This novel is inspired by true events and reads like a historical fiction with the romance added in. Tempa has a heart of gold, and is just trying to carve out her own little piece of happiness in the lawless Gold Rush Era. When she meets Henry their lives become forever entwined. She is strong and feisty. The horrible things that happen to her test all her strength, but she always looks for life’s little gifts and puts others before her own happiness. For me, this was an enjoyable read.

This story about a young girl named Lou Taylor who was forced into prostitution is based upon a true story from the Old West. We follow Lou through different periods of her life, including a crucial moment at the brothel she was left at when she meets a young woman named Belle. At Belle's urging, Lou adopts the name Tempa to reflect her new identity at the brothel and, more importantly, to protect her true self from those around her. Through the ups and downs of her life, we see how Lou struggles to keep a grasp on her true self. In one of the bleakest parts of her story, Lou meets a young man named Henry and nurses him back to health. This act of kindness ultimately leads to a love that encompasses both Lou and Tempa and eventually brings hope and happiness to her life.

Lou is a complicated woman who in her time could all too easily be summed up and then dismissed based upon her profession, which was not of her choosing. Her love of books and her skill at healing were not something that many people around her would know or bother to discover. I think that her friendship with Belle must have been a profound consolation in all the terrible things that befell her. I appreciated so much that the story reflected the true friendship and compassion that Lou/Tempa and the other crib workers had for each other. She found a way to bring reading back into her life when these women asked her to share the stories in her few precious books with them.

Knowing that this was based upon a true story had me crying on more than one occasion because of all the terrible things that Lou survived. The part where we learn how she lost her eye was particularly horrifying to read as Lou really had only one eye. I don't know if how she lost it in this novel was real or not, but I cannot imagine a way for Lou to lose her eye that would not be traumatic. I found myself holding on to the thought that I knew eventually this became a love story with a happy ending. I know that some readers thought the Author's Note portion should have been at the end of the story, but I think it is for the best to have it at the beginning. Knowing that as a twelve-year-old the author had written an essay called "Love's Longest Wait in Lincoln County" that eventually led to this book was what I needed to get me through some of the horrific passages. It was very difficult to figure out how to rate this book. How do you click "really liked it" on a book with so much sorrow and pain? Ultimately four stars is the rating I gave this book because, while I think it is a great story, it had some pacing issues and some of the jumping around in time became very confusing and made following the narrative more complicated than it needed to be.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This story takes readers through an emotional tale of the rugged landscapes in Nevada's gold country in 1901. Tempa's resilience and determination to find solace in books amidst the harsh reality of prostitution is both inspiring and heart-wrenching.

I had a hard time getting into this at first due to the sensitive nature of the topics addressed, but I picked it back up because I have family in Nevada and felt compelled to read it since it's based on a true story.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

4.5 stars. I loved this book. The setting, the characters, the story. It was so heartbreakingly good.

The only reason for the -.5 stars is that some parts seemed to drag a little which made the book too long, in my opinion.

Rich in detail, this was a realistic view of the old American West. The characters were vivid and complex and I was fascinated by their story.
Many thanks to Skinny Leg Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I absolutely loved this book. It took me some time to get through because, as other reviewers have pointed out, it's a pretty heavy story. But it was well worth it.

The level of detail in Bruggeman's descriptions made me forget that this book is supposed to be historical fiction. As a writer, I know how much research must have gone into accomplishing that, so I also applaud that effort.

I also found the characters to be well-developed. Many of them had to make really hard choices in order to survive, and their motivations were clear -- which made it easy to feel sympathetic. I also loved watching the dynamic between Tempa and Henry develop, and the end of the book honestly left me super in my feelings.

While Desert Phoenix isn't right for the students I work with, I know a lot of adult historical fiction readers who would love a book like this.

Content warnings: rape, drug abuse, suicide, violence, animal death, murder

Thank you to the author for providing a copy for review.

4-4.5 stars

Desert Phoenix is a sweeping tale of finding love in the early 1900s in the mining country of Nevada. The story follows Tempa and Henry as they find each other and deal with the everyday hardships of the remote Nevada town.

Beautifully written with only a few rough spots. You find yourself caught up in their very real sorry (the characters are real people and the novel details their story more or less). Well worth the length. I will definitely read this story again.

I think Ms Bruggeman's novel is compelling and well-written, but I couldn't get past the sexual assault scene.

