HIGH TRAIL TO DANGER

Sarah is the older and dreamier of two sisters who find their family boardinghouse taken over by interfering, greedy relatives in 1879. Their mother recently dead, the girls need to get word to—and perhaps help from—their father, somewhere out west. Alone, Sarah travels by train and stagecoach, breaking conventions and making her own rules for survival. In a slapdash conclusion, she finds her father just as he dies; since no loose ends—romantic or otherwise—are tied up, it will be up to readers to decide whether a sequel is worth waiting for. Simply characterizing a heroine as prim and putting her in a bonnet does not make for authentic historical fiction. Sarah is lively and determined, but she can't save a plot that lacks an ending. A disappointing entry from a usually reliable storyteller. (Fiction. 11+)