To watch the small town you grew up in slowly die, one piece at a time, is a pain that hits your heart as well as your pocketbook. To raise a family in this town, knowing there are no jobs so no future for your children, is a worry too parents have to face. To see vast acres of dry land and know the sunset maybe beautiful but it also signals the death of live as you knew it. Conquistador, Texas, is such a town. It sets the perfect background for THE BIG EMPTY.

Trace Malloy and Blaine Witherspoon are two men who have lived very different lives and have very different expectations for the future. Trace is a rancher, it's all he's ever done but he knows the way of life he knows does not have a rosy future. Blaine runs AZTech, a high tech company that produces semi-conductors. He is used to living and doing business in California. When he proposes to build a new plant near Conquistador, it could be the answer to everyone's worries. But this California business man runs into several walls when he starts doing business in Texas.

The story line easily held my interest and had several entertaining moments when Cali met Texas. The efforts of both parties will have to support each other or Conquistador will fail. This book is an excellent look at how different each region is, but how they can learn to set those differences aside for the greater good.

Best fresh western that appeals to me as a female reader and I can see this appealing to everyone! Great new voice in western fiction.

Wow, the book wound up being nothing like I'd anticipated, especially the last few chapters! Steffy deftly managed to highlight the cultural differences between the big city Californians and rural Texans while keeping the story chugging along and on point. The whole novel was very believable.

One of my favorite parts was the nose busting jab, a very understandable reaction to the out of place insult hurled by a conceited, holier than thou jerk! Served him right 😉.