Hashes and Bashes by PJ Colando is a hilarious family saga with high potential for great entertainment. The Breeden family seems to have a very normal life, with Jackie busy with her job in the high school cafeteria while Steve and their son, Brandon, manage the family dairy farm. When someone walks in claiming to be part of this simple, yet happy family, no one’s life is going to be the same again. It’s the beginning of a conflict that plays to a satisfying conclusion in this story.

Hashes and Bashes is a great read, a well-crafted family saga depicting what happens when one’s comfort zone is rocked. The characters are colorful and they blend seamlessly with the setting, showing what life looks like in a Midwestern farming community. The story is entertaining, structured to entice the reader and make him want to keep on reading. The solid cast of characters is one of the things that will keep readers reading on. Yes, PJ Colando’s characters are worth following.

The conflict begins early on in the story and the stage is set for drama. The friction that rocks the entire community, including gossip, allows readers to get a very clear picture of both the setting and the lifestyle the author recreates in this marvelous work. The writing leaps off the pages with elegance and the author comes across as confident and gifted. This is one of those books that will entertain many readers and leave powerful images on their minds, even long after they have put the book away.

Hashes & Bashes by PJ Colando is set nine months after the first novel in the Jackie and Steve Series. Now the family is back on their farm, it's school season, and Jackie is back at the high school for her cafeteria job. Her son, Brandon, and her husband, Steve, are working on their dairy farm. Their calm and tranquility is broken by a stranger who walks into their lives and begins chaos that seems to have no end at all. Carl Edwards is from California and he is here to charm people, but why? What does he want? Everyone thinks he is the best and the coolest guy, but is he? There is something fishy going on here. What is happening? Can Jackie, Steve, Brandon and Sparky find out before it is too late?

I have to be honest here, the moment I saw that dog on the cover, I picked up this novel and didn’t even read the blurb. Sparky is such a good dog, he is crazy and sensible and very, very good. I liked Jackie; she has a personality that many lead characters lack. She is a firecracker and she knows it. Steve is your garden variety husband, exasperated and overwhelmed at times, but he has his moments, especially when his family is in trouble. They were a great couple and a really good team. They are awesome. This novel was hilarious - funny, fun and very cool.

Hashes & Bashes is PJ Colando's second book in the Jackie and Steve series, and follows the subsequent adventures of this very real and lovable Midwestern farm couple and the spirited lives of the many entertaining folks around them. Struggling with farm debt and adjusting to the return home of their full grown son, Steve and Jackie's day to day lives on their dairy farm are suddenly disrupted by the arrival of a stranger, Carl, who claims to be Steve's long-lost half brother. As the family and town size up the handsome Californian stranger and his unfamiliar 'egg-white eating' lifestyle, Steve and Jackie move from uncertain mistrust of this odd visitor to admiration and brotherly love, specially validated by their dog Sparty.

Steve, Jackie and their colorful friends and family embark on the many events and activities of small town life, including baked goods of a suspicious nature, strange Avon lady gifts, and a long list of odd romances, not the least of which involve their son, Brandon. But when a second brother, long estranged from Steve due to conflict, arrives in their lives, the family is tested in their relationships, finances, and homestead.

PJ Colando captured me from the opening lines and pulled me into the warmth and love in Steve and Jackie's lives. With vivid descriptions, I was transported into Steve's cow barn, smelled the cookies in Jackie's kitchen, and felt like I personally knew all the lively characters presented. Colando has a great knack for capturing the day to day humor that surrounds such engaging personalities without sounding forced. Every character was believable and captivating as they moved through their own curious story lines. And beneath the peculiar and comical antics, the underlying strength and support of a Midwestern farming community shone through every line. This is a great read for anyone looking to sit back and be absorbed into real life with a dose of good chuckles and imaginative twists.