Heartbreak Trail ~ Review

Heartbreak Trail
An Andrea Carter Book 
Circle C Milestones 2
By Susan K, Marlow

Andi (Andrea) Carter is determined to take a part in this year's cattle drive.  And with her 15th birthday fast approaching this may be her best chance to finally get her wish.  But some wishes may be best left unfulfilled.

Cattle drives are not all fun and adventure as Andi and her younger cousin Levi are about to discover after being assigned as Cook's helpers!  Andi's dream has been to take part in driving the cattle or managing the horses not gathering wood and washing pans.

Dust, biting mosquitoes, bed rolls on the hard ground, and a hard wagon seat what more could a girl want?  But when a dangerous river crossing takes a wrong turn lives are in the balance and the drive is suddenly short-handed.  Can Andi and Levi cover this shortage and help get the cattle to Los Angeles?

Heartbreak Trail is just that as the hardships and the dangers of driving cattle to market are experienced through Andi's eyes.  Fans of Andi will love her newest adventure as she learns some important lessons about life on the trail and about herself.  Andi is about to grow up in ways she never expected.

Tweens and teens will delight in this determined young woman.  This book would be an excellent addition to any home or school library, and with school just around the corner this would be a great choice for any historical fiction book reports that may be coming up!

I was provided a copy of this book through Kregel in exchange her my honest review.

About the book:

Andrea Carter can ride, rope, and cut out cattle with the best of her brothers' ranch hands. Yet, her mother has always held the family's youngest daughter back from fully participating in ranch activities.

With the approach of her fifteenth birthday, even the ranch boss, big brother Chad, can't deny that his baby sister is better at ranch skills than some of his cowhands. When Andi announces that her quinceañera birthday wish is to join the upcoming cattle drive, her family is stunned. But after further discussion and multiple newspaper clippings about spirited women who balked at society's expectations, even Mother agrees that the only way to get this cattle-drive notion out of Andi's head is by letting her and her cousin Levi go along as Cook's helpers. Andi is elated. What can go wrong on a two-week drive to Los Angeles?

Andi quickly discovers that a cattle drive is a dirty, dangerous business with little sleep and the same food day after day. Between late nights, dust, mosquitoes, and an abrasive cowhand trying to win Andi's attention, it is definitely not a holiday. Andi grimly determines she will stick it out. When a river crossing goes wrong and Chad is shot in a gunfight with suspicious men who have been shadowing the herd, Mitch the trail boss finds himself dangerously shorthanded. Andi and Levi can no longer just give Cook a hand. It's time to pitch in and help Mitch get their cattle to market--any way they can.