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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All kinds of fun!, July 17, 2008
This review is from: Calico Canyon: Lassoed in Texas, Book 2 (Truly Yours Romance Club #24) (Paperback)
Grace Calhoun has not had a good day. In addition to a heart-pounding encounter with a snake, she has sat on a tack and publicly lost her skirt--twice! She can attribute all of her woes to five rambunctious, motherless students and their hard-headed father, Daniel Reeves, who manages before the awful day is finished to get her fired from a teaching job she needs worse than anyone knows.
Just when she's convinced things can't go any further downhill, 17-year-old Grace's past shows up in the form of her adoptive father--the last person she wants to see. On the run from this cruel, sadistic man, Grace finds herself stowed away in Daniel's wagon and carried off to his home on the mountain...and his five little terrors.
Circumstances converge to force Grace and Daniel into a marriage neither of them want. To their surprise, they soon find themselves drawn to one another, and Grace even falls in love with Daniel's undisciplined rapscallions. But her husband seems determined to keep her at arm's length for her own safety. What can she do to convince him she's not made of china?
When Grace's nemesis eventually finds her in her new home, Daniel and the boys discover just how much they've come to love the prudish schoolteacher, who has shown them a wonderful, warm, loving "other" side to her personality. With the Reeves clan willing to go to any lengths to protect their new "Ma," her cruel father discovers it won't be an easy task to deal out his special brand of punishment to this wayward child.
The author weaves a mesmerizing tale with a good number of laugh-out-loud moments--and just as many that twist the heart and turn on the tears. A generous spattering of godly wisdom and divine inspiration is expertly woven into the storyline. Their purpose is well served without once becoming preachy or pious.
A good book with a gripping storyline. Calico Canyon is a cozy cave full of family fun!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
2nd book in series fun romance, June 29, 2008
This review is from: Calico Canyon: Lassoed in Texas, Book 2 (Truly Yours Romance Club #24) (Paperback)
Calico Canyon by Mary Conneally is the second book in the Lassoed in Texas series. Grace Calhoun has met her match in the five Reeves boys in her small classroom in 1867 Texas classroom. The older twins at ten, and 5-year-old triplets are bundles of trouble, and their father Daniel refuses to take them in hand. Grace who has been on the run from her abusive stepfather, Parrish, loses her job, flees for her life from Parrish, and ends up suffering from hypothermia in the Reeve's remote home/cave. When the parson stumbles in on the two, he assumes much and before the mismatched pair know it, they are married. Daniel to the priggish, picky schoolmarm who got his sons expelled; Grace to the father of the five little devils who tormented her for months. Conneally has written an enjoyable love story that follows the rules of the formula well: couple hates each other, a crisis occurs that makes them see the other better, they start to succumb to their feelings, but an emotional or physical threat keeps them apart until the final climax that brings them together forever. It's a terrific formula that works best in the hands of a talented writer. Conneally handles her material very well. The dialogue is snappy, and the Reeves boys really steal the book away from the adults. It's a mix of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Problem Child. A sub-plot involving an African-American couple: Tillie and Adam, helps keep the plot anchored, and I hope that their romance will be more fully developed in the next book. Conneally takes a traditional romance and makes is sparkle.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Addition to the Genre...., July 4, 2008
This review is from: Calico Canyon: Lassoed in Texas, Book 2 (Truly Yours Romance Club #24) (Paperback)
Western/prairie/frontier romance is probably the last genre I'd pick to read. Forgive me if you are a fan. I'm not knocking the category, just sharing that it's not a favorite.
I had an earlier opportunity to read Calico Canyon and I passed. Honestly, I have piles of books to read and if I think I might not like something I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to review it with any sort of glow. I don't like investing hours into a story and not being able to write a review with some praise. Then the darn thing showed up in my mailbox. While waiting on a kid and with some time to kill, I opened the cover. If someone can catch me with the first sentence or paragraph, I'm along for the ride.
That said, I so enjoyed Calico Canyon. Mary Connealy is amusing and her characters are charming. She had me in the first scene and I read the story with a smile and even tense concern over the well-being of the characters. Connealy does the genre proud. Though she hasn't converted me completely, I will snatch up her next novel.
This is a great "kick off your shoes" and "set a spell" novel. I recommend it to those who love frontier/western romance, prairie romance and, well, anyone else who might like to read an entertaining,well-written novel.
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