beach or for book club selection.
Editorial Reviews
Dodge City, Kansas, has found its bard. His name is Robert Rebein, and his debut novel, The Last Rancher, showcases an assured new voice of the contemporary American West. Prepare to be lassoed in an unforgettable and utterly satisfying family saga.”
—Will Allison, What You Have Left and A Long Drive Home
In The Last Rancher, a stunning new novel by Robert Rebein, an emergency forces Leroy and Caroline Wagner’s grown children home to the Bar W Ranch. Crises converge on Dodge Annie stalls on her PhD, Michael interrupts his law practice, and Jimmy pillages his parents’ medicine cabinet. In memory lives the looming specter of Wade, son and brother who died too young. The novel intimately follows a jarring collision of selves—not to mention cars, motorbikes, and a nun. In this ranching community, lives are intertwined like barbed wire, like tree roots that run under fences and buckle the ground, unearthing secrets into the blinding prairie light. I loved this book. A family drama with humor and heart, The Last Rancher gives you the prized shotgun seat and guns the gas. You’d be wise to buckle up.
—Sarah Layden, Imagine Your Life Like This and Trip Through Your Wires
Love and horses, whiskey and weed, land and The Last Rancher has it all. Robert Rebein has written a big-hearted literary page-turner to rival the family sagas of Richard Russo, Richard Ford, and John Irving.
—Kyle Minor, Praying Drunk
With The Last Rancher, Robert Rebein has crafted a story as timeless as storytelling itself—a patriarch in decline, a family marked by loss. By rooting these elements firmly in the Dodge City of today, though, Rebein has created a narrative unique to himself and the place. Reading The Last Rancher, I came to feel that I know these people in some elemental way and, just as importantly, know what their land means to them.
380 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 6, 2024
16 people are currently reading
1117 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 18, 2024
You know that feeling when you join a friend's big family Christmas or Thanksgiving? You are an outsider but are suddenly privy to all the inside jokes and one-liner snarks and back porch smoking sessions and cemented traditions, and it all seems a little too much and not ever enough all at the same time? You feel that maybe you shouldn't be plopped down in the middle of it, but you also experience this unique sense of warmth, so you don't want to leave? Maybe ever?
That's the experience of reading Robert Rebein's The Last Rancher.
The Last Rancher is one of the those character-driven stories that stays with you past the pages. It's the story of three adult children who, due to a medical emergency, are forced to face the reality of aging parents and end up examining the passage of time in their own lives--the passing of dreams and expectations and promises made to self and others.
Adult children Michael and Annie are summoned home to the ranching community of Dodge City, Kansas where their stubborn father, Leroy; their steadfast mother, Caroline; and their baby brother, Jimmy (Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy...smh...) live. Leroy is in the hospital, possibly dying. Michael must take the financial reins while Annie takes the actual reins in order to keep the ranch alive. Jimmy, even though he still lives in Dodge, has too much baggage to come anywhere near anything that looks like reins.
Returning home subjects Michael and Annie to a more realistic view of their lives. Sort of like returning to your old elementary school where everything seems smaller, dirtier, and maybe even a little distorted, Annie and Michael wade through what what perceptions to keep, what to correct, and what to leave behind. The reader can't help but to look inward and wonder the same things about his own life.
As much as this is a character-driven family drama, The Last Rancher is more than that. The author works magic with time and place. The reader is drawn in both by the realistically flawed characters and the portrayal of Dodge City, a modern town holding desperately onto the glory of a past that, in reality, wasn't always so glorious.
Dodge City was and is a place where it's sometimes hard to tell the heroes from the bad guys. Michael, Annie, and Jimmy struggle with this same problem in their own family, even with their own souls. It turns out that Dodge City, Kansas is the perfect setting for a story full of characters searching for a hero and a direction and a home, and maybe even a truth.
