It’s the Roaring Twenties, and Bonnelyn Parker is a churchgoing gal who has just gotten engaged to her childhood sweetheart, Roy Thornton. She loves to sing her heart out in church pews, but her main priorities are graduating high school, becoming a teacher, and making enough money waitressing at the local diner to keep the lights on in her family’s house. Her best friend, Blanche, is a different type of gal with a thirst for adventure, among other things, who tries to get Bonnelyn to see her real potential and the truth about her relationship.

One night, when business is slow, a mysterious lad named Buck struts into the diner and offers the girls a gig at a juice joint where both the cash and drinks are flowing. Fired from her dead-end job, and worried about supporting her mother and siblings, good girl Bonnelyn is thrust into the world of Dallas’s most exclusive speakeasy, Doc’s. At first, she is worried about breaking the rules and even judges her best friend’s flirtatious behavior, but serving drinks will eventually become the lesser of evils. Bonnelyn is about to meet her future self.

"Jenni L. Walsh’s debut historical novel will make you wait for Clyde Champion Barrow, but you’ll have fun along the ride, complete with a tour of Dallas, Texas, and an era that people just can’t stop raving about: the Roaring Twenties."

Roy has just bought Bonnelyn a fixer upper, yet he doesn’t have enough cash to get the proper supplies. Ever since he and Bonnelyn were kids, they defended one another and made plans for their future. He had become a journalist, and she a school teacher. Nothing would turn into something. But we all know where, and with whom, Bonnelyn’s future really lies.

At first, Bonnelyn is hesitant to work at Doc’s. According to her conscience, taking a shot of whiskey is like ingesting the devil’s elixir. Around the joint, she’s known as a good girl who judges others and is told she’s replaceable. But her pockets are stuffed with cash at the end of the night, and she realizes that being just a number isn’t an option when she has no food in the pantry; the truth is, her mother is ill, and her brother is without a job.

When the opportunity arises to show her loyalty to the juice joint that has kept her cabinets stocked with food, Bonnelyn takes it. But the occasion doesn’t come without a taste of danger. Bootlegging whiskey isn’t a walk in the park. At the end of the “job,” Bonnelyn is on her way to becoming Bonnie, with a gun in one hand and a man on the floor screaming bloody murder. She has just saved someone who will change her life forever. She has just locked eyes with Clyde Champion Barrow, yet she is still engaged to “good boy” Roy.

Bonnelyn can’t get Clyde out of her mind. His name pops up in hidden corners as if he’s a secret, but he’s simply Buck’s brother. However, there is nothing simple about Clyde Barrow. We watch Bonnelyn’s transition to Bonnie as she steps onto the speakeasy’s stage and sings her heart out, takes shots of whiskey like it’s no big deal, and flirts with whiskey drinkers while her fiancé is fixing up their soon-to-be house.

But Roy catches Bonnelyn getting a little too close to a patron, and they rush into a marriage to save their souls. Yet Roy has changed for the worse. He gambles, invests money, and hangs out at a different juice joint all night, right before the stock market crash that will introduce Bonnelyn to her real destiny. Soon she’ll no longer be Bonnelyn Parker-Thornton, the girl who performs and slings drinks, but one-half of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde, who take life into their own hands and have bigger plans for their future. I just wonder if they know how big.

Jenni L. Walsh’s debut historical novel will make you wait for Clyde Champion Barrow, but you’ll have fun along the ride, complete with a tour of Dallas, Texas, and an era that people just can’t stop raving about: the Roaring Twenties.