Tuesday, March 6, 2018

4 Stars-- The Rancher (Where the Trail Ends #4) by Anna Schmidt

Goodness but Schmidt knows how to rip a girls heart out. Yall. The Rancher's not a light and fluffy historical romance but one full of grit, pain, hope, endurance. Characters with strength and conviction. And others who struggle to do what's right. Hard choices are made. Friendships lost. Lives changed forever. It's one heck of a read.
The Gist: There's a war brewing between cattle and sheep ranchers who will go to any lengths to win the land be it murder, raids, burning homes. Times are dark but Trey has a hope he can bring everyone together and find a way to peacefully coexist. Even if it means a marriage of convenience to a widow of one of the sheep farmers.
Trey and Nell were wonderful characters. Trey's a good man with the heart of a dreamer. Reliable and honest. And Nell's got such inner strength. She's slow to trust but once she's made a decision she's loyal, brave and all in. They were really lovely together.

Their romance was both sweet and powerful. It's slow building as their relationship changes from an arrangement to something more as they start building a life together. I loved their time together and watching their lives intertwine. Seeing how much they risked for their community.

And the grit. Well, yes. This one is hard. Tensions are soaring, lives are lost, others changed forever. It's painful to watch this community ripping apart and struggling with so much hatred on both sides and seeing those caught in the cross hairs.

All in all, Schmidt delivered a powerful story of two brave individuals taking on an entire community and putting their very lives on the line in order to right something they felt was wrong. It was heartbreaking, wonderful, inspiring. A truly beautiful romance.

The world is changing, and the West isn't as wild as it used to be. Trey Porterfield welcomes a new era of law and order―and the influx of settlers coming to the Arizona territory. But not everyone is willing to see the old ways change, and as the cattlemen and the herders take sides, a full-blown range war may be inevitable. There's only one way Trey can see to bring peace to his feuding neighbors.

Nell Stokes is a young widow fighting just to stay alive. In Trey, she sees a chance to heal old wounds and start over. Love was never in the cards, yet as Trey and Nell fight to unite the feuding land, they'll discover a passion neither could have expected...and a danger far greater than either has ever known.

Amazon | Goodreads | Schmidt on HCBS
   
*covers link to Amazon


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