There's a little bit of something for every reader in The Last Rancher--sports, cars, horses, violence, romance, drugs, religion, action, introspection, legal drama, family drama, car chases, affairs, loyalty, and love. If you like the Yellowstone series on Netflix, you'll love The Last Rancher. If you like stories with strong female protagonists, you love The Last Rancher. If you like falling in love with bad boys--or bad girls--you'll love The Last Rancher.
That's the experience of reading Robert Rebein's The Last Rancher.
The Last Rancher is one of the those character-driven stories that stays with you past the pages. It's the story of three adult children who, due to a medical emergency, are forced to face the reality of aging parents and end up examining the passage of time in their own lives--the passing of dreams and expectations and promises made to self and others.
Adult children Michael and Annie are summoned home to the ranching community of Dodge City, Kansas where their stubborn father, Leroy; their steadfast mother, Caroline; and their baby brother, Jimmy (Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy...smh...) live. Leroy is in the hospital, possibly dying. Michael must take the financial reins while Annie takes the actual reins in order to keep the ranch alive. Jimmy, even though he still lives in Dodge, has too much baggage to come anywhere near anything that looks like reins.
Returning home subjects Michael and Annie to a more realistic view of their lives. Sort of like returning to your old elementary school where everything seems smaller, dirtier, and maybe even a little distorted, Annie and Michael wade through what what perceptions to keep, what to correct, and what to leave behind. The reader can't help but to look inward and wonder the same things about his own life.
As much as this is a character-driven family drama, The Last Rancher is more than that. The author works magic with time and place. The reader is drawn in both by the realistically flawed characters and the portrayal of Dodge City, a modern town holding desperately onto the glory of a past that, in reality, wasn't always so glorious.
Dodge City was and is a place where it's sometimes hard to tell the heroes from the bad guys. Michael, Annie, and Jimmy struggle with this same problem in their own family, even with their own souls. It turns out that Dodge City, Kansas is the perfect setting for a story full of characters searching for a hero and a direction and a home, and maybe even a truth.
There's a little bit of something for every reader in The Last Rancher--sports, cars, horses, violence, romance, drugs, religion, action, introspection, legal drama, family drama, car chases, affairs, loyalty, and love. If you like the Yellowstone series on Netflix, you'll love The Last Rancher. If you like stories with strong female protagonists, you love The Last Rancher. If you like falling in love with bad boys--or bad girls--you'll love The Last Rancher.
August 3, 2024
I don’t normally pick up a contemporary western, but I couldn’t resist reading one set in my own “homeplace,” Dodge City, Kansas. Rebein’s work makes me want to get my hands on another contemporary western asap. I will eagerly be awaiting his future fiction works.
Rebein’s description of the Bar W Ranch as an oasis in an otherwise harsh, lonely setting captures the imagination. The reader feels the siren song of sitting astride a well-trained ranch horse, the satisfaction of working in tune with the land around you, and the relief of an air-conditioned home on a hot summer day on the Great Plains.
Rebein masterfully crafted his characters. It’s clear he is a study of character in general, but he absolutely nails the differences in paradigm between generations and gender. The different ways Leroy and Michael think about the happenings around them, and then young Jimmy, with his youthful foolishness giving way to maturing lessons and realizations‒‒beautifully done! I was especially impressed with his writing of female characters. Rebein perfectly captured the motivations and internal life of Caroline and Annie. I loved that the two women were just as complex as the male characters‒equally as likely to be pulled in opposing directions or feel multi-layered emotions. The internal life of all characters captivated me just as much, if not more, than the plot. Each character was so rich, so honest, and relatable in their own way. I identified strongly with Michael and Annie’s complicated relationship to western Kansas. The simultaneous pull to remain, knowing that nowhere else in the world is quite like it, combined with the urge to leave and see what else the world has to offer. It’s subtly and beautifully done, honoring all that is life in southwest Kansas (or any rural origin) while respecting the decision to build a new life elsewhere.
