Reviewed by Gretchen Jawurek for Readers' Favorite

Hesterwine is a small town that’s more of a cluster of small communities held together by a main street, a drugstore, a soda fountain/diner, a second hand store, a beauty salon, and some miscellaneous shops. Two of the communities that live just outside of town are an African-American community and the Mexican community. Hesterwine, Texas 1943 by Dot Ryan takes place in the year 1943, as indicated by the title, with sisters Miss Clara and Miss Justine living just outside of town in a big, glorious southern plantation mansion. The story begins with Miss Clara and Miss Justine at the soda fountain/drugstore that also serves as the town's bus station, as a Greyhound bus on its way to California arrives. Leeta and Mary, passengers on the bus, are both getting off because their money has run out. Leeta and Mary, strangers to each other, have a story; they have suffered at the hand of others, and their futures look very uncertain. Enter Sheriff Bloot, and if you are a person that uses profanity, after reading about Sheriff Bloot, you will be sorely tempted! Sheriff Bloot is upholding the “Old South” tradition of segregation.

Ms. Ryan touches on a very sensitive subject with class, showing Leeta as an African-America and Mary as a “Yank,” and one can imagine what happens when Sheriff Bloot confronts them at the soda fountain. Miss Clara and Miss Justine step in as the “pretend” aunts. The girls go home with these two wonderful, caring southern women and their adventures begin. The girls find out that the nasty Sheriff Bloot is doing the dirty work of Banker Prickett who wants the sisters' property for himself. Leeta and Mary, in spite of themselves, start to fall in love with the two eccentric sisters and the town, and decide to help Miss Clara and Miss Justine save their place. The girls and the two sisters come up with all kinds of schemes to pay the mortgage, only to be thwarted at every turn by Sheriff Bloot...

The story is “character rich” - one of the elements I love to find in a book. There is romance here as Jack falls in love with Mary, Hank falls in love with Leeta, and Miss Clara and Miss Justine find romance too. There is “Dink” from the African-American community. There is Flaco from the Mexican community. And we can’t forget crazy cousin Etta Ruth! I was cheering on Miss Clara, Miss Justine, Leeta and Mary, who are not only dealing with pasts that could easily have turned them into hermits never to associate with the outside world again; they also overcome many obstacles thrown their way. Mere mortals would have been defeated, but not this courageous, smart, creative group of women who win over the whole town to their cause. You, the reader will laugh, cheer, exclaim, and almost curse as you read Hesterwine, Texas 1943. I literally could not put it down! I took it with me on all my errands and stayed up and read until I finished it. I just had to know what would happen next and you will too. You will love this book.