Into The West

Into The West

by J.A. Campbell

A romantic, young adult, time travel adventure! 13+ Tina Harker is a typical teenager. She loves hanging with her friends at the mall, buying shoes, and getting manicures. Most of all, she loves horses. Her life is everything she wants until her father drags their family to Arizona. Now she’s living in a virtual ghost town in the middle of the desert, millions of miles from the nearest shopping center. The one small highlight in the dreadful situation is the local ranch. They have a horse Tina can ride anytime she wants. Trying to make the best of her situation, Tina goes on her first cattle drive and gets a lot more adventure than she expected. Bandits, cattle thieves, and a really cute cowboy are only the beginning as she finds out the ranch she is coming to love is in grave danger. Can Tina find the strength to travel back in time and save the ranch when her very life is on the line? It’s no simple trip to the mall, but with a little help from her cowboy, she might just save the day.

270 pages, ebook

First published May 29, 2015

About the author

When Julie is not writing she's often out riding horses, or working sheep with her dogs. She lives in Colorado with her three cats, Kira and Bran, her border collies, her Traveler-in training, Triska, and her Irish Sailor. She is the author of many Vampire and Ghost-Hunting Dog stories the Tales of the Travelers series, and many other young adult books. She’s a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Dog Writers of America Association and the editor for Story Emporium fiction magazine.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Into The West follows Tina as she is uprooted by her parents from her city life in New Jersey and moved to live out in the desert in Arizona. At first she’s extremely unhappy however the prospect of being able to ride at the local ranch whenever she wants in return for work makes the move a little easier. However soon she is involved in an exciting adventure, nothing of which she could have ever had back home, with a cute cowboy to boot.

This book is aimed at ages thirteen and up and is a light adventure/fantasy romance. Even though I still enjoyed it, there were moments I was rolling my eyes. However thinking back to when I was a teenager, I would have lapped this kind of story right up.

It was written well, the pace was steady and it kept your interest throughout. There was a lot of excitement and adventure and the romance was G rated, which was refreshing and I would be comfortable letting my teenager read.

Tina was relatable and easy to like. She really grew and matured throughout the book and the person she became was definitely a positive role model for teenage girls. Rowe was a sweetheart and it was very easy to like him.

Overall it was an enjoyable, light read that held my interest. There were some parts that were slightly unbelievable however what fantasy isn’t? I would definitely recommend this for teenage girls or even older females who like young, innocent romances.

This review is based on a digital ARC provided by the publisher.

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[Nayari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read many books lately that I wish would be turned into films (except anything by Nick Thacker, holy cow), but this one definitely meets that criteria! It's a completely exciting adventure with delicious imagery and enjoyable (relatable!) characters. I'd love to see JA Campbell write another like this. Her knowledge of riding is abundantly clear and she does a wonderful job of turning the desert into its own character. Her choice of descriptive words paint vivid, visceral pictures of the world of the novel, and the pacing is fun with almost no slow parts. Truly a very fun re-readable read!