In case anyone is operating under the assumption that long form book reviews delivered via blogging are going the way of the dodo, let me introduce you to only my third A graded read of 2023, Desert Phoenix by Suzette Bruggeman. I had no idea this book existed, and I'm fairly confident in saying I would have continued on life's journey in such ignorance, if not for this review on AztecLady's blog back in April. Is this a perfect book? Well, no. But while I have quibbles I was a blubbering, sobbing mess by the end - and any book that can leak tears from my cold, black soul nearly always goes to the head of the class.

The best way to describe this book is historical fiction with strong romantic elements. It's a romance, but it doesn't fit neatly into the conventions of the romance genre as we know it today. AztecLady's review really hits the nail on the head when she wrote: "This is most certainly a love story with a HEA, but there’s too much tragedy and too much loss, and so, while it doesn’t fit within modern genre romance, it would have fit well with the sagas of the 70s and 80s, though– even though there is no purple prose whatsoever."

Content Warnings: Illness, Death, Rape, Murder, Forced sterilization, "frontier justice" (a hanging), violence in general.

At the start of the story we meet a young Lucinda "Lou" Taylor, whose loving parents and brother have just succumbed to yellow fever. Lou is spared, but now an orphaned child, "rescued" by her older sister and brother-in-law. They pack her up in their wagon and the whole family heads west to Montana. Of course her sister's no-good husband turns out to be the vilest scum who ever viley-scummed - raping Lou (on more than one occasion) for his trouble and eventually dumping her on the doorstep of an upscale brothel in Butte. This is when Lou dies and Tempa born from the ashes.

"A sporting girl loses so much of herself, about the only thing she has left that is truly hers is her history, her memories. They are like tiny gems to bring out for a little beauty, a little comfort when life becomes too dreary and hard to bear. I learned early on to never, ever cast my pearls before swine."

I wouldn't say these chapters are graphically written, but there's enough on the page to be upsetting, and one would assume this would turn Tempa into a harden, embittered (let's be blunt here) child whose life wastes away under the blissful escape of alcohol and/or laudanum - but our girl has grit to her, a gumption to hold on to the good even as she deals with so much bad. Then there's the books. Our girl has a love of books and the written word that bleeds through the pages and are a constant theme running through this story.

Jumping ahead in the timeline, Tempa and "the sister of her heart" Belle end up in a nothing mining town in Nevada, having fallen on hard times, working in the cribs outside of town. Tempa gets one day of peace (Monday) where she goes to a secluded spot by a lovely creek to read a book from her collection. That's where she finds him - and she's none to happy about it. Someone has found her secret spot, but before she can dress him down she realizes that the man, little more than a boy really, is near death, having been beaten to within an inch of his life. And that's how the young German immigrant, Henry, comes into her life. She nurses him back to health and as Henry settles into life in Stateline, working for one of the big mining outfits, a complicated love blossoms.

There's a lot I appreciated about this story, namely it's easy to get lost in the world-building and the various secondary characters that help prop up the love story. This isn't a book that neatly fits into the romance genre as it's defined today - chapters go by where Henry and Tempa are not on page together, in each others' pockets. But it's in that space where the yearning builds and the love grows - even though Tempa (a good 12 years older than Henry) knows how impossible a happy-ever-after would be between them. But Henry, this is a man not willing to give up, so deep are his feelings, no matter the trials that continue to set up roadblocks along the way. This may make one think that Henry is a dogged Hero In Pursuit - and to a certain extent he is - but how consent is handled in this story! Chef's kiss! Henry is a man besotted, and while he wants Tempa he's not about to take anything from her by force, including her love.

So you're probably wondering, "Wait a minute Wendy - you said this wasn't a perfect book." Well, yeah, about that - it's not. The writing transitions between chapters isn't always smooth and the story isn't told in a linear fashion - which means, yes, there are flashbacks to previous events in the characters' lives interspersed at key moments of the story. It drove me nuts for a while that after leaving Butte the next time we see Tempe she's no longer in an upscale brothel environment, but very much in "down and out" working conditions with Belle slipping away in a haze of laudanum addiction. We eventually get that story, but it takes a while. Also, compounding this issue is that some tell over show does creep in on occasion.

There's also the small matter that this book was "inspired by a true story." Yes, Henry and Tempa existed in real life. The author grew up listening to her grandfather tell stories and Henry and Tempa were friends and acquaintances of her great-grandfather (who passed before her birth). So it's natural that the author would include an author's note and photographs. Unfortunately the author's note is at the beginning of the book (when the reader doesn't yet give a sh*t pardon my French...) and the photographs interspersed throughout the story. These would have a much greater impact on the reader (OK, at least this reader) after they've made it through the journey of this sweeping love story to read that author's note then, to view those photographs after the fact having the full weight of context on their side. My advice? If you read this book blow past the front matter, start with Chapter 1, and come back to the Author's Note after the fact. I was bored by it when I started the book, but the full weight of it hit me after I reread it upon completing the final chapter.

