Thrills, mystery, suspense, romance: Margaret penned it all. Nothing wrong with this, except Margaret happened to be writing for the church newsletter. After making the church picnic read like a Grisham novel, her former pastor took her aside and said, "Maybe God's calling you to write fiction."
It turns out God was and Margaret did. She now has more than 20 novels to her credit. In addition, she's written many Christian articles and a non-fiction book. Still, it took a lot of prodding from God before Margaret tried her hand at writing inspirational fiction which led to her Rocky Creek series. "I love writing about characters at different stages of faith," she says of the new direction her writing career has taken, "and I'm here to stay."
Happily married to her real-life hero, Margaret and her husband live in Southern California.
Authors Website http://www.margaretbrownley.com/
Looking for a woman of good character and pleasant disposition willing to learn the ranching business in Arizona territory. Must be SINGLE and prepared to remain so now and forever more. Will be given ownership of ranch. —Eleanor Walker
Disgraced dime novelist Kate Tenney fled the city that banned her latest book for a fresh start at a cattle ranch in the Arizona Territory. She hopes ranching turns out to be as romantic as she portrayed it in her novels.
But what awaits her is a much harder life. There is no room for mistakes on a working cattle ranch in 1895, and Kate is ill-prepared for her new life. She quickly learns that dawn comes early . . . every day. But she is tenacious.
Having been abandoned by a string of men, Kate has no intention of ever marrying. But she didn’t expect to meet Luke Adams either. Luke awakens feelings inside Kate she doesn’t recognize, and his steady presence is a constant distraction. She has only written about love in the past, never known it herself. But her feelings for Luke stand in the way of all she has to gain if she is chosen as the heir.
Perhaps God brought Kate to the barrenness of the desert to give new life to her jaded heart.
More Information
Length 352 Pages
Series The Brides Of Last Chance Ranch Series
Publication Date March 13, 2012
Company
Thomas Nelson
ISBN-10 1595549684
ISBN-13 9781595549686
Reason to Smile Contest here
My Thoughts
Kate Tenney has a passion for writing dime novels. Not only has she had one her novels rejected but it has been banned. She might as well been banned herself by the way everyone was treating her since they found out about her book. So she decides to answer an advertisement in the newspaper.
Looking for a woman of good character and pleasant disposition willing to learn the ranching business in Arizona territory. Must be SINGLE and prepared to remain so now and forever more. Will be given ownership of ranch. —Eleanor Walker
Kate packs up and heads out to Arizona Territory in hopes of becoming the heiress of Last Chance Ranch. When she becomes a land owner of a cattle ranch everyone that looked down on her will see she is as good or better than them.
When Kate steps off the train in Cactus Patch the town looks deserted and there is not anyone there to take her to the ranch. She drags her trunk closer into town and is accosted by a bandit Cactus Joe. He had a gun and he was shooting at everything. She is knocked unconscious and when she comes to she was being doused with water by a very handsome man that she mistook for Brandon the hero in her novel. But it was the towns handsome blacksmith, Luke Adams. He let her know that he was very concerned about her injuries and volunteered to give her a ride out to the Last Chance Ranch. He felt a responsibility towards her and found her very attractive.
When she arrived at the ranch she found that as a stipulation of becoming the heiress she would have to learn the ranching business from the bottom up, literally. Her first assignment was to muck out thirty stalls. Then she had to learn how to ride a horse western style. Which was pretty hard because she kept falling off the horse. Once she was able to keep her seat she was to learn how to rope and then be able to rope a calf. She also had to help in birthing calves. She worked from sun up to sundown sometimes longer. Her mentor was a ranch hand by the name of Ruckus and he had a bible verse for just about every time he talked to someone. But Kate had stopped trusting God when she was very young. She felt as if God had abandoned her as a child.
Luke visited the ranch and she had to run errands for the ranch into town which included to the blacksmiths. Kate and Luke realized they had a hankering for each other. But Kate's mother had drilled into her head that men could not be trusted. Besides she had vowed to Eleanor the ranch owner that she would remain single or forfeit the ranch.
The character Ruckus was a sower and sowed seeds of faith, hope and trust in Kate. Will she trust in God and grow in faith? Will she hope for more than land?
This was a fun book with many metaphors from the ranch hands. Which they call tall tales.
There were many colorful characters like Cactus Joe, Aunt Lula-Belle, Aunt Bessie and let's not forget the ranch hands.
I Highly recommend this book.
I rated this book a 5 out of 5.
Disclosure:
I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson/Booksneeze for review. I was in no way compensated for this review it is my own opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment