All in book review

SUSANNA’S BALLAD, Volume 8 in my series, Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle, tells the story of an abandoned child: Susanna. She was a “foundling,” an infant left on a porch by a destitute single mother, who hoped that whosoever found the tiny and sickly baby girl would have mercy, accept her as a gift, love her and raise her as their own. Susanna’s story is a “ballad,” because, as Webster’s says, it is “a slow or romantic dance song,” with a happy ending.

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Gina the Bonsai Girl, the newest volume in my series, Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle, tells two love stories. A single mother finds love again after a decade as war-widow. Her preadolescent daughter falls in love for the first time. The historical background is World War II and the post-war decades. The mother, Regina Walker, was married to Tim Umezawa, who died in Italy while serving in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the U.S. Army’s all Japanese American unit that fought in Europe. In 1954, Regina returns to Mackenzie, Texas, from San Diego, California, with her twelve-year-old daughter, Gina, who is half-Japanese. Gina must deal with the town’s prejudice against Asians, especially against persons ethnically Japanese.

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Tammie’s Destiny, the latest volume of my series, Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle, is a love story. It follows the seemingly impossible romance between a Comanche Apache young lady and a West Texas cowboy in the 1950s. Tammie is a reservation Native struggling to support her family by trick riding in rodeos throughout New Mexico. Grant is the pampered son of one of the wealthiest cattlemen of the Texas Panhandle. Both her people and his family oppose their relationship. In Texas, it is illegal. In New Mexico, it goes against both Indigenous and Spanish cultures. But they have Destiny on their side.

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