I am not a usually a fan of historical romances but I loved this one. I started reading Janet Dailey books a few months ago, and I have been hooked ever since. This one keeps you on the edge of your feet, never knowing what to expect. It was an easy read, but then again everything is an easy read for me because I am a bookworm. This book is definitely worth reading. I am grateful that netgalley let me read thus in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful addition to the Calder family saga, Calder Brand by Janet Dailey once again proves that she is a master of her craft. A return to one of her best loved families, Dailey brings readers another beautifully written love story filled with memorable characters and locales. If you are looking to begin a new chapter in the Calder storyline, this is the best way to start.

I have read all the books in the original Calder Series by Janet Dailey and was hoping this revival of the series would be as good as the original. I was not disappointed. Left to die by Benteen Calder, Joe Dollarhide is determined to get even. After several years of a dishonest lifestyle Joe comes to the conclusion the only way to settle the score is through legal means. There is plenty of suspense and drama as well as romance. Janet Dailey has a talent for creating a story that transports you to another era. Excellent!
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this advanced review copy. In return, I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

I loved the setting of this book and how the character developed throughout the book. This is my first time reading a book by this author and it did not disappoint. I'm excited to read more of Janet Dailey's books. Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for an ARC.

Calder Brand
Janet Dailey
February 23, 2021


Joe Dollarhide was 16 years old when he left his Texas home to join the Calder Cattle Company to bring a large herd of cattle up to Nebraska. It was a first job for him. He had learned hard work by helping his folks run the farm. Today he will find that being a wrangler’s helper would be beyond difficult. By the end of the day when he ate his beans and biscuits for supper and laid his bedroll out on the hard ground, he realized what a tough road he had chosen. Joe wanted to learn the trade of cowboy. He yearned to save his money, buy land and raise his own cattle or horses there. It wouldn’t be an easy path but this was his way. Herding longhorn cattle was frightening. He didn’t let on to the other men of his fear. When storms threatened or high winds threatened the journey all were forced to continue. It was the job he accepted.
The first section of Dailey’s book was Joe’s history with Benteen Calder, boss. When he asked one of his men to do something, the reply was “yes sir”, no questions. This book is historical fiction, not my favorite type of read, however as I continued to grasp what Joe and the other men faced, it was clear that transporting animals from one place to another was a lengthy, strenuous voyage. In the next part Joe meets Sarah, a tough beautiful woman on her way via train, to work with her uncle, a physician. She had hopes to eventually join medical school to follow his path.
Calder Brand by Janet Dailey will be published by Kensington Books on February 23, 2021. I am grateful for their consideration in allowing me to read and review Dailey’s latest ARC.
I have read other books by Janet Dailey, none of them being historical. This one I became involved in and really enjoyed. It is part 1 of The Calder Brand series. I plan to follow up with part 2. Her writing is interesting and appears accurate. It has romance as well as documentary styles within. I encourage readers to give this one a try. If you have read Daily’s work it will prove to be another great read.

Joe sets out to be a cowboy, traveling with the Calder drive headed for Montana. Sara wants to be a doctor. This is their story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

I enjoyed this book filled with , revenge, love, friendship, forgiveness and second chances.
Sarah wants nothing more than to go to medical school and become a doctor. But life doesn't always work out the way we hope or plan on it going. Joe is determined to own his own land, make lots of money, and get revenge for something that happened when he was 16. Their lives cross paths throughout the story, and while they may be soul mates, their timing is never right.
This story is set in the days of westward expansion, filled with cowboys, growing towns, and new opportunities. It was a great read, predictable, but enjoyable all the same.
I received an advance copy of this story in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book of this new series and it was a great story to start off the new Calder series. The characters in this book were strong minded but mostly fair people. It was interesting to see how revenge can take someone into choices that they regret and to with the passage of time to find out revenge just isn't as important. You find yourself routing for the star crossed lovers in this book and you wonder if they will ever be able to find their way to each other. This book had the same gripping type of storyline that Dailey's original Calder series had. Looking forward to more books in this series for sure.

Janet Dailey brings us the story of Joe Dollarhide and his journey as he looks back remembering all the events that brought him to this moment as he contemplates going out in the snow to exact his revenge. He is reminded of how not only luck and fate had played a role in his life, but also hard work, heartbreak, and perseverance. We are taken back to the beginning of his journey when he left his family's farm in Texas to join the cattle drive with Chase Benteen Calder and the adventures it brought him. When they stop in Dodge City, Joe meets Sarah as he tries to save her from some unwanted attention which ends up bringing him too much attention. When they part, Joe promises to look her up once they arrive in Ogallala.

