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Sneak a peek at the humorous Western historical fiction novel OUTLAW WEST OF THE PECOS by Preston Lewis Author on my blog, and enter the giveaway for your chance to win an autographed copy of the book - three winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2022/05/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-outlaw-west.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Accused of cheating at cards on a Southern Pacific passenger train in far West Texas, H.H. Lomax is kicked off the train and finds himself at the mercy of the unpredictable justice of Judge Roy Bean, who calls himself “Law West of the Pecos.” After being fined of all his money, married, and divorced by the judge in a matter of minutes, Lomax discovers an unlikely connection to him.

Against a backdrop of a pending world heavyweight championship bout, Lomax heads to El Paso to interest someone in writing and publishing Bean’s biography. He winds up in an El Paso boarding house across the hall from Texas killer John Wesley Hardin. They despise each other, but Hardin fears Lomax’s straight-arrow Texas Ranger brother and treads lightly around Lomax. Because of Hardin’s crooked connections in El Paso, Lomax gets caught between him and corrupt constable John Selman.

El Paso is becoming the focal point of efforts to host a championship prizefight that everyone from the Presidents of the United States and Mexico to the governors of Texas, New Mexico Territory and Chihuahua have vowed to stop. Calling on his connections to his Ranger brother, El Paso officials and the promoter of the boxing match, Lomax uses his Judge Roy Bean friendship to pull off the oddest prizefight in heavyweight history.

Outlaw West of the Pecos stands as an entertaining mix of historical and hysterical fiction.

Kudos Comment

Veronica Pena (690 KP) rated In the Time of the Butterflies in Books

Jan 25, 2020

In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia Alvarez | 1994 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

10.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Oh my goodness, this book. I am simultaneously at a loss for words and still have so much to say. My first inclination after reading this book is disappointment. Not in the writing or the story itself, but in me, actually. I am Dominican. Though I was born in the United States, I speak Spanglish - definitely more English than Spanish - and I've never been to the DR, I still felt this deep disappointment in myself. For not knowing my own history. I'm a first-generation American. My father was born in Santo Domingo and as a product of my circumstances, I don't know enough about my family's native country. And in a large way, that's on me. It's not like I'm incapable of learning, I'm 20 years old and I live in the digital age, for goodness sake. I don't know if I have any sort of excuse, and even if I did, I'm not sure it's a good one. But regardless, the disappointment is there.

This book gave me a connection. A connection to the history, to the language, to the land - one I didn't have before. As I moved through the novel and became familiar with Dedé, Minerva, Patria, and María Teresa, I found bits of myself in each of them. I found myself talking to them as if I knew them or they were my friends, wanting to provide them comfort, advice, a swift kick in the butt when I thought they needed more of a push. I wish I could truly put into words all the things this novel did for me and made me feel. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to find them.

What I loved most about this story is the truth in it all. Trujillo was a dictator and under his regime, the DR fell apart. I loved that the Mirabal sisters were real and that while their story was one worth telling, the one in this book was fictionalized but still rang true in some aspects. I loved that their story was told from all four of their perspectives, not just Dedé, as the survivor.

I think this novel is one that should be read by many, and I think this story - one of the Mirabal sisters - is one that should be shouted from as many rooftops as possible.

"The function of freedom is to free someone else." - Toni Morrison