Customer Reviews

Love Finds You in Valentine, Nebraska (Love Finds You, Book 3)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Kennedy Blaine steps out of her rental car onto the ranch she's inherited, she meets a Matt Dillon look alike and it's love at first sight. But there's a problem--she's a millionaire and Derek Sterling is the "lowly" manager of her ranch. She decides to spend the summer at the ranch and reconnect with her ancestral home. Rather than selling, as she planned, she is drawn to the peaceful atmosphere and the people who inhabit the area.

Kennedy finds herself embroiled in old family issues, requiring forgiveness. Someone who obviously wants her to leave Valentine also harasses her. Could it be the person who wants to buy the ranch although she doesn't want to sell? She depends on God's protection and Derek's assistance as the tangled threads unravel. The two lovers are able to reconcile important issues in the midst of some interesting quirks and turns in the plot, especially during the marriage proposal.

Brand accurately portrays the solitary ranch country in the Sandhills of western Nebraska, with its unique customs and prejudices, along with small town Nebraska life. She imports a crook or two and sets up some local criminals for plenty of adventure. You will love Wilson, the wonderful dog.

Irene Brand has built a wide readership over the 24 years she's written inspiring, faith-based novels. Her husband is a native Nebraskan, and the couple has visited Valentine from time to time. They now reside in West Virginia.


Reviewed by Audrey Hebbert, M.A., retired teacher and freelance writer, Omaha, Nebraska

What a read? This book is one you will read in two to three days. You won't be able to lay it down. Kennedy Blaine inherits her family's ranch after her Dad passes away. She has not been in the home since she was very small. She lives in California and travels to Nebraska to see the ranch and why her Mother loved it so.
You learn about family fueds and how they divide families. Also there is a story about Derek who was adopted and then abandoned and left in Chicago, Il. He runs into trouble with gangs and is in one foster home after another until finally adopted by someone who loved him. It can show you how people can change when put int he right situations. There is a surprise at the end of the book I won't share as it would ruin it for you.
Derek has problems thinking he is good enough for Kennedy. In my own marriage, I always felt not good enough for my husband when I was dating him so I can relate well to this. Thank God we worked through it just like Kennedy and Blaine did in this story.
I liked how Irene showed the struggles deciding in a relationship about love and how relationships grow regardless. A book about how love really grows and finally ends in marriage.
Seeing Lyn Cote on here as a reviewer means a lot too as she is a fine author in her own right.
Wealth, kidnapping, danger, and love all wrapped together. Life happens.

I found myself immediately sucked into LOVE FINDS YOU IN VALENTINE, NEBRASKA. The heroine was especially captivating. I liked her combination of sweetness and determination.

So if you'd like a book with a touching romance and a touch of suspense. Try this one!

A poor woman inheriting property and finding she has to struggle to make the property profitable is an oft told tale. But this one by Irene Brand is different. The woman is not poor. But her cousin has taken advantage of her father for years and he thinks she will be a push over.

I fell in love with this character because she is tough when she needs to be but she is entirely feminine throughout.

This is a story that will warm your heart.

This is a sweet romance with a hint of mystery, a handful of suspense and a whole lot of love. Can a wealthy heiress and a poor cowboy truly find happiness together? Especially when he has enough pride for 10 men and worries what others will think? If you're looking for a gentle read about a hero and heroine falling in love despite the odds, then this is the book for you.

Upon her father's death, wealthy Kennedy Blaine is all alone in the world. One of the properties she's inherited is a Nebraskan ranch which she hasn't stepped foot on since a toddler. Her only memories of it are in photos. She's advised to sell it, but before she does, Kennedy goes back to Nebraska to see what she'd be giving up. When she arrives, she immediately feels a kinship to the land. She wants to meet as many cousins and relatives as she can, but not the grandfather who, by her mother's reasoning, was the cause of their flight to another state.

Derek Sterling is manager of Kennedy's ranch, the Circle Cross. He loves the ranch like his own but due to circumstances of birth, he's just a poor cowboy with a past that'll scare off any woman never mind a high-society one, so he tries to hide his feelings. He knows he'll never be able to afford a ranch such as the Circle Cross but he's loyal and he'll work there as long as he's needed.

Kennedy felt an attraction for Derek the first moment she saw him. She doesn't care what's in his bank account. He's a loyal, stalwart man who gives her joy when she's with him. She decides to stick around and see what happens.

But something sinister is going on. Kennedy`s life is being threatened and suddenly, Nebraska doesn't seem so safe and comfortable after all. Whom can she trust?

This is Book #3 in the Love Finds You series by the new inspirational publisher, Summerside Press of Minnesota.

Heat Level: Romantic

Irene Brand is a gifted and talented romance writer.

Love Finds You in Valentine Nebraska, by Irene Brand is a sweet romance story. What I love about this story is that the romance starts at the very beginning and continues throughout the whole book. I also love the reversal role. What I mean is, Kennedy Blaine is a California rich girl, and Derek Sterling is a poor Nebraska ranch manager. In Love Finds You in Valentine Nebraska, the rich girl wants the poor boy, but he doesn't want a relationship with her because he is poor and doesn't feel good enough. Plus he believes he can never fit into her world, nor she his. There's a reason why he feels this way--several actually, but one is major--for him anyway. If you want to know what that reason is, read the book. It's awesome.

Love Finds You in Valentine Nebraska, is a delightful romance with amazing characters.
It has a little bit of the ole Hatfield and McCoy feud theme woven throughout. But is the feud between the hero and the heroine, or someone else? What started this feud anyway? And who all has it effected?

What is Kennedy doing at the Circle Cross ranch in Valentine, Nebraska anyway? And why is someone threatening her? Are the threats somehow linked to Derek's shady past? Or is it a case of a real estate deal gone bad? Does