In one hundred and fifty years, Blake's Folly, a silver boomtown notorious for its brothels, dancehall girls, silver barons, speakeasies, and divorce ranches, has become a semi-ghost town. Although the old Mizpah Saloon is still in business, its upper floor is sheathed in dust. But in one dark room at a corridor's end, history has toyed merrily with fate; and ghostly shadows evoke passion, unrequited love, gratitude, and pure enchantment.

 Excerpt
      
 “You a widow?”
 
  “No.” She could hear the tightness in her voice and feel the tension in her shoulders. 

  His eyes glinted. “A runaway wife.” 

  “Not that either.” Did she have to say more? She didn’t. But since people were bound to be asking that same question over and over, she might as well get used to it, even though the answer was only partially true. Even though it could never express what her life had been like up until now. “I left of my own accord, but with my husband’s full agreement. He’ll be looking into getting a divorce.”
  
  “And your children?” 

  Ah, there it was. The big question, the one thing everyone would be curious about. “No children. I’ve never had any.” 
  
  He said nothing. Had he heard the note of anger in her voice? She’d done her best to sound neutral, but neutrality wasn’t an easy note to hit. 
  
  How vividly she remembered the first time she’d caught sight of her future husband, Sam Graham, waiting with a little knot of men by a shanty train station in the middle of nowhere. He and the others had been eager to grab a sight of their brides-to-be, women lured west by the promise of marriage, land, and a home. 

  How had the other women fared? Had they been as discouraged as she at the sight of the vast lonely wasteland, the emptiness, the bleached-out colors, and the coarse men who would be their lifetime partners? Men honed by the elements, a hard life. And rough alcohol.

  Westley Cranston stood, walked in her direction—no, walk wasn’t the word she could use. He sauntered, a slow, elegant saunter. A man sure of himself, of his power to seduce. Yes, that was why she’d felt so wary yesterday. He stopped when he was standing beside her. Smiled. No, there was nothing seductive in his smile. She’d been wrong. What had she been imagining? That she was still the young attractive woman she’d been years ago? What a fool she was. 

  He touched the top of the piano with a gesture that was almost a caress. “Don’t worry. You’ll do well. The boys you’ll be playing with are good musicians, nice guys, too. They play at all the dances in town, and they’ll teach you the sort of pieces folks out here are used to hearing.”
  
  “Thank you.” 

  His eyebrows rose. “For what?” 

  “For being so kind.” 

  “Kind?” He guffawed. “It’s not kindness. I’m fighting for survival. High time we got a good piano player in this place. Bob, before he let that stray bullet hit him, knew how to slap at the keys, all right, but he didn’t know the first thing about keeping time. I’ll bet pretty well all the customers were happy to see him taken out of the running.” 

  Grinning, he moved away in that casual easy way of his, headed toward the front door. Then stopped, looked back, his eyes twinkling. “But they couldn’t do that, not legally, anyway. One of the rules here in town forbids shooting pistols in a barroom.” 

  She grinned back at him. “Sounds like a pretty good rule to me. And what are the other rules, if you don’t mind me asking. If there are any others, that is…” 

  “Sure there are. Need plenty of rules in boomtowns, especially after payday. The other ones are, you can’t insult a woman, you can’t ride a pony or horse on the wooden sidewalks, and you can’t ride them inside this establishment or any other business in town.” He was chuckling again when he turned the lock, stepped out into the street, and disappeared. 

 Hattie remained seated at the piano. Her anguish had totally vanished. Amazing, how he had put her at ease. He hadn’t judged her, hadn’t looked at her with disgust when she’d told him some of her story, hadn’t condemned her for feeling unsure about her piano playing. She wondered why she’d felt so mistrustful. He had behaved like a perfect gentleman—and a friend. 

  Then another thought struck her. What had he been doing here in the Mizpah so early in the morning? Had he slept here? Obviously he had. Hadn’t he just let himself out? And that meant he had probably spent the night with one of the ladies upstairs. That he was a client. 

  Disappointment washed over her. She couldn’t condemn him—men had needs, desires. Why was she so saddened by the thought?


