One Step Over the Border by Stephen Bly - Review

One Step Over the Border: A Novel by Stephen Bly
softcover, 2007, Center Street Books
ISBN 1599956896
328 pgs.

Not only did the cover of One Step Over the Border make me smile, but the first chapter had me laughing out loud. I don’t think I stopped chuckling until I finished the book - in record time I might add, because it was just that good. There’s just something about a story of two lonesome cowboys getting themselves in one scrap after another that tickles my funny bone.

When Hap Bowman and Laramie Majors teamed up, it wasn’t just for team-roping at the local rodeo grounds. No, they became friends that day - whether it was the screaming Juanita that brought them together or the biker with a bad taste for bowling balls. Still, it was a friendship meant to whether storms, and for ten years it did just that.

While Hap travels the country-side looking for the Juanita dancing in his memory, Laramie Majors rides along, hoping to convince him to give up his ‘idiot obsession’. The only problem is, Hap can’t - not until he gives it one more shot and one last summer.

Together this Wyoming roping team finds that more than just Juanita is waiting for them, and it starts with a capital T. Whether it’s the prospect of ending up in a Mexican jail or dodging bullets at Jose’s Git-N-Go, trouble seems to find them around every turn.

This book is a fun read, but it also makes you think about what you'll leave behind. A touching scene at a graveside burial makes you wonder just what words are going to be said over your own casket. Stephen Bly writes from a Christian viewpoint without preaching. He gives you something to ponder while slapping you in the saddle and taking you for a ride you won’t soon forget.