Amy Hale Auker has written a captivating story which is driven not only by strong memorable
characters, but by the character of the land they love. She touches on common topics such as
romantic love, the grit of hard work, the weight of real commitment, but she also ventures
out on a limb to explore a rare interpretation of beauty, a truer version than most authors
successfully convey. I felt something for each character and continue to think about how
they were connected, to one another, their dreams, and the soul of a mountain.
~ Tweeter
Ranching is more than a job, it's a life. I've never read any literature that brings it to life
the way that Amy does. When I read her books, I felt my own life relived; experiences that time
tucks away ... Amy has a way of penciling those experiences back into existence. If you like
westerns, you will LOVE this author!
Winter of Beauty will show you how it feels to "ride for the brand" and it also details
strong bonds of friendship, proving to the reader that family is what you make it. Once you've
read Amy's writings, you'll be hooked and looking for more!
~ Tori Pike
Winter of Beauty is truly a novel of beauty! It is a work of art!
Amy, with uncanny talent gives intimate details of over twenty characters and weaves them;
merging each into the story. The main character is a mountain. The story is the lives of
the people taking sustenance from and around the mountain. It’s not a western. It’s not a
love story. More, to me it was how a group of people with varied personality styles conjoin
to successfully make their way through a season. Each reader may find himself in somewhere in the story.
Beware; this text is for soaking. I found myself reading slowly; afraid I would miss some
“three-word descriptor” giving depth to the story. In my personal opinion, this could be
used as a text book for character development! Read it! You’ll be glad you did!
~ Gaylon Stamps
Amy Hale Auker's first book "Rightful Place" sold me on her writing style. I was anxious to
sit down with Winter of Beauty and be transported to the ranch and the mountain that the story
revolves around. I was not disappointed. She truly knows the West, and ranching, and her writing
draws you into the story so that you feel as though you are there experiencing it all firsthand.
Amy paints the most beautiful pictures with words, and I found myself reading passages several
times just for the pure enjoyment. The story takes some unexpected turns, as does real life
sometimes, but always there is beauty. I can't wait to see what she blesses us with in her next
offering, and I hope that is not too far in the future.
~ Tom LC Ranch
"And so, sunset found her, this silver-haired lady, tough as leather on the outside, soft as
the rich river bottom on the inside." — Winter of Beauty, p. 6
And so we meet Sunshine Angel Lewis (Shiney) in the novel Winter of Beauty by Amy Hale Auker,
a novel as rich as the river bottom itself. Shiney Lewis is the center around which all else
revolves on the rugged ranching lands of Bride Mountain, known simply as the Bride.
The prose of this novel reads as poetry of the land and of the complex human dynamics that
underlie apparently simple everyday life. The daily beauty and struggles of Shiney, the
ranch owner; Monte, the foreman; Rafe,the old hand; Jody, the new hand; and Blake and Brenna,
who bring child after child into a world they can't afford—all these, with all of their
authenticity, resonate with our own blessings and challenges. These resonances deepen our
connection with life on the tinaja, where "...there are those times when the basin, and
sometimes two or three basins of water in steps are full and edged with the lace of small
animal tracks and the deeper impressions of big ones, like coats of arms pressed into wax
wafers, mud atop the rock." (pg. 7)
The seasons of the Bride reflect human seasons throughout the novel in a manner that enfolds
the reader in constant reminders that all of our experiences are narratives within a greater
story. "Autumn is when the Bride dances. No longer self-conscious and why, no longer
blushing, no longer heavy with heat and seed, she wears the fiery jewels she's earned
through the year. Her nests and pastures are empty, and cool nights whisper gold into her
green." (pg. 122) The seasons of the Bride express seasons of life, seasons of life-changing
decisions, loyalty, heartbreak, and the discovery that love often tiptoes into our lives in
the most unexpected ways.
In Winter of Beauty, Auker brings this mixed-up, colorful family and the Bride to elemental,
exquisite life. A novel to be savored.
