Dust & Ember

Promising setup, vivid sentences — but the book reads like a pretty tableau that never quite turns into a messy, earned struggle. The opening images (gold on the courthouse roof, Etta listening to an axle 'like a mourner') are lovely, and the little details — Josiah's dust-heavy pail, the windmill that 'coughed' — create atmosphere. Trouble is, the plot moves as if it's worried about getting its homework done on time. Broadwater in his 'whiskey-colored coat' is a fine villain on paper, but he mostly announces menace and then fades into a shorthand for 'wealthy bad guy.' We get tents, a paper on the mayor's desk, and fewer-than-convincing consequences for how a railroad magnate could actually siphon a town's water. The brass tuner feels like a neat contrivance that isn't fully explained — I wanted to see the tinkering, the failed tries, the way the device actually interacts with the wells. Instead, the fix happens too neatly and too fast, which undercuts the stakes: there's no slow-burn of increasing desperation, no real scramble to stop the sabotage. Secondary characters (the old engineer, the stubborn neighbors) mostly arrive to hand Etta tools or lines rather than to complicate the story. That keeps the tone polite but predictable. If the middle had room to breathe — more mechanical detail, a clearer sense of Broadwater's scheme, and a dirtier, riskier climax — this could've been a triumph of craft and community. As is, it's pleasant but safe, like a well-oiled machine that never rattles when it should.

This book quietly swept me off my feet. Dust & Ember reads like it was built the way Etta builds wagons — piece by piece, with patient, loving attention. The opening scene (gold sliding across the courthouse roof, the shop sign swinging 'when the wind wanted a language') is lyrical without being precious; it sets up the world and its losses — Etta's father’s name on the sign — in a single lovely stroke. I especially loved how the author turns mechanical practice into inner life: Etta listening to a broken axle 'like a mourner' is such a perfect image of grief transmuted into craft. The brass tuner is more than a gadget; it becomes a small emblem of ingenuity and stubborn hope. The confrontation with Broadwater — that gentlemanly cruelty in a whiskey-colored coat — made my blood run cold; his polite threats are more chilling than any shout. And the community scenes are what sold me: neighbors who are stubborn in the best way, an old engineer whose knowledge is passed like heirloom tools, and the town gathering at the well when the tide finally turns. It's a hopeful book that doesn't cheat the hard work of rebuilding. If you want a Western that privileges mending over macho theatrics, read this one.

I wanted to like Dust & Ember more than I did. The setting and tone are excellent — the small details (the sign, the windmill coughing, Josiah's dusty pail) give the world texture — but the plot's resolution felt a bit too tidy. Etta is an engaging protagonist, and the brass tuner is an intriguing device, yet when the town's wells get restored and the magnate is outwitted, it happens with the kind of neatness that shortchanges the stakes. The railroad villain reads a bit one-note; Broadwater's cruelty is 'practiced softly,' which is a great phrase, but we don't get enough scenes showing why his power reaches into every home beyond a few ominous tents and a paper on the mayor's desk. The old engineer and some neighbors feel underused — they pop in to provide aid rather than feel like full, messy people with their own arcs. There's charm and strong imagery here, but for me the emotional payoff didn't fully land because the confrontation and aftermath are compressed. Still, if you enjoy lyrical Westerns with a tinkerer heroine, there's a lot to like.

Concise and lovely. I loved how the author shows rather than tells — Etta wiping her fingers on the rag, Josiah dropping the pail that 'sloshed with more dust than water.' That single image sells the crisis. The encounter with Broadwater at the hitching rail was deliciously tense: his 'low politeness' versus Etta's bluntness made their stakes clear without exposition. Short, sharp, and quietly hopeful — a neat coming-of-age wrapped in a western skin.

Dust & Ember is a tight, well-oiled Western that balances invention and community politics with real craft. What works: the narrative voice is economical but rich in sensory detail (the courthouse roof turning dust into mica, the sign that 'lived' in a slanted hand), and the author knows how to make mechanical detail feel like character work — the brass tuner and Etta's listening to metal are not mere flourishes but central to her problem-solving. The pacing is mostly solid; the east-ford tents and Broadwater's polite cruelty escalate stakes smoothly, and the windmill coughing is an effective, concrete indicator of the threat. I also appreciated the social dimension — the railroad magnate is a plausible antagonist because his presence reshapes livelihoods, not just plot beats. A minor quibble: a few supporting figures (some of the neighbors, the old engineer) could use slightly more scene time to deepen their relationships with Etta. Still, a satisfying blend of adventure, craftsmanship, and a believable frontier community — recommended for readers who like their Westerns with gears as much as gunpowder.

I fell in love with Dust & Ember from the first line — that slow, honest morning is one of the best opening images I've read in a while. Etta Carrow is a brilliant main character: hands dark with oil, listening to a broken axle 'like a mourner' — that moment where she reads the creaks and grinds felt absolutely real and very tender. I adored the brass tuner as a prop (and metaphor) — small, tactile, and perfectly suited to a coming-of-age story about making and mending. The scene at the east ford when Josiah bursts in with that pail of dusty water made my stomach clench; you could feel the town's pulse thinning when the windmill coughed that night. Broadwater is deliciously nasty in his whiskey-colored coat, and the confrontation at the hitching rail crackled. Best of all is the community thread: how Etta brings stubborn neighbors and an old engineer together to outwit the railroad magnate — it felt earned and hopeful, not saccharine. Craftsmanship, grit, and real heart. Highly recommend if you like westerns with brains and soul. 😊