Mooney, Texas – Present

Denny and her stepmother, Lucy, are at a crossroads in their lives. Denny caught her husband, Will Culpepper, in bed with the female fiddle player of her band. Angry, and heartbroken, she goes back home to Mooney. Lucy’s husband, recovering alcoholic Ash, is also a musician, but does not play anymore. He feels he has nothing to offer anymore song-wise. Lucy’s boss, Peggy, is selling her florist’s shop, and Lucy has to decide what to do with the rest of her life.

Denny is pregnant, although Will does not know that when he shows up on her doorstep, all smiles and apologies wanting her to come back to him. Denny would just as soon stake him out in front of a Mack truck. Lucy isn’t sure how she is going to help Ash regain his footing, but she really wants to try if he will let her.

Small town Texas is ably represented in RETURN OF THE STARDUST COWGIRL. There are several relatives and friends of Denny and Lucy in the book. Jude, Lucy’s son and Denny’s half-brother; Tyler Briggs; Erasmus; Geneva and her daughter, Emmy; Dove and Lily; Denny’s grandmother, Evelyn, and many others are authentic in their portrayals by the author. Told in first person by both Denny and Lucy, each chapter is headed by a name and that helps avoid confusion as to which woman is speaking.

Music is such a tangible that it seems like a character of its own. Lucy and Denny are not stereotypes at all. Their situations are believable, and the eventual problem reconciliations are probable. If you like down-home, pastoral stories, you will enjoy RETURN OF THE STARDUST COWGIRL. I recommend it.

Vi Janaway