{"id":43679,"date":"2026-03-20T08:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=43679"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:46:24","slug":"40-miles-to-happy-the-love-story-of-a-rancher-and-his-wife-by-vally-mulford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=43679","title":{"rendered":"40 Miles to Happy, the Love Story of a Rancher and his Wife by Vally Mulford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A heartfelt, lyrical, and deeply moving portrait of love, resilience, and ordinary lives&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mulford reflects on the quiet power of ordinary lives in this multigenerational memoir. \u201cEven though the story that we each create will ultimately succumb to time\u2026 we have the chance, right now, to live lives of goodness,\u201d he writes. The story centers on Denny and Della Mulford, the author\u2019s parents, whose romance begins at a local dance and leads to a spontaneous Las Vegas elopement\u2014and a shared dream of building a life on ranch. Their story emphasizes partnership, hard work, and enduring companionship rather than dramatic conflict.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Woven into the narrative are accounts of earlier generations, especially women navigating faith, hardship, and polygamy in frontier Utah. Through figures like Martha Adams, the book examines the strain between obligation and personal fulfillment. The narrative shifts across timelines, balancing the couple\u2019s grounded life with the upheaval of those who came before. Mulford writes with a descriptive, often sentimental touch, bringing Utah\u2019s orchards, rivers, and red-rock canyons to life as both setting and subtle metaphor. Even when the themes are expressed directly, the emotional honesty remains compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warm, reflective memoir that honors love, resilience, and the overlooked significance of everyday lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/40-Miles-Happy-Story-Rancher\/dp\/B0GSB23P44\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Pub date <strong>\u200e <\/strong>March 12, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">ISBN 979-8251735000<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Print length 263 pages<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Price $8.50 (USD) Paperback, $2.99 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A heartfelt, lyrical, and deeply moving portrait of love, resilience, and ordinary lives&#8230; Mulford reflects on the quiet power of ordinary lives in this multigenerational memoir. \u201cEven though the story that we each create will ultimately succumb to time\u2026 we have the chance, right now, to live lives of goodness,\u201d he writes. The story centers on Denny and Della Mulford, the author\u2019s parents, whose romance begins at a local dance and leads to a spontaneous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":43682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[723770755],"tags":[723771617,723771615,7223,3644,91,3328,178,1136176,19397,723771063,3748,776078,1473,1008073,856121,723771616,723771614,349],"class_list":["post-43679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-fiction-non-fiction","tag-40-miles-to-happ","tag-40-miles-to-happy","tag-author","tag-biography","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-indie-books","tag-memoir","tag-memoirs","tag-non-fiction","tag-non-fiction-book-review","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-the-love-story-of-a-rancher-and-his-wife","tag-vally-mulford","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/61f4JgI6hRL._SY425_.jpg?fit=284%2C425&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-bmv","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43683,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43679\/revisions\/43683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}