Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen by Chris Mullen (review & giveaway)

Thrust to the mercy of the Mississippi river, thirteen-year-old Rowdy floats safely away as he watches the smoke rise from his burning farmhouse. Now alone in the world, his perilous journey of survival begins, challenging and shaping him into the young man his father would want him to become.

Pulled from the waters, he is given a chance by a lone river Captain and his mate. Rowdy has grown strong working the river but must use his wit as well as his strength to confront a bullying crewman and survive a surprise attack by river pirates.

Growing up on the Mississippi river was a start for Rowdy, but Dodge City, Kansas proves it has its own challenges. He was warned not to get entangled with Patrick Byrne Byrne, Dodge City’s most powerful rancher. Unknowingly crossing Byrne, he faces life and death decisions. Rowdy’s only option is to run.

Survival is what he has come to know all too well. His escape across the plains nearly claims his life. Through a stranger’s help, Rowdy recovers and finally discovers Lincoln, New Mexico, and acquires a new friend along the way. Rowdy is settling in when hired guns sent by Patrick Byrne find and confront him. Blood, bullets, and tears bring Rowdy’s world to a showdown. Fighting for what was right is his code, living life for others becomes his way, and staring danger in the face is what he must do if he can truly be Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen.

“A man acts like one because he has to.
A boy acts like one when he wants to. What are you?”

Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen by Chris Mullen is Book One in the Rowdy Series, and what a beginning it is. The story starts off with full-throttle action as Rowdy’s older brother gives him his knife and sets him adrift on a skiff on the Mississippi River during one wild night filled with thunder, lightning, fire, and death. As thirteen-year-old Rowdy watches raiders destroy his family’s farm and murder his father and brother, he remains paralyzed with fear and helpless to do anything but remain on the skiff and drift away, all alone and frightened.

What follows is the remarkable journey of a young boy who has nothing left to lose, except his life, of course. Through a significant amount of fate, luck, kindness, and opportunity, Rowdy lands on his feet and sets off on one adventure after another, learning to be an honorable man from his memories of his father’s words of wisdom and from a riverboat captain who becomes his savior, mentor, boss, and surrogate father. While trouble and evil seem to dog his every step, Rowdy manages to hang on to his values and honor as he transitions all too quickly into adulthood. How does a young, impressionable boy manage to grow up and stay alive and remain a relatively good person during the raucous Wild West, when danger and temptation often come out of nowhere and from all directions? Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen provides all the answers to this burning question and a whole lot more on every page.

“Doin’ right for yerself is good. Doin’ right by others makes all the difference.”

While this book can be considered as a young adult/coming of age fiction, everyone can enjoy this fully entertaining and didactic moral narrative. The overarching themes in Rowdy include the importance of family, blood or otherwise; standing firm against evil; and upholding hard-earned principles. Rowdy as a main character is almost too good to be true (almost), but that is okay because who doesn’t need or want to root for a protagonist who never backs down when he believes he is in the right, knows when to swallow his pride and ask for assistance, and steps up to help people and animals when no one else will? We all need such positivity, and Chris Mullen delivers this and more through absorbing prose, dynamic characterization, and non-stop action.

You are in luck if you finish reading Rowdy: Wild and Mean, Sharp and Keen and simply cannot wait for the next in the series because Books 2 and 3 are available right now. Go ahead and sit tall in the saddle, hang on tight, and let Rowdy’s adventures thrill and entertain you from start to finish!

Enter the giveaway below on or before July 22, 2022, for a chance to win some fabulous prizes.

I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.