Willie Tollett has her future figured out, and it depends on her father’s promise of a quarter section of land to work. Then she meets a stranger in the dark.
John Musick, a World War I veteran from East Texas, is a good worker, but his off-duty pastimes are problematic for his pious employer.
When Willie’s father takes Mr. Musick on as a hired hand, her simple life gets complicated. A town controversy, a midnight Howler, and Zane Grey Westerns come together to challenge everything Willie knows about the world.
So Long As It’s Wonderful honors the heritage of the women of the West and celebrates the imagination that expanded their prospects and possibilities for the future.
As she walked from the dugout to the house, Willie wondered how much her father knew about John Musick. She doubted he would hire a man who read Western stories, played baseball, or went to the pool hall on Saturday nights. She considered telling him, but there was a depth to John Musick’s gray eyes that made her want to protect him.
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“Though I hadn’t planned to read the entire book in a single sitting, I found myself caught up in a world that felt a lot like the one in which I grew up, filled with people like those I knew. A harder time in many ways, but also a simpler
one. As an avid (book-a-day) reader myself, as an author of historical romances as well as non-fiction and edited works, and as the current President of Zane Grey’s West Society—now in its 42nd year—I was especially pleased to see Grey’s work included so prominently in the story. Very gratifying to watch as two characters are drawn together by the power of Zane Grey’s Western romances!”
“Quinn’s new book, So Long As It’s Wonderful, tackles the problem of family land succession in
the dusty 20s in New Mexico. Similar to Kristin Hannah, Quinn weaves love and loss into an authentic western landscape that operates as its own character. Part Zane Grey western, part love story, Quinn’s tale based on her own great grand-mother will leave you smiling with sand in your teeth story online can make all the difference.”
“Sheila Quinn braids together the triple skeins of Western, romance, and postwar novel into this story of one young woman’s coming of age. If anyone doubts that the dusty seam of Texas and New Mexico was still the frontier as late as the 1920s, in So Long As It’s Wonderful they’ll
discover the authentic lifeways and genuine dreams of its resolute inhabitants—while they’re falling in love with Willie Tollett’s view of the place. A work of deep longing and telling insight.”
“Sheila Quinn’s historical novel is a love letter to her great-grandparents, Western author Zane Grey, and readers everywhere, who’ve had the moving experience of seeing their private
thoughts and longings writ boldly on the page. Quinn is a keen observer of human behavior, and I found myself rereading passages simply for the joy of savoring smart characterizations and strong writing. Place and time are beautifully
rendered; Quinn’s details about life on the family farm make it come alive. The plot offers several surprises, and I was compelled to race to the end!”