Customer Reviews

Calico Canyon: Lassoed in Texas, Book 2 (Truly Yours Romance Club #24)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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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There's not much more to be said by this reviewer that hasn't already been said by others. However, I will say that Mary captured me with the first book in the series and now has a devoted reader because of the second. As much as I struggled along with Cliff in "Petticoat Ranch" while he tried to understand a house full of girls, I could really relate to Grace dealing with a house full of rough and tumble boys. And I had to laugh at a line near the end when Daniel informed Grace that it was "January... the twelfth. It was a Friday. We got home at about six in the evening." I think I laughed over that for five minutes.

I am looking forward to the third in the series with much anticipation.

This eagerly awaited sequel to Petticoat Ranch delivers on every level. I loved the setting, the pace, the message, and especially the characters. You'll fall in love with Daniel and Grace, and the children in the story will tug at your heart. Mary's done a wonderful job creating a beautiful love story with an endearing cast. Five stars aren't enough.

Calico Canyon is the 2nd book in the Lassoed in Texas series. While these books don't necessarily need to be read in order, it does help a tiny bit if they are. At least, some side stories make more sense that way.

The same day after being fired from her job as schoolteacher because of the rowdy Reeves boys, Grace finds herself fleeing town as her abusive adoptive father has finally tracked her down. She stows away in the back of a wagon and later wakes up to find herself in the home of the Reeves and their just as rascally father. Because of the odd circumstances the preacher finds them in, they are married quickly to prevent scandal and then find themselves snowed in with each. Not such a bad ending? Well not when they can't stand each other. In addition to having to try to live with each other, Grace must also worry about her pursuer and if he really truly is gone from her life now that she is married.

I like Grace as a character. She's got a lot of spunk and is one of the stronger female characters within the series. At least she doesn't waver as much in her convictions as the other ones. Daniel Reeves is a little less likable. He's kind of a grouch and prone to highly illogical thinking at times. The boys could be cute at times but fought way too much to be believable and I often got tired of the countless descriptions of their wrestling around with each other. Grace's father was a truly despicable man and it was a pleasure to hate him throughout the novel.

The plot was good. Could have used more excitement earlier in but it really starts gearing up in the second half of the book. This one wasn't so much of a romance as the others as there was not a lot of wooing involved in this relationship. Like all the others this is a Christian fiction book and it does use it periodically throughout the novel. It wasn't enough to be grating though and at least, unlike some of her others, it was used logically.

Not the best of Connealy's work but it wasn't too bad either. Definitely held my attention for the entire time I was reading it.

Calico Canyon
Copyright 2008
284 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2011

"Calico Canyon" takes place in Mosqueros, Texas in 1867. It centers around teacher, Grace Calhoun, who settled in Mosqueros hoping to escape from her past. She is used to teaching girls, but when the five Reeve boys (twins and triplets) show up, she has her work cut out for her. Being typical boys, they play pranks and misbehave. Their widowed father, Daniel, is no better. When Grace confronts him about the boy's behavior, he does not want to hear it. He takes it up with the school board who listens to both sides of the story. Not being able to come to a conclusion, the board fires Ms. Calhoun and expels the five Reeve boys from school. After being fired, Grace goes back home. She senses danger and realizes her abusive adoptive father, Parrish, has found her. Come to find out, she has been running from him because he had been conducting shady business to which she turned over evidence to the authorities. Trying to escape his clutches, she jumps out the window and hides in a nearby wagon. The wagon belonged to none other than, Daniel Reeves. Unbeknownst to Mr. Reeves, he takes off with Grace in the back. While his sons are helping him take everything out of the wagon, one of the younger ones asks "if he brought home a ma." Of course, no one knew what he was talking about until they all see Grace cold and unconscious. They bring her inside and nurture her until she is well. The boys and Daniel are not happy about the situation because of the previous encounter at the school. This dislike permeates throughout most of the story until they discover Grace's past and whom she is running from. This leads to everyone being in danger with only love prevailing.

I loved the interaction between Daniel and Grace. Throughout the book, I was hoping that they would realize they belonged with each other. The history and details of 1800 Texas were interesting and well researched. It was also suspenseful as Parrish was a very scary man. To think that he would adopt orphans to work in his carpet mill and then control and beat them was disturbing. If you want to be "Lassoed in Texas" and then some, I would definitely recommend you read "Calico Canyon." You won't be disappointed.

I was captured by the cute title and the other reviews, and I'm glad that I went ahead and purchased this book.

The plot is really good, and the descriptions were so funny:: I love how Mrs. Connealy described the boys - from the first line (5 horsemen of the apocalypse!) to later interactions which made them seem like a pile of adorable, boisterous puppies!

The only strained part, I thought, was the forced marriage - but even that was so skillfully written with humor, and so many other things going on that I immediately pushed aside the notion to read more more more!

The subplots are good too - one showing a continuation of the first book, I guess, and the other setting the background for Grace in this book, and Book 3 - Gingham Mountain.

There were a few loose ends because this is #2 in a trilogy, and so I had to go and get #3~.
I truly related to the characters, even though I really don't have anything in common with Grace - haven't lived in 19th century Texas, wasn't forced to work in a carpet mill, am not a mother to 5 boys - but they had real depth and personalities - I really wished for a happy, happy ending!

Grace Calhoun has escaped the abusive use of children in the textile mills (pre-child labor laws) to end up in a small town teaching children. She is having an especially hard time with 5 brothers, sons of a widower, when her nemesis finds her. As a way of escape, she stows away in a buckboard and ends up....where else but...at the boy's home....snowed in for the winter! The town parson finds out and they end up married after the boys tell the parson that they'd slept 'together' and declare her unfit as a mother to boot!

I loved this Lassoed in Texas installment for its suspense, danger, humor, romantic tension, Christian influence, well, just like everything else Mary Connealy.

The descriptions with cave living are vivid and super creative. Two thumbs up for a totally different type of background amidst a basic historic scenario that made the characters and storyline come to life. Good read. Very creative.