Janet Dailey Calder Storm

Calder Storm

Janet Dailey

Kensington, Jul 2006, $24.00

ISBN 0758204426

In Montana, Trey Calder, heir to the Calder Cattle Company and its vast Triple C Ranch, meets photographer Sloan Davis at the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale known locally as the "Cowboys Mardi Gras". The pair is attracted immediately to one another and sees each other even after everyone has left Miles City for their homes. After a short courtship and a warm welcome to the family-less newcomer, they both know they are in love and marry.

Paradise collapses shortly after Sloan learns she is pregnant as each soon finds a reason to distrust the other. Trey has found about a secret that Sloan kept from him about her past, a link to Fort Worth's Maresco CEO, Max Rutledge, who blames the Calders for the death of his son. Sloan begins to hear that Trey is having an affair, drug trafficking, and the family plans to bury her reputation with dirt including some that is made up if they fail to uncover enough to do a real nasty spin.

Though a bit slow paced, the latest Calder saga tale grips fans of the series due to the heat, passion, and anger between the fifth generation and the outsider orphan. Rutledge provides a powerful realistic threat as he gradually spreads his venom while the support cast, mostly family members and of course the Big Sky Country, add depth to the best entry in several years.

Harriet Klausner