Hearts of the West is a unique collection of classic Western stories that combine action and romance, showcasing nine stirring, long-forgotten frontier tales with appeal to everyone. In "Guardian Angel," a cowboy who doesn't think he needs anyone's help, and a woman who thinks he does, must deal with the treachery and cunning of a criminal family. In "Frontier Spirit," a well-bred society girl proves she's got that very quality to a doubting cowboy, but not until they have both faced bandit guns. In "Pioneer Woman" by John and Ward Hawkins (latterly stalwarts of television's Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie), a frontier woman discovers that her greatest peril on a wagon train west is not the hardships of the trail but her abusive, murderous husband. In "Cup of Happiness," a woman determined to succeed on her own in the far northwest, and a man keeping a secret, must battle nature, epidemic and claim-jumpers if they are to live and quaff their own cup of happiness. In "Blue Eyes and Blue Steel," a spirited cowgirl doesn't turn back when she finds herself on the trail of desperado Diamond Jack McLernan, while the man she's after finds himself falling in love with her. In "The Marquis and Miss Sally," cow camp friendship turns to romance despite a seemingly impossible obstacle in a rollicking tale only the inimitable master of literary surprise, O. Henry, could have penned. In "The End of the Trail," a man of mixed parentage learns from a storekeeper's daughter—with the assistance of one of the West's real-life heroines—that it isn't what you do before a fight, but what you do afterward that determines who the winner is. In "The B-girl, the Battle and the Bar-D," two people who have been deeply scarred by life discover why, if they can survive it, the West is the ideal place for starting over. In "Big Nose Kate's Man," the famous, if slightly shady, lady shows why she's earned her own place in frontier legend when her lover, the legendary Doc Holliday, faces a lynching (based on an actual event). If you enjoy the romance and action of the old frontier days, you'll love Hearts of the West.
