I enjoyed this book immensely! It was gripping and engaging -- a good, fast, fun read. I especially liked that the characters were real people with real problems and real personalities. The story has a romance, but there are no heaving bosoms, and the main character has more to her life -- enough so that the romance is a part of the story, but the story doesn't deteriorate into a romance novel.

Although editorial reviews refer to this as the beginning of the series, and for all I know, it and its immediate sequel, _Out of the Crucible_, may have been published first, it is chronologically the second book, following _The Silver Highway_ in the Treasure Quest quartet. This book opens in the late 1850's, as Amy Randolph, her preacher father, and the aunt who has looked after them since Amy lost her mother, arrive in Colorado. Amy meets many new people in Denver: A young miner named Daniel who immediately likes her but soon disappears for a while and returns with a new career; a friendly woman whom readers will eventually recognize from the prequel, who runs a dance hall but doesn't fit the tired stereotype of the madame predatorily seeking new girls to work for her, but who instead encourages Amy to stay in the life she has been raised in; Crystal, whose unresolved story from _The Silver Highway_ is continued very marginally as foreshadowing for the next book; a girl Amy's age named Maggie, who offers Amy the gift of music, in defiance of the disapproval of instrumental music with which Amy has been raised; and Lucas Tristram, whom readers of _The Silver Highway_ will recognize as a source of trouble. Within two years of reaching Colorado, Amy goes through several life changes, both chosen and unchosen, as she seeks to understand what she truly wants most. At times I found her longing to reshape Daniel's plans a little hard to identify with, but not so much that I didn't care so much about what happened to her or her route to happiness and several important reconciliations that I devoured the book in long reading gulps. The ending was worth reading all the way to.

I love the way this book is laid out, with cities and their restaurants. This book also features coupons to those restaurants if you bring your book in. Book is well organized, and couple of recipes that I have tried have been good. Book does feature some color photos which are a great guide in preparing the recipes.

Colorado's Finest was a great story. It kept me interested the whole time, and there is even some comedy to the story. The characters are believeable and likeable. The plot is a good too. It's not so far fetched that you have a hard time relating or understand it. The only thing I would have done differently is a more informative epilouge. We all know the guy and girl get together, right. Well.. Id like to know if they carry out the plans they discuss. And things like that. But over it was a really good book.

I had the pleasure of using the map pack on a recent week of 14'er bagging. The maps are larger versions of the ones included in the second edition of the book. The back of the map contains detailed info on the "most popular" route. I currently use the original edition of Roach's book with the new map pack. Since the new color maps in the 2nd edition of the Colorado Fourteeners book do not photocopy well, the single page maps(approximately legal size) are more convenient than carrying the entire book. If you are a map fanatic like me, there is much to enjoy. Unfortunately, there is no geoposition data on these maps for GPS fanatics.

Fielder, who is well known in the field (sorry), knows Colorado well and captures its beauty splendidly in this volume. I wish there were more descriptions to tell you where the photos were taken, why Fielder liked the picture, and so on. Still, well worth a look.

This book is approximately 56 pages and filled with interesting history and short stories. I remember hearing interesting ghost/treasure stories as a child while visiting the Colorado area. I recently moved to the Colorado area, and I could not wait to obtain information and books about the area. To my surprise, this was one of the few books that I found. The stories are short and are perfect for story telling. The stories are filled with information to excite the imagination of the possibility that treasure might still be buried in the mountains that has never been retrieved. I probably won't go into the mountains looking for the treasure even though some of the descriptions are pretty clear to where it might be located. However, I think it will make a wonderful conversation piece while driving through the Colorado mountains with family members that are visiting the area. The book is clear and concise and if you are looking for some interesting stories to discuss with tourists or family members this is a great book. Once you start reading it your curiosity won't let you put it down.

This is a very nice little book. Many of the photos truly do live up to the title "Fine Art Landscape & Nature Photography." My only complaint is the small size of the book and the limited number of photos. If not this, I would have ranked the book higher on my Listmania list entitled 'Best Colorado Picture Books.'

John Ward is an excellent fine art photographer who works in both black and white and color. Here, John Ward has created a beautiful book of color images on a subject close to his heart: the colorado landscape. While some of the images are relatively standard scenics, many show Ward's eye for fine composition. Some exceptional images are here, images in which Ward has made wonderful use of the light "of the moment". This is a very nice book, one collectors of fine color images will want to own.

This book is a delighful overview of Mr Adams' years of photographing cotton woods. The book, part of a larger series by the publishers is not as well printed as it could be, most of the other books in the series have been wonderfully reproduced. This book however I feel lets Mr Adams down slightly in it's quality of printing. The quiet poetics of Mr Adams' work is still apparent - if you know of him and his work already - first time readers of his images however may find it difficult to understand him and his work based on this book alone. Still this is a small [inexpensive] book which would be good to keep on the shelves to show students for example.