The Happy Family

Montana, the early 1900s. A group of hard-living, hard-riding cowboys have earned themselves the name 'the Happy Family,' and it's a name that fits like a worn leather glove. They're rough around the edges and prone to mischief, but their loyalty to one another runs deeper than the frozen rivers in winter. At the center of it all is Andy Green, a storyteller so gifted at bending the truth that his tales of a mysterious castle hidden in the Badlands might be adventure or might be pure invention, or both. When Miss Verbena Martin rides into their world bent on civilizing the lot of them, the boys find themselves hilariously outmatched by a woman who could give Mark Twain's characters a run for their money. B. M. Bower writes with a warmth and wit that made these cowpokes beloved enough to span an entire series of novels. The round-ups, the ranchhouse drama, the pies that won't float, the Happy Family is a portrait of frontier life that's as funny as it is endearing, a reminder that home is less a place than the people who ride through it with you.