By Keli Gwyn
Barbour Books
c. 2012
$12.99 pbook and $9.99 ebook - Barbour-really? Try $4.99
ISBN: 9781616265830
Christian Romance
Gwyn’s charming story takes a delightful path to a wedding.
I do remember volunteering to read and review. But I thought
I’d had enough of prairie romances for awhile, and honestly let Keli’s heroine
look at me for a couple of weeks after I received the book, while I tended to
other business.
Romances work because they’re formulaic. The reader knows
what’s going to happen; the pleasure is how the couple gets there. Gwyn’s story
had a lot of fun elements, including the age of the characters: thirties; the
fact that both were widowed and had a child; and the hero’s mom was a stitch.
Gwyn’s heroine, Mrs. Watkins, isn’t always likeable. She’s
feisty to the point of illogic sometimes, competitive to a fault, but
teachable. Her daughter, Tildy, is a delight and creates for some hysterical
moments, especially when she’s wondering out loud when she can call our hero,
Mr. Rutledge, “papa.” Mr. Rutledge is a self-admitted dandy, but generous to a
fault, if not always kind. I found these characters refreshing, nicely
different from the same-old damsel in distress and the perfect hero riding in
to rescue her.
Mrs. Watkins has been offered a junior partnership in a
mercantile business. Taking her nine-year-old daughter away from a difficult
family situation and starting over in California seems like a good idea. Until
she meets her partner, Mr. Rutledge, who’s been misinformed by his mother about
the gender of his new partner, and the deal is off. She sets up shop across the
street from him, and the battle is enjoined. The elderly Mrs. Rutledge and
Tildy work both sides of the street with delight and excitement.
Told from both points of view with period-excellent details, readers of
historical romance will find much to enjoy in this adorable romance. That is,
if you don’t mind a little blood, heat exhaustion, and snakes.
