I won this book on goodreads, but when I received it, I wondered what I had been thinking: I don't read Westerns. So, I pushed myself through the first couple of dozen pages and was hooked, finishing the book in a day. Book is historical, but Wyatt's determination to go against his father's council and experience the adventure of the West and fur trapping is timeless. Other characters round out the story nicely: Ferris the artist son of a doctor, the scoundrel Layton and the widow Arlene.