For the Love of Ella: A Hunk of Happiness

by Annie Wilkinson

It’s 1898 in Black Butte, Wyoming. Sassy and independent Aurette Rose Kilkennen wants one a hunk of happiness. That hope comes with the birth of baby Ella. Not easy because her colorful past gets in the way. Aurette is haunted by the memory of Jonny Heart of a Bear, a young Indian brave whom she ran off with at age sixteen, marrying him in her own way, then finding herself on her own and expecting a baby when Jonny gets belly-knifed in a bar by a white man. He’s gone. Dead, Aurette believes. Her father, William, makes Aurette marry 53 year-old Isaac Wagner, but he falls to a heart attack three days after her baby, Rosie, is born. She finds love again with the Irishman, Mark Kilkennen, ranch foreman for the Silver Spur cattle ranch. They marry. But tragedy strikes when their nine-month old baby boy, Jerry Alden, dies from pneumonia. Rough times. Her mother, Mary Abigail, helps carry her burdens along with her brother, Lyman, her absent sister, Mary, and her best friend and confidante, the lovely half-Native American, half-white Raindancer. Aurette’s world turns topsy-turvy when she sees an Indian brave mingling with the Black Butte 4th of July parade crowd. Jonny Heart of a Bear is alive. Then the beautiful and talented Victoria McClintock, daughter of a Mormon polygamist and sister to an outlaw, and not long in town, sets her sights squarely on Mark Kilkennen. Victoria’s brother, the outlaw, Taber McClintock, saves Aurette’s bacon a couple of times and complicates Aurette’s life when he falls in love with her. Against the backdrop of a prickly relationship with her father, a Grizzly Bear hunt, a Black Butte Bank robbery, the Shoshone Sundance, a cattle drive, cattle rustling, ambushes, murders, a murder trial, and a Union Pacific train robbery, Aurette fights to save her stormy marriage, keep her family intact, and find her true self.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 22, 2018

Reviews

[Terri Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Old West

I have never read a book set in the old west, but I enjoyed this tale immensely! A pleasant read from start to finish and never boring. Loved it!

[charles wilkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have some bias for this book seeing as how my Annie is the author but I have read it twice and will likely read it again. I think it is a very good story :):):)