As the story progresses, we get to see what happens to both of these characters once they leave each other still thinking that one day they will meet again. They each have dreams of success where Joe will have a spread surrounded by family and Sarah will be a doctor. Life, circumstances, misunderstandings, and choices get in the way.

I enjoyed reading about their adventures. Janet Dailey has a way to keep you engaged and wanting to see what happens next. I enjoyed reading this story and look forward to the next adventure.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for this privilege.

CALDER BRAND is a story based on revenge. Life on the open range on cattle drives is steeped in all sorts of danger. Getting fat cattle to market is the difference between survival or collapse of a ranch. You know that expression – it isn’t personal its business, well in CALDER BRAND decisions were very personal to one cowhand. It was the difference between life and death. Benteen Calder had no way to know that his decision left behind a severely injured man.
Joe Dollarhide was a young man of sixteen years and as a recently hired on cowhand was riding in his first cattle drive. Joe was learning the ropes. Even with all he learned there was no way to avoid the circumstance he found himself in. A thunderstorm shook more than just the sky and ground. It frightened the herd and created chaos. It was during that chaos the Joe and his horse were left behind as dead.
CALDER BRAND continues with Joe and his determination to seek revenge for being cast aside like an old worn out saddle. It is this revenge that colors much of his life.
Along the way Joe met Sarah and had become her sort of white knight. But their youthful attraction had to be set aside for practical reasons. Sarah was hoping to be part of her uncle’s medical team in a small town. Her dream was to become a doctor. Joe was just starting out as a cowhand. He too had dreams of becoming someone who was worthy of a woman like Sarah.
And that’s where the journey starts. CALDER BRAND takes us along on a hard road to a hopeful happy ending that paved with many distractions and hardships for both Joe and Sarah.
Neither has had an easy life. Joe has followed paths that have definitely led him astray. He has much to atone for himself. So it is kind of ironic that his seeking revenge on the Calder’s is to repay a wrong done to him. There are many folks that could say the same for Joe. It was his youth and naïve that drove him to make ill-advised choices. In CALDER BRAND we keep waiting for Joe to understand that two wrongs do not make a right.
Sarah on the other hand is a victim pure and simple. All her plans keep coming up short. Life just hasn’t been kind to this lovely caring young woman. As a strong intelligent woman Sarah is determined to get to her goal of becoming a doctor but as CALDER BRAND continues we see how this path is going to face so many roadblocks.
CALDER BRAND is the first installment in a Calder spin off that begins in the 1800’s. Janet Dailey has been gone for many years now but CALDER BRAND is written in her signature style. Fans of Janet Dailey will enjoy CALDER BRAND and look forward to continuing on with this saga of the Calder family.

Calder Brand is a spin-off of the Calder Saga, a wonderful historical romance series! The plot is well-paced and engaging, and the characters are dynamically developed. The story follows Joe Dollarhide from age sixteen to twenty-eight, so you really get to understand him and his motivations. Believing that he was left for dead during a cattle drive, Joe’s need for revenge consumes him. However, he also wants to own his own farm and have a family. He has to reconcile his need for revenge with his goals for a steady future.

Sarah is intelligent and resilient, and she is as determined as Joe. I love that both Joe and Sarah are strong in their desire to achieve their goals, even though so many obstacles stand in their way. Sarah’s life is not easy, and it’s interesting to see how she handles prejudice and the social stigma that comes with being an unwed mother during this time period.

Themes of resilience, revenge, love, and hope are woven throughout the novel, as are messages about courage and fighting for what you love. This is a strong start to what promises to be a wonderful new series, and, though Calder Brand is a spin-off of the Calder Saga, it can totally be read as a standalone. Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a good book that is a comforting read full of will-he-make-it type questions. If you love Westerns full of picturesque settings and a young man looking to make his mark on the world, this book is for you!

I absolutely love how the story plays out! You definitely question throughout the story how it will end and you literally are kept in suspense until almost the very end. A great read and a really sweet love story!