~ Dawn Wink at Story Circle Book Reviews
This book has joined the list of my top 10 favorite reads ever. It paints exquisite portraits
of place, bringing to life the landscape and all of the mystery and vibrancy it holds. The
characters are people I feel grateful to have lived with while I read, and I miss them now
that I have finished the book. Their struggles, joys and heartaches are compelling, real, and
engaging; making me laugh, ache, reflect, and marvel as the stories unfolded. Sequel, please?
~ Jeffery A. Tatum
Winter of Beauty is the best western novel I have read, and I have been a Zane Grey fan my whole
life. I like to write myself, so I appreciate Amy's skills in drawing real life characters into
a real life plot that ebbs and flows in the most amazing manner. I felt like I had sat down at
the old general store and watched the people in my community walk by and visit. Her magic lets
us see into the minds of the characters, without feeling invasive or overbearing. The fact that
Beauty is set in modern times makes it an invaluable read for anyone who loves the west,
ranching, or even characters who simply love and care for each other as God intended.
~ Audie ranchwife "FarmEd Mom"
Amy Hale Auker became my favorite author when I read Rightful Place. Her writing comes from
what she's lived/is living. She reaches something so deep inside me with her writing, I have
a hard time explaining it. Her writing moves me like no one elses. In Beauty she writes the
story of a community of people who live and work on what I would consider to be a large ranch.
The owner, Shiny, softens as the book progresses, as she becomes more in touch with the people
who live and work on her ranch. Each person...each family has a story and yet they are all
part of the larger story...Amy Hale Auker paints pictures with her words . . . it
is a book about family, friendship and the beauty of nature . . . the beauty
that changes with each season, and is beautiful no matter what the season. I've read it more than once.
~ C. Estill "AfterAll"
Winter of Beauty set me down on a working cattle ranch with all the beauty and challenges of
the modern day cattleman and woman. Again and again Amy Hale Auker painted scenes that drew
me in and made me a part of the story. I'll be waiting, none too patiently, for her next book.
~ Jackie B. Jones
I finished reading Winter of Beauty by Amy Hale Auker a few nights ago. As I closed the book
and held it in my lap, I sat with barely open eyes relishing the characters that Amy created,
each of them with a story and each as if they were your own circle of friends. This is the
story of people who live each day working hard and caring big in the shadow of a mountain
called the Bride.
Of all the characters so vividly drawn, I found this story to be the story of Shiney, the
ranch owner, who I fell in love with almost immediately. Shiney watches quietly but with a
keen eye over her ranch and over those working for her and has an understanding heart for
each of them. She struggles with the losses of the past, the hardships of the present and
she struggles with what the future will bring as she gets older but ultimately she knows
she would never leave the ranching life as hard as it may be. She is the ranch, she is the
story, and she is very much like the Bride, a steadfast overseer.
Amy has a talent for bringing you to a quiet place where people live their lives simply and
naturally and her use of language to create that place is exquisite, making you hungry for
each coming paragraph, each coming sentence.
As an ex-ranch wife, I felt the raw authenticity of this story, memories flooding back to
me as I could place a similar character and I could smile at the coming together of individuals
who create a community and ultimately a family.
Thank you Amy!
~ Maria Norcia Santillanes
Nothing is easy in this life; not for the creatures and not for the people who live among
them. But we all find our way, eventually. Amy brings us stories of people that we may
never meet-- or have we? The sun steadfastly rises on us all—count on that—and
Winter of Beauty shows us family counting on each other, sustaining each other, even if it
takes a while for them to figure things out. Beauty and hope lies within. Enjoy!
~ Kristine
If you know which end of a cow gets up first, this book will ring true to you. You know
people just like Amy's characters, and you know she has lived what she is writing about.
Her characters face the same problems most of us do, but they also contend with weather,
fluctuating cattle prices, long hours, and narrow profit margins over which they have too
little control. How they cope and rely on each other is what makes the West different. You
don't have to know anything about cattle to appreciate that or Amy's wordsmithing. This
winner of the 2012 Willa Award for Rightful Place distills life down to what's important.
You are going to like this book.
~ D. Page
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