I love the romance genre, but longer timelines and saga-like narratives are in very short supply these days. This story creates a world for the reader to get lost in and delivers a dynamite, hard-scrabble, hard-fought and earned happy ever after that made my heart sing. It's exceedingly complicated, a woman like Tempa and a man like Henry, they both make choices that you can understand even as you want to throttle them at times. But in the end, it's a love that is true, pure and built on bedrock. Now excuse me while I order a print copy to live in my keeper stash.

Final Grade = A

Note: At the time of this review the digital version is available via Kindle Unlimited.

What an amazing story. Very unique and not that is written often, Just incredible! Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

I wanted to love this book but I found the timeline quite clunky and the content is at times quite dark and hard to read (for me). I think the premise is very interesting and think the author has a lot to offer with their writing.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

Oh, this was an intense historical read based on real events! The path that Lou/Tempa was forced into was utterly heartbreaking. Her only ray of sunshine was her friendship with Belle and meeting Henry. This book had a lot of dark issues surrounding it (rape, forced prostitution, drug abuse, suicide...) and I was so sad/angry at the injustice that poor Lou had to endure. I loved Henry and the way he saw beyond "Tempa"...he saw Lou and her true worth.

4 stars

I chose this book of historical fiction, because it tackled an era, place, and people who are not often written about. -- a prostitute and immigrant in the American West. It is inspired by real people, Lou/Tempa and Henry, who were known by the author's family. After a series of tragic events, Lou is left at a brothel. It is not often that one has the opportunity to read an authentic and sympathetic story of a prostitute. Her life was both heartbreaking and inspiring. Henry also defied the odds. He is a young immigrant with an abusive past. Henry has a heart of gold. He is patient and kind and tender-hearted. I simply adored him. I rooted for both Lou and Henry to find peace and happiness.

I appreciated the research and care Suzette Bruggeman put into Lou and Henry's story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Skinny Leg Press Publishing and the author, Suzette Bruggeman for the advanced copy of Desert Phoenix.

This was a pretty good book. Some parts were a little hard to read- it was quite graphic. I appreciated the fact that the author wrote the story about her family and their history.
I was provided a copy from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Desert Phoenix
by: Suzette Bruggeman

Thank you to NetGalley, Skinny Leg Press Publishing and the author, Suzette Bruggeman for the advanced copy of Desert Phoenix.

I really enjoyed this book. If you are looking for something different but can hit the spot of historical fiction in a place that seems scarcely written about this is the book for you!
One of my favorite parts of the book, besides being inspired by real life people who the author did extensive research on, is the use of photos of what the characters looked like in real life, and the actual area they lived, etc.
Favoite quote-"Hogwash....a load of codswallop is what it is...When will Tempa realize a woman with a past is not a woman without a future".
Can love, real love help "save" Tempa?
This books takes place in Utah, in the early 1900's during the mining time. Lou, an innocent young woman, who goes by the name of Tempa after a series of very unfortunate events hands her a very rough time. After the loss of her family and attack by her sisters husband, he forces her away to get a job and leaves her at a brothel. She does not want to be there but meets some of the other girls and becomes best friends with Belle, another worker. Tempa soon becomes one of the most sought after women, but is also a very kind, helpful and intelligent. She becomes well loved because of how she assists others outside of the bedroom. One afternoon, she is at her special place reading when a man named Henry stops. She is in her 30's, he in his 20's. Tempa helps him, feeds him and while she belives him to just be a boy, he becomes smitten with her.
The book follows the friendship, love, heartbreak, trust, pain, suffering, beauty and loss between Tempa, Henry and Tempa's best friend Belle. You will laugh, you will cry, you will gasp and be surprised.

Well this was a wonderful book to read. I love that the writer did her research, supplying the book with facts and information. These details made the book more compelling and exciting to read. All the characters were unique in their own way. The story and the interesting people in the story shared with the readers the rough and hard challenges during their time, while also they shared the wonderful times in their life.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

While the story is not dated, history shows that as the western states were being settled life was hard. Choices were few. For a young single woman with no family, choices were limited to whatever you could do to survive. In Tempa's story, she becomes a prostitute but refuses to limit her life to that of a typical prostitute.

Based on true stories passed down through her family, Suzette Bruggerman has shown readers that Tempa was more than the sum of her existence. She could read and write, using these skills to better herself and others. She learned the basics of healing, saving lives in a time when there were so little access to treatments. Above all else, she taught others that all lives have value. As she stepped forward to save a life, she is given a choice that will reward her for her faith.

A very different kind of western, love story, historical fiction. The book is not like anything I've read lately. The backstory and characters are true to the era and the ending will make you sigh......

Reader beware: illness and death, on page; rape of a child, on page; murder; violence; forced sterilization; a hanging. This is most certainly a love story with a HEA, but there’s too much tragedy and too much loss, and so, it doesn’t fit within modern genre romance it would have fit well with the sagas of the 70s and 80s, though– even though there is no purple prose whatsoever.

After a longish author’s note that serves to contextualize both the characters in the novel and how it came to be written, the prologue (also long; the two combined are easily forty pages), details the forced transition of Lucinda “Lou” Taylor, the protected and cherished daughter of a well-to-do family in Memphis, into Tempa, a child prostitute in an upscale brothel in Butte. It is hard reading; even though the rapes are not detailed on the page, Lou’s pain and despair are vivid.

The writing, however, pulls the reader in. Lou is a fanciful creature, holding tight to the bright light of her soul, through the loss of family and innocence, determined to survive.

But at what cost, she doesn’t know yet.

The story is told in third person past tense, from the alternating points of view of Tempa and Henry, with the occasional flashback to fill in their backstories. (Fair warning: some of those flashbacks are heart-wrenching.) The narrative doesn’t shy away from the violence and struggle of life in a desert mining town at the turn of the twentieth century, but Ms Bruggeman chooses well where to linger and where to gloss over.

These are two people who work hard to keep hope alive in a world boiling with threats and brimming with loss. She teaches him to read. He teaches her to love. And they alternatively save and support each other as life batters them.

Their falling in love with each other is absolutely lovely, slow and inevitable, as weeks and then months pass, even as there is a known threat hanging over their heads; even as the harshness of life grinds them down. And the strength and purity of that love as external forces pull them apart is something to behold.

This is the story of two remarkable souls finding each other through the daily fight to survive against the harshness of a world punctuated by losses; a story made beautiful and memorable through the author’s words. Tempa’s and Henry’s “happily ever after” is hard won, and the epilogue is both bittersweet and perfect.

Desert Phoenix is a self-published novel based on family lore, and it’s also apparently only the author’s second published work. While there is a bit of self-indulgence in the author’s note at the beginning, and the photographs inserted into the text should have all been collected at the end of the novel (along with the aforementioned author’s note), the writing is polished, and the characterizations haunting.

Aside from Tempa and Henry, Ms Bruggeman fills the pages with all manner of people; some are vile, some are pure, some are greedy, some are generous and kind, and some are the messy stew of both that most ordinary people are, as they do what they can to keep soul and body together in a harsh and hostile world.

I found the treatment of prostitution fairly nuanced, especially Henry's understanding of consent when it comes to Lou; and I appreciated the world-building; it’s obvious that there is a lot of research behind the novel, but it does its work in the background, without clogging up the narrative. And while the book is over 400 pages long, I don’t believe there is much here that could be cut without lessening the overall impact of the story.

Desert Phoenix gets 8.25 out of 10.

Desert Phoenix begins with what is probably the most unique and intriguing author's note that I've ever read. The author currently lives in Montana and descended from a line of people who lived in the American Old West. Her great-grandfather was a mining-era wagon freighter which allowed him to meet a great number of people. Sadly she never got to meet him but grew up hearing his many stories that had been passed down. In middle school, she decided to write a report for an essay contest about the love story between two people her great-grandfather had met - Henry and Tempa. Twenty-five years later the author decided to novelize the essay she had titled, "Love's Longest Wait in Lincoln County." After an immense amount of research, interviews, imagination, and love - Desert Phoenix came to fruition.

The main character of the story is Tempa, who with alternating past and present timelines we get to know and care about. Tempa began as "Lou" but attained a new identity to better deal with being forced into prostitution at a young age after losing her whole family. Her story is tough, almost too heavy and heart-breaking to continue reading at times, but her hardships are important for her character development. She meets Henry when she finds him severely injured and with her heart of gold, decides to help him heal. Tempa is beyond believing she's deserving of anybody's love, but young Henry is determined to try. What follows is an epic journey of friendship, survival, trials, redemption, and love.

I really enjoyed this one and the author's passion for the story and amount of research was quite evident. But, as I said before, it can be a heavy read at times and I'm not sure it would be for everybody. So please make sure you check trigger warnings before diving in.

Thank you to NetGalley, Skinny Leg Press, and Suzette Bruggeman for allowing me access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.