Rosemount Paperback – December 2, 2008

Leslie Cahill is an all around good girl. She makes good grades in high school, has good friends, plays the piano and loves horses, her family, and ranch life. Life looks good even though her widowed father is contemplating a new beginning by marriage to his new love and bringing her daughter into the mix. When a girl in Leslie's school is attacked and her father, fearing for his daughter, sends her off to a boarding school, she thinks he's just getting her out of the way. So strong and determined as she is, although wrong-headed in this case, Leslie runs away. While she is on the run she meets good people and the not so good and learns from them all. A coming of age tale all ages will enjoy. Eunice Boeve, author of Maggie Rose and Sass

This is a book I'd like my grandchildren to read. It's well-written, current in it's theme of a young girl facing a number of problems: her father's fothcoming remarriage, a potential step sister whom she dislikes and a new school she doesn't want to attend. Mary Trimble handles all these problems with skill and such insight that it makes me wonder if the story is autobiographical. It's a YA book that I highly recommend.

Running away is never a solution, right? Although the story of Leslie Cahill, boarding school escapee, shows some dangers (she is conned by a larcenous drug-using couple) on its heroine's desperate "On The Road" journey, it skips the elements of prostitution, violence and other dangers runaways commonly fall into. Still, this is no "Pretty Woman". Leslie's frantic journey reveals courage, strength, smarts, and determination. Author Mary E. Trimble addresses the issue of teen runaways in a gentle way that could only happen in farm country. Unlike the gritty city landscape of child prostitution, hunger, homelessness, abuse and drug use that Covenant House battles, Leslie's flight is an extended road trip of desperation through the backwoods. It's a story of Leslie's resilient spirit as she proves her courage; the complexity of family love, understanding and forgiveness; and the untamed, raw, rough, vast frontier of adolescence.

When sixteen-year-old Leslie Cahill is told by her father that she would be leaving her school, friends, music, family, and ranch, her breath catches and her head spins. She refuses to go. How can she leave everything she loves, including her horse. Her father claims it is what is best for her musical career and her life. He wants to protect her, she wants to turn and run. That is exactly what happens. Shortly after her father leaves the Rosemount campus in Spokane, WA. without her, she runs. Leslie is under the impression she is being replaced by her father's girlfriend and the girlfriend's teenage daughter. She runs until she finds a couple who takes her in and allows her heart to soften so she can see the truth and the lie she believed. Mary Trimble catches the heart of Leslie Cahill's turmoil and the dangerous and desperate decisions runaways can make. This is a story that will inspire and tug at your heart.

Mary Trimble has hit the nail on the head with her insightful book, "Rosemount". I bought copies for all of my friends - with and without children. Trimble has a knack for knowing the thoughts of a teenager. This is a must read! Curl up with a cup of steaming cocoa and a nice fire, plan to stay a while as you won't be able to put the book down! Two thumbs up!

Sixteen-year-old Leslie Cahill makes good grades, has nice friends, and a family who loves her. A talented pianist and a good hand with a horse, Leslie loves her home, a ranch in Washington state, and is devastated when she finds out her dad, John Cahill, intends to send her away to school. After a young girl is attacked at the local high school of Chewack, John sees no other alternative. Having raised her alone after his wife died, the safety of his daughter is paramount.Leslie sees it differently and suspects she is being sent away in order to make room in her Dad's life for his new love interest, Lilith, and her daughter Roxanne. Leslie, hurt and saddened to the point of desperation, takes the situation into her own hands, and with disastrous results. This story is about perception, family ties and love, and the danger of supposing what motivates another. Throughout the story Leslie's heart is always right, her actions always understandable, and the lessons she learns always real.Rosemount, though listed as a young adult novel, is just a plain good read, no matter your age. Ms. Trimble knows ranching, livestock, and the lay of the land in this story that takes the reader on a cross-country journey filled with authentic detail, and I know because I lived there. She knows the teenage heart and mind, too, and seems to understand a parent's anguish when they fear for their children, a striking contrast that Ms. Trimble handles with exceptional skill and insight.From the first page to the last, I was captivated by the story and involved with the unique cast of characters: Leslie, John, Wade, and Cyrus, one of my personal favorites, Maureen, Clem, another personal favorite, Dutch, and even Roxanne. As Clem says, "Plannin' ain't doin'," and that's the truth. Don't plan on reading this entertaining tale, but do so. Even though I've just now finished the story, I miss the characters already. I highly recommend this book to readers of any age, sixteen to sixty and beyond. I hope we can look forward to more novels from Mary Trimble, a sublime storyteller, with a knack for bringing to the surface the treasures that are right in front of us, but so easily missed.