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A review by jazzyjan94
Petticoat Ranch by Mary Connealy
4.0
This review appears on my blog: https://confessionsofabookwormweb.wordpress.com/2020/05/04/book-review-petticoat-ranch-lassoed-in-texas-1-by-mary-connealy/
Mary Connealy is one of those authors whose works I’ve come across often (and I think I might’ve read a couple of her short stories) and I’ve been meaning to pick up but just never got a chance to until one day I was volunteering at my church library and one of my fellow volunteers recommended her books to me, especially the Lassoed in Texas series, so that very day I checked out Petticoat Ranch and started it a few days later…and let’s just say I think I might have found another author that I really like, but I think I will wait until I’ve read a few more of her books before I declare her to be my favorite, but she is well on her way to making the list!
Petticoat Ranch follows Sophie Edwards who is raising her four daughters in the Texas wilderness after the death of her husband two years ago. Trying to protect her family keeps her busy, but every so often she lets out a cry for help to God, and one night he answers her prayers by sending an injured man to her property. As she tries to nurse him back to help she sees that there is something familiar about this man, he looks oddly like her late husband who she knows for certain is dead and buried. This stranger turns out to be her late husband’s long-lost twin brother, Clay McClellan, who has been searching for his brother only to discover that he was killed by a group of vigilantes and now he wants to exact vengeance on them. However, when he discovers that his brother left behind a family, he feels that it is his duty to marry his sister-in-law and take care of his brother’s family, but he discovers that life with five women is a lot more challenging than he thought, especially since they are not the typical women that he was expecting.
I’ll admit, it took me a little bit to get into this book, but I really enjoyed it, especially since it was a Western and it was kind of slow burn romance, even though the couple is already married. I loved how this was the perfect blend of romantic comedy with the action of a Western, it definitely lead to it being an interesting read because of that. A great cast of characters also made up this novel, I especially loved Sophie’s daughters and some of the quips they made, I remember one of the younger daughters who makes a comment about how she misses the good old days, meanwhile she is only about five or six, it was really cute and funny considering how young she is. I found Sophie to be very stubborn, but then so was Clay, however it was good to see how different he was from his late brother. It was also interesting to see how he has to learn how to be around women, since he hasn’t lived with any his whole life. I loved the dynamic he had with his nieces, and it was sad to see based on their experiences with their father how they thought that every time he was upset with them they had to keep asking whether he still loved them or not. I felt like he did a great job to show them that love is unconditional, even if we get angry or upset with something that the other person does, it doesn’t mean that our love for them disappears. Another thing I really liked about this book is how it was ultimately about trusting God, and how He hears us even if we can’t always articulate what our needs are, He is still faithful to intercede for us in His own way and in His own time. 3.5/5 Stars.
Mary Connealy is one of those authors whose works I’ve come across often (and I think I might’ve read a couple of her short stories) and I’ve been meaning to pick up but just never got a chance to until one day I was volunteering at my church library and one of my fellow volunteers recommended her books to me, especially the Lassoed in Texas series, so that very day I checked out Petticoat Ranch and started it a few days later…and let’s just say I think I might have found another author that I really like, but I think I will wait until I’ve read a few more of her books before I declare her to be my favorite, but she is well on her way to making the list!
Petticoat Ranch follows Sophie Edwards who is raising her four daughters in the Texas wilderness after the death of her husband two years ago. Trying to protect her family keeps her busy, but every so often she lets out a cry for help to God, and one night he answers her prayers by sending an injured man to her property. As she tries to nurse him back to help she sees that there is something familiar about this man, he looks oddly like her late husband who she knows for certain is dead and buried. This stranger turns out to be her late husband’s long-lost twin brother, Clay McClellan, who has been searching for his brother only to discover that he was killed by a group of vigilantes and now he wants to exact vengeance on them. However, when he discovers that his brother left behind a family, he feels that it is his duty to marry his sister-in-law and take care of his brother’s family, but he discovers that life with five women is a lot more challenging than he thought, especially since they are not the typical women that he was expecting.
I’ll admit, it took me a little bit to get into this book, but I really enjoyed it, especially since it was a Western and it was kind of slow burn romance, even though the couple is already married. I loved how this was the perfect blend of romantic comedy with the action of a Western, it definitely lead to it being an interesting read because of that. A great cast of characters also made up this novel, I especially loved Sophie’s daughters and some of the quips they made, I remember one of the younger daughters who makes a comment about how she misses the good old days, meanwhile she is only about five or six, it was really cute and funny considering how young she is. I found Sophie to be very stubborn, but then so was Clay, however it was good to see how different he was from his late brother. It was also interesting to see how he has to learn how to be around women, since he hasn’t lived with any his whole life. I loved the dynamic he had with his nieces, and it was sad to see based on their experiences with their father how they thought that every time he was upset with them they had to keep asking whether he still loved them or not. I felt like he did a great job to show them that love is unconditional, even if we get angry or upset with something that the other person does, it doesn’t mean that our love for them disappears. Another thing I really liked about this book is how it was ultimately about trusting God, and how He hears us even if we can’t always articulate what our needs are, He is still faithful to intercede for us in His own way and in His own time. 3.5/5 Stars.