What People are saying about A Room in Blake's Folly

Rich detail and scintillating dialogue transport the reader through the decades between 1889 and 2022 of this surprising saga. With flowing descriptive phrases ("... the walls had a yellowish hue that only time could bring") Culiner effectively intertwines the characters and descendants of Blake's Folly. And although overhunting and pollution mean environmental change, the charm of this old world community remains intact. Cheers for this book!
Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite


In 1889, Blake's Folly is a mining boomtown in Nevada. When the mines are no longer viable, most drift away, leaving boarded up property and broken dreams behind them. The author drops us off at various points over the past hundred-and-thirty years and allows us to meet some of the inhabitants—some are self-serving and devious—but all have the gritty determination that enables them to survive. By the time the story reaches the present day, we have come full circle, and the missing pieces of the family histories have been put into place. The messages running through this saga are hope and resilience. And I'm left with a memory of the cigar smoke lingering in that top floor room of the Mizpah Saloon.
Whispering Stories


Ms. Culiner makes this town come alive through each incarnation of its life. The characters are priceless and perfectly crafted for the reader to understand. Some I loved, one or two I didn’t think much of, but they all brought Blake’s Folly to the state of a real town. Highly recommended!
Dee S. Knight, Erotic Romance author

I am smitten with the romance novels of J. Arlene Culiner and this one is the best yet. It is a generational journey spanning from the 1800's American West to 2022, filled with historical and informative references of the times and place. The sense of the "present" of each generation and the subsequent intermingling histories of the characters is poignant, however, ROMANCE is the heart of this great read. (Also, a mutual love of spiders had me hooked!) Roxanne OBrien

What an intriguing way to tell a story that spans generations. Blake’s Folly and the Mizpah Saloon are characters unto themselves. They live and breathe with the lives that passed through the space they occupied and still occupy in time. As each story within the novel is told, I could feel the story before still echoing off the walls of the saloon. Ms. Culiner is talented at painting a scene and bringing characters to life while weaving a story you can’t put down.
Brenda

J. Arlene Culiner’s original historical novel A Room in Blake’s Folly is a delight. Through research or intuition (probably a combination of both), she manages to bring each era in Blake’s Folly to life, both via language and through period detail.

The book is not exactly a romance, but rather a chain of romances. In each episode, there’s the possibility for love. Not everyone, however, finds a happy ending.

Her characters are distinctive individuals, many of whom are somewhat at odds with society – outcasts, outsiders, and survivors. They are often, but not always sympathetic. Complex family connections bind the protagonists in each period to the past occupants of Blake’s Folly; however, the author avoids the narrative trap of making every descendant worthy of admiration.


A Room in Blake’s Folly is a skillfully crafted tale about love and chance, history and family. I recommend it highly. 
Lisabet Sarai

What a wonderful collection of stories covering 150 years of history within a small town from its heyday during the silver mining through to the modern day. Focusing in particular on one room in the saloon that has stood resolutely in the centre of Blake’s Folly through all its fortunes and misfortunes.

The author has a wonderful writing style that flows and captures the imagination. You almost feel you are there during the silver boom, watching as women turned to the only occupation most of them could follow after escaping from poverty stricken upbringings and violent relationships or widowhood. Love was difficult to find and a way out of this life even harder, but some managed to find both when men with a different perspective of how a woman should be treated passed through the doors of the saloons and brothels.

Across the generations, those men and women left behind a legacy that enabled their children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren to cross paths with each other, more often than not in the room where the story began with two very different women and one man who made a life-changing choice.

We meet women from other states who drift into town in search of a safe haven, and even one escaping the horrors of war in Europe and the loss of all she loved. The men are not all saints, but many are searching, not just for a good time as they pass through the town, but a like-minded companion whose mind or approach to life makes them attractive and desirable. That theme is reflected throughout many of the stories and made for a refreshing approach to the romantic aspects involved.

I particularly enjoyed the earlier stories and also those that brought this town up to date in the 21st century, bringing together the present generation, revealing the secrets and revelations resulting from the love story in the late 1890s.

I highly recommend this collection for history and romance lover’s who enjoy well written and engaging stories.
Sally Cronin's Reviews