First book read in this series. I have not previously read about the Calders. I received this from Netgalley - thank you. The book takes off from the beginning and does a good job following Joe and Sarah. The relationship develops and is interesting to see the interactions. Joe Dollarhide is nearly 16 when readers meet him on a cattle drive from Texas headed to Montana. He is left for dead after a freak thunderstorm and vows vengeance against Bentsen Calder, who made the decision not to check more thoroughly for him. He falls into bad company later and is shot. Taken to aspiring doctor Sarah Foxworth in Ogallala, Nebraska, he recovers and falls in love. However, the course of true love never does run smoothly, and Joe and Sarah are separated by circumstances. The plot was well thought out and developed, and kept me engaged the entire time. The timeline was what I enjoyed most. Because this book followed Joe from 16 to 28 years old, nothing about the plot was rushed. Not usually a Western book reader and this was engaging and well laid out. I enjoyed Joe's time learning the training of the stallions and the gentle nature approach versus the breaking. Nice book to read during these troubling times. I did enjoy it and want to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to provide an honest review of this ARC.

This historical ‘romance’ follows the Joe Dollarhide in the old American West as a 16 year old teenager to a 28 year old ‘man’. This story read more like a saga with Joe’s petty and immature need for revenge against Benteen Calder, a man who Joe alleges left him for dead, but in actuality did not. Joe falls in ‘love’ with a female named Sarah and leaves her, marrying another woman and fathering a child with his now wife. I am laughing in bafflement by all of these unromantic things happening in this so-called ‘romance’ novel. Joe Dollarhide came off as decidedly un-romantic and seems to forget his so-called ‘love of his life’ as soon as he rides into the sunset away from her. He is driven completely by revenge and the need to be wealthier than Benteen and more well-to-do then him as well, including marrying a well-to-do woman to accomplish this betterment.
I did not like Joe, nor did I like or agree with Joe’s motivation and life’s goal, nor his thought processes and how he decides he likes and wants things. Sarah deserved better, especially since Joe ruined her life by getting her pregnant and leaving her. This causes Sarah to be a shamed woman and forgo her original life’s plans of becoming a medical doctor, while also becoming a social pariah while Joe leads a life free to fall in love elsewhere, gain his immature revenge and increase his wealth while forgetting all about his ‘true love. I disliked that Sarah wasn’t able to move on from Joe’s influence in her life and she seems eager to pick up with him in present day, where they left off.

This book is also from the Calder universe, something I was unfamiliar with before reading this addition to the series. It seems like a spin-off from the original branch of the Calder family, and was only slightly confusing to keep up with names and such.

I received an ARC from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I obtained a complimentary copy of Calder Brand in exchange for an honest review. This was a one of the best books I've read in a long time. The plot was well thought out and developed, and kept me engaged the entire time. The timeline was what I enjoyed most. Because this book followed Joe from 16 to 28 years old, nothing about the plot was rushed. It was refreshing to read about Joe and Sarah's real life struggles just to survive, and their journey to seeking their happily ever after. This was everything I could hope for in a good historical romance, and I would absolutely recommend this book to friends and family.

This was a good book. Easy read and I enjoyed it. I will recommend it to others. I was surprised at some parts of it but enjoyed it.

Wow its a little freaky I was thinking to myself last week that it has been a while since I read one of Ms. Dailey's book so needless to say when this showed up in my quier I was ecstatic and requested it and am happy that I did.
Joe had gotten hurt on the job and that is where Sarah comes in since she is at her uncle because she wants to follow his footstep and become a doctor. While taking care of him, she falls in love but Joe doesn't feel that he is good enough and leaves. Years later he had what he always wanted a wife and child, way different than all those years ago.

Loved this book! First in a spin off series of Calder Brand. Loved Janet Dailey's Calder series back in the 80's and reading this book brought back the memories of that series. I have read so many WWII novels of late that it was a welcome change to read about the settling of the west, 1890's. Loved the characters and their stories and adventures! Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Finally, a book I often could not put down! This is more like the Janet Dailey I knew and loved. The writing is excellent and the storytelling is great.

If I had a complaint, it would be that the ending is somewhat unsatisfactory and even a bit comical, considering the all-consuming urge for revenge that Joe had and how it affected his often poor life decisions. I would also have preferred a more convincing romance instead of love after a few days.

But having said all that, this is the type of writing style that I enjoy and I hope to see more from this writer - with some refinements with the storylines perhaps! The dialogue flows very well and the characters are convincing.

Content: Bedroom scene and resulting child out of wedlock. Description of rape attempt.