Ms. Dailey has created her own family empire in print. The Calder family are irresistable. Throughout the years, she has written any episodes about Jessy, Tara, Laura, Cat (the indominable Calder women), and now Chase and his grandson Quint. He's actually Cat's son with Logan, but that's another story in itself. Most of the family have lived in Montana but had the means to enjoyed forays to Europe and such places. Chase Benteen Calden had been part Indian (Sioux) with the prominent cheekbones (like Bill Ross) and the lovely smooth black silky hair which Quint Echohawk has inherited.

In Fort Worth, Texas, the empire, Calder Cattle Company, has expanded to owning the ranch called Cee Bar Ranch, which is where One Calder Star takes place. "A lonely star, a Texas sky, A Calder learns that trouble is nigh." Cold and windy in Texas, while the plains of Eastern Montana (big and empty land which has once been the domain of the mighty Sioux tribe) are in the mid-sixties. In this episode, Quint is sent to clear up a problem, not with woman as the good-looking Calder men have their prime choices, but with an ill-natured, rich rancher named Max Rutledge who is bound and determined to buy up all the land around the Cee Bar boundaries.

Quint's latest flame, a flirtatious waitress, Dallas Gardner, poses a different kind of problem. Marriage doesn't come first with the Calders, sometimes later if all goes well. For now Quint must keep his interest in young Dallas a secret -- not because he is ashamed of her. On the contrary, he reveled in the way she made him feel. Rutledge is a man with few scruples and would use any means, especially a pretty woman, to have something to hold over him. He was one of the conscienceless, like Joe and Karl, and Dallas (the woman) could be used as a pawn.

From Chase to Quinton in this 9th account of the Calders' expanding empire out West, to Trey, the heritage continues back where it started in the lone star state of Texas. "A single star, A Texas brand; there's no doubt he's on Calder land." Janet Dailey now lives in Branson, Missouri, the place Deana Martin also calls her new hometown.

As stated, this was the first novel of hers I've read. I have the paperback version. I had a book I hated, took it to my bookstore and got this one instead (it was the same price, not the best way to pick a book).

I sat on it for a few months before I finally picked it up. I found I should have picked it up much earlier. I enjoyed the novel. I do agree with one of the reviews that some of the characters were a bit "unwritten" but I still liked it and not having read any of the other Calder novels, it was still easy to follow.

The one thing I liked about it, well sometimes in novels you can just sit there and think, yeah ok, that's never going to happen. I really think that this type of situation exists and she wrote it as it may have happened anywhere. I really enjoyed the way the characters talked. No one really talks like that anymore and I miss it. Big business doesn't care about who and what they take over either and I thought Daily wrote truthfully about that as well, but didn't throw it in my face.

So, all in all, it was a good book. I hated putting it down. :)

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