Rebein’s writing is honest, authentic, and beautiful all while capturing the gruff and direct spirit of a western Kansas narrator. I picked up this book because of its connection to my own roots, but I kept reading because of its poignant articulation of the beautiful realities of being human‒‒something only a good fiction writer can evoke. I believe there’s something in this book that will connect with every reader, especially those from a smaller town.
Rebein’s description of the Bar W Ranch as an oasis in an otherwise harsh, lonely setting captures the imagination. The reader feels the siren song of sitting astride a well-trained ranch horse, the satisfaction of working in tune with the land around you, and the relief of an air-conditioned home on a hot summer day on the Great Plains.
Rebein masterfully crafted his characters. It’s clear he is a study of character in general, but he absolutely nails the differences in paradigm between generations and gender. The different ways Leroy and Michael think about the happenings around them, and then young Jimmy, with his youthful foolishness giving way to maturing lessons and realizations‒‒beautifully done! I was especially impressed with his writing of female characters. Rebein perfectly captured the motivations and internal life of Caroline and Annie. I loved that the two women were just as complex as the male characters‒equally as likely to be pulled in opposing directions or feel multi-layered emotions. The internal life of all characters captivated me just as much, if not more, than the plot. Each character was so rich, so honest, and relatable in their own way. I identified strongly with Michael and Annie’s complicated relationship to western Kansas. The simultaneous pull to remain, knowing that nowhere else in the world is quite like it, combined with the urge to leave and see what else the world has to offer. It’s subtly and beautifully done, honoring all that is life in southwest Kansas (or any rural origin) while respecting the decision to build a new life elsewhere.
Rebein’s writing is honest, authentic, and beautiful all while capturing the gruff and direct spirit of a western Kansas narrator. I picked up this book because of its connection to my own roots, but I kept reading because of its poignant articulation of the beautiful realities of being human‒‒something only a good fiction writer can evoke. I believe there’s something in this book that will connect with every reader, especially those from a smaller town.
July 22, 2024
As someone who is not a huge fan of Westerns, I was a bit hesitant going into The Last Rancher. However, if this is what contemporary Westerns have become, sign me up. Horses roaming the Kansas prairie still play a prominent role, but so do dirt bikes, weed dealers, and a family death so prominent it haunts generations. Pair those with the uncertainty that is modern-day ranching, mix in the no-nonsense literary approach an established nonfiction writer brings to storytelling, and you have a must-read novel that simultaneously breaks and embraces the Western tradition.
June 30, 2024
I just finished The Last Rancher. I loved it, and not just because I also grew up in Dodge City and attended the same schools the author did. I like that all the characters, even Wade, developed their own distinct, complex personalities. The story was told well, with just enough detail to paint a picture of the settings, took me right back to my days driving on Wyatt Earp and hanging out in the Boot Hill parking lot. I hate when books get needlessly bogged down in the minutia of descriptions. The pace is just right.
Religious references were spot on, I personally appreciated the reference to the Mysteries of the Rosary. I don’t know if anyone who didn’t go to Sacred Heart, or perhaps a similar parochial school, can fully appreciate the nuances of that experience.
In general, I appreciate a story that wraps up loose ends. But the author left just enough mystery to make me want to know more about what happens to the family.
Religious references were spot on, I personally appreciated the reference to the Mysteries of the Rosary. I don’t know if anyone who didn’t go to Sacred Heart, or perhaps a similar parochial school, can fully appreciate the nuances of that experience.
In general, I appreciate a story that wraps up loose ends. But the author left just enough mystery to make me want to know more about what happens to the family.
October 3, 2024
Robert Rebin makes the plight of the family farm come to life. Through realistic story, he portrays the struggles today’s younger generations face when forced to make a choice between continuing to live on and operate a ranch that has been in the family for multiple generations. Family tragedies threaten relationships while shaping their lives. The challenges of navigating modern life while staying tethered to the farm eventually pulls the younger generation to seek fulfillment in interests closer to their hearts in metropolitan areas. What struck me most about this book is I felt like I was sitting in the living room of a farm family as they told their story. Rebin knows and understands the nuances of living in rural Kansas and how it affects adult children as they navigate careers.
July 23, 2024
Debut offering from a Kansas native. Rebein does a nice job of "place," illustrating the strong pull southwest Kansas has on many of those raised there. He also gives each character a distinctive voice, and I liked how each chapter was written in the voice of the character featured in it.
I was disappointed by the abrupt nature of the ending, though, and a couple of plot holes cocked an eyebrow.
But it's a solid first book by Rebein, and I look forward to his next offering.
I was disappointed by the abrupt nature of the ending, though, and a couple of plot holes cocked an eyebrow.
But it's a solid first book by Rebein, and I look forward to his next offering.
July 21, 2024
I've been a fan of Robert Rebein's nonfiction (Headlights on the Prairie; Dragging Wyatt Earp) for years, so I was thrilled to blurb his excellent debut novel.
TL;DR review: Loved it! Great, compelling read. Official blurb: In The Last Rancher, a stunning new novel by Robert Rebein, an emergency forces Leroy and Caroline Wagner’s grown children home to the Bar W Ranch. Crises converge on Dodge City: Annie stalls on her PhD, Michael interrupts his law practice, and Jimmy pillages his parents’ medicine cabinet. In memory lives the looming specter of Wade, son and brother who died too young. The novel intimately follows a jarring collision of selves—not to mention cars, motorbikes, and a nun. In this ranching community, lives are intertwined like barbed wire, like tree roots that run under fences and buckle the ground, unearthing secrets into the blinding prairie light. I loved this book. A family drama with humor and heart, The Last Rancher gives you the prized shotgun seat and guns the gas. You’d be wise to buckle up.
-Sarah Layden, author of Imagine Your Life Like This and Trip Through Your Wires
TL;DR review: Loved it! Great, compelling read. Official blurb: In The Last Rancher, a stunning new novel by Robert Rebein, an emergency forces Leroy and Caroline Wagner’s grown children home to the Bar W Ranch. Crises converge on Dodge City: Annie stalls on her PhD, Michael interrupts his law practice, and Jimmy pillages his parents’ medicine cabinet. In memory lives the looming specter of Wade, son and brother who died too young. The novel intimately follows a jarring collision of selves—not to mention cars, motorbikes, and a nun. In this ranching community, lives are intertwined like barbed wire, like tree roots that run under fences and buckle the ground, unearthing secrets into the blinding prairie light. I loved this book. A family drama with humor and heart, The Last Rancher gives you the prized shotgun seat and guns the gas. You’d be wise to buckle up.
-Sarah Layden, author of Imagine Your Life Like This and Trip Through Your Wires
August 26, 2024
I've been looking for a new author offering a good book for a while. Rebein's Last Rancher fits the bill, and it's bonus that he set it in Ford County, Kansas. He introduces Southwest Kansas's remote beauty and crusty characters to readers in a story about a family that will all too often remind readers of the best of their loved ones and the very worst. It's like the characters passed bad-decision-making DNA around like most families pass popcorn on movie night. Jimmy, the youngest son and miracle on several levels, would cringe to understand how his decisions rank as bad or maybe worse than those for which he judges his dad. Michael's the son who's awaited his chance his whole life, and it falls in his lap with baggage galore. The prodigal escapee Annie leaves us all wanting to know more. Hopefully, she'll reappear in a sequel. She shares the family decision-making curse, but she does get a great horse out of one of those moments. Sweet Caroline isn't so sweet, but she loves her family. Everyone needs a Sister Maggie and Jacob Hess as an anchor. Rebein's prose goes down smooth like good whiskey or Jimmy might say like his Girl Scout Cookies.
