Reviewer Comments: All Irma Friedrich wanted to do from the age of fourteen is to be trick rider and she spends her summers on her uncle’s farm learning to do tricks to ensure she can get into the Buffalo Bill Wild West show.
Irma’s mother is vehemently opposed to her dream of becoming a trick rider but her father supports her dream and even manages to get an audition with his friend, Bill Cody. Irma leads a lucky life and seems to sail through things as the indulged daughter who is also single minded and determined to do what she wants. Once she becomes part of the Wild West show, Irma, as Liberty Belle, is taught many lessons and many of those lessons are not ones she expected to learn.
On a visit to the show Irma accuses Henry Mortimer of being a drugstore cowboy when in fact he is one of the shows main attractions, Shep Sterling. Shep falls for Liberty Belle at their first meeting but will act the gentleman until he can win her heart.
This story has two focuses, Irma and Shep, and Irma’s parents, Willa and Otto. We see the development of the relationship between the two couples and also within the couple. Irma’s relationship with her mother undergoes the largest transformation in this story. As I read this story, I was able to see the picture painted by Ms Whitson of the Wild West show and feel Irma’s fascination, fear of not living up to her ability and her confusion over her relationship with Shep. Although, I would like to have seen more about Shep as at times he did seem like a secondary character. The entire story was a sweet read with a satisfactory ending for the major characters.
