Barbour Publishing (May 1, 2008)
This book is another lighter romance but it still has some pretty serious underpinnings to it. It was about time for a few vacation reads in the midst of the tulmultuous intensity of my recent reads so this last week has been very welcome in terms of the reading material I’ve encountered on the TBR list. This one is a contemporary setting as opposed to the horse and buggy days of Mary’s books but we are still in Texas and our characters are cowboys and ranchers once again. Our heroine however is a chiropractor in the midst of Rodeo country – talk about interesting juxtaposition. She left as a teenager for undisclosed reasons and chose to stay away for a number of years. When she does return and open her Chiropractic clinic in this small town the local mothers are shoving their single 30 something sons and younger in her path and things are a bit rocky with her own parents due to misunderstandings from the past. The neighboring ranch is now run by a cowboy who has only had eyes for Rachel since they were old enough to care. She however had other interests as a teen but is now thrown together with him in planning the rodeo that will be a featured event of the town’s year long centennial gala. Because of her past she struggles with believing in herself and refuses to believe a cowboy can be anything but trouble for her or any other girl. Can she catch up to present days and move on or will she be forever stuck in the rut of her past choices and refuse to take the risk of being honest? This author treats some very heavy subjects with grace and dignity while still blending in just the right amount of comic relief through verbal sparring, slips of the tongue and a few other lighter moments to balance things out and keep the reader turning the pages at full tilt in order to keep up with Jack, Rachel, Dirk and Jenn. This would be a good story for older teens that enjoy western romances since the secondary characters who play some pivotal roles in the plot are teens themselves. (ISBN#9781597898966, 288 pp, $9.97)
Read an excerpt in this post as well as finding other links to explore.
How fun to read your review and see you are sitting in the middle of the scenes as you read, as indicated by your choice of words: “but we are still in Texas and our characters are cowboys and ranchers”. I love it when I find books I feel I am in the middle of all the happenings as I read. Thanks.
Pam
Thanks for stopping by Pam. I enjoyed this book and it was a good chaser for Mary’s Calico Canyon.
Melissa