August 27, 2024
A Meditative Journey Through Land, Legacy, and Love
For some reason, The Last Rancher by Robert Rebein reminds me of Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance, despite them being two very different books. Perhaps it’s the shared theme of loneliness or the meditative tone that lingers throughout both novels. The Last Rancher explores the complexities of a modern ranching family in Kansas, where the vast, stark landscape becomes a backdrop for deep, personal struggles. While In the Distance takes us on a solitary journey across the 19th-century American frontier, The Last Rancher brings us into the heart of a family torn between past and present, loss and love, land and legacy. Both novels, though distinct in style and setting, resonate with the quiet, yet profound challenges of surviving in the American West. Rebein’s characters are vividly real, and the way he weaves together their stories against the relentless beauty of the high plains is truly compelling. Saying goodbye to those richly drawn characters and the fading ranching life felt like parting with old friends.
For some reason, The Last Rancher by Robert Rebein reminds me of Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance, despite them being two very different books. Perhaps it’s the shared theme of loneliness or the meditative tone that lingers throughout both novels. The Last Rancher explores the complexities of a modern ranching family in Kansas, where the vast, stark landscape becomes a backdrop for deep, personal struggles. While In the Distance takes us on a solitary journey across the 19th-century American frontier, The Last Rancher brings us into the heart of a family torn between past and present, loss and love, land and legacy. Both novels, though distinct in style and setting, resonate with the quiet, yet profound challenges of surviving in the American West. Rebein’s characters are vividly real, and the way he weaves together their stories against the relentless beauty of the high plains is truly compelling. Saying goodbye to those richly drawn characters and the fading ranching life felt like parting with old friends.
December 5, 2024
4.5
I REALLY enjoyed this book! A wonderful family drama exploring how place makes identity: how where we come from makes us who we are today, whether we're running towards or away from that homestead and ESPECIALLY if we can't decide.
The Wagner family have ranched outside of Dodge City, Kansas, for many generations, but after Leroy and Caroline's oldest son Wade dies of a brain tumor as a teenager, their other children scatter, forever haunted and changed by their brother's death. When Leroy is badly injured in a car accident, son Michael and daughter Annie return to help at the ranch and hold the family together, including their troubled youngest brother Jimmy, who was born after Wade's death. Through the following months, family secrets are revealed (or kept secret), relationships heal (or break apart), and each Wagner's relationship with the ranch (and with each other) evolves. A beautiful debut novel by a Dodge City native.
I REALLY enjoyed this book! A wonderful family drama exploring how place makes identity: how where we come from makes us who we are today, whether we're running towards or away from that homestead and ESPECIALLY if we can't decide.
The Wagner family have ranched outside of Dodge City, Kansas, for many generations, but after Leroy and Caroline's oldest son Wade dies of a brain tumor as a teenager, their other children scatter, forever haunted and changed by their brother's death. When Leroy is badly injured in a car accident, son Michael and daughter Annie return to help at the ranch and hold the family together, including their troubled youngest brother Jimmy, who was born after Wade's death. Through the following months, family secrets are revealed (or kept secret), relationships heal (or break apart), and each Wagner's relationship with the ranch (and with each other) evolves. A beautiful debut novel by a Dodge City native.
February 11, 2025
This book is a thoroughly enjoyable romp, whether you care about Kansas or farming or ranching or absolutely do not relate to any of those things. It’s the careful, surprising, artfully rendered story of a family that feels real enough to know them, from the stubborn, tough-as-hell father to the weed-slinging, Ducati-riding wild child of a son. (With skeletons bursting from all the closets). Don’t be frustrated with the early pace; it’s just character-building, like crucial bricks of a sturdy family house. Prepare to be swept into a latter half of the book you won’t want to put down. Be ready for wild twists and pulled heartstrings—and hopefully, soon, Part II of the Wagner family saga. Highly recommended.
October 11, 2024
An excellent book I highly recommend. A modern family saga set in Kansas. A brisk, insightful story, beautifully written with a clear voice.
"Caroline Wagner sat in the small waiting area just inside the front doors of Western Plains Regional Hospital, eyes closed, lips moving slowly as she fingered the beads of a wooden rosary her friend Sister Margaret had given her in the middle of her freshman year at St. Mary of the Plains, the small Catholic college she’d attended before dropping out–on a whim, or so it seemed to her now–to marry Leroy and start a family. But try as she might to focus, she kept losing her place in the prayer and forgetting to advance her fingers on the beads. “Oh, hell,” she said finally, spooling the rosary into a ball and dropping it into her purse."
"Caroline Wagner sat in the small waiting area just inside the front doors of Western Plains Regional Hospital, eyes closed, lips moving slowly as she fingered the beads of a wooden rosary her friend Sister Margaret had given her in the middle of her freshman year at St. Mary of the Plains, the small Catholic college she’d attended before dropping out–on a whim, or so it seemed to her now–to marry Leroy and start a family. But try as she might to focus, she kept losing her place in the prayer and forgetting to advance her fingers on the beads. “Oh, hell,” she said finally, spooling the rosary into a ball and dropping it into her purse."
August 8, 2025
A modern western - struggles to make ends meet, love of the land, and drugs are a focus of this novel. This family is divided before Wade died and after Wade died. Unfortunately, the youngest member of the family knew the beloved big brother. The family comes together when their father is in a near deadly accident and we learn about the past, present, and possibly future of the Wagners.
How did this book find me? It is a 2025 Kansas Notable book.
How did this book find me? It is a 2025 Kansas Notable book.
July 5, 2024
Yesterday I finished a great book and it’s written by a man from Dodge City. The Last Rancher, by Robert Rebein, is a perfect read for all my Flint Hills Kansas ranching friends and all my Wilson County farmer friends. You’ll recognize some of your neighbors in his characters. To my book club, don’t read it yet. It will be my selection when it’s my turn. 😁 Happy reading.
August 13, 2024
Couldn’t put this book down
I know I’m consumed by a story when I stop performing all daily responsibilities and just read for hours. I loved the characters in the Wagner family and rooted for all of them. I can’t wait for the author’s next book.
I know I’m consumed by a story when I stop performing all daily responsibilities and just read for hours. I loved the characters in the Wagner family and rooted for all of them. I can’t wait for the author’s next book.
February 5, 2026
Beautifully written and deeply human. I was struck by how much compassion, and how much realism, Rebein brings to the characters. The story is told with care, and it is difficult finally to close at the end.
Want to read
June 3, 2025A
August 3, 2025
Amazing book!
October 3, 2025
This book was a slow read for me. It's interesting but boring and slow paced in several spots.
October 7, 2025
This Red Demon loved this book. Took me right home. Thanks, Rob.
February 15, 2025
Robert Rebein, son of a ranching family in southwestern Kansas, knows his people and knows this place. He has packed what he knows into a dense, loving, and clear-eyed saga, a contemporary western of the expected sweeping vistas, rural hardship, galloping horses, rugged (to a fault) men and indomitable (to a fault) women. These "typical" ingredients are layered with heartbreak, suffering, exaltation, loss, endurance, addiction, aging, grave errors... and the possibility of redemption, starting over, understanding, and patience. Rebein's men and woman are complicated, difficult, sometimes downright infuriating, but they are all worth caring about.
I might have done without quite so much automotive product placement (their machinery is *extremely* important to the Bar W denizens); I worried more about what would become of the horses and dogs. Three separate serious vehicle wrecks might be a lot for one novel, some forgiveness seemed to come a little too easily; the conclusion felt a bit tidy. But these people and this place are worth getting to know; Rebein knows them well, and paints them with love, understanding, and honesty.
#readlocalks
I might have done without quite so much automotive product placement (their machinery is *extremely* important to the Bar W denizens); I worried more about what would become of the horses and dogs. Three separate serious vehicle wrecks might be a lot for one novel, some forgiveness seemed to come a little too easily; the conclusion felt a bit tidy. But these people and this place are worth getting to know; Rebein knows them well, and paints them with love, understanding, and honesty.
#readlocalks
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews