Cowgirl Dreams
Cowgirl Dreams: A Novel
Cowgirl Dreams
Heidi Thomas
From her ranch home in Montana in the 1920s, Nettie Brady dreamed of joining the rodeo circuit and becoming a star. Defying her mother's wishes and trading her skirts for trousers--and riding the range with her brothers and taking on the occasional half-ton steer in local rodeos--Nettie bucked convention to compete with men in the arena. When family hardship and tragedy threaten her plans, she turns back toward a more traditional life as a ranch woman, but chafes against its restrictions. Then she meets and falls in love with a young neighbor who rides broncs and raises rodeo stock. Can Nettie's rodeo dreams come true if she's also a wife and mother? Based on the life of the author's grandmother, a real Montana cowgirl, this novel takes on the big issues of a woman's place in the west, the crushing difficulties of surviving on a homestead, and the excitement and romance of a young girl aching to follow her dream. 

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Biography
  • Environment
  • Historical Nonfiction

Age Level: 

  • 12 and up
Profile Picture

"Cowgirl Dreams" by Heidi M. Thomas is an adventurous novel. The main character Nettie aspires to be a rodeo star. She abhors domesticity and yearns to be more than just a housewife someday. Nettie gets involved in altercations as her mother is against her participating in rodeos. Still, Nettie finds a way to ride and even meets famous female riders. The descriptions of western life in the 1920s is fabulous, and readers will root for the underdog that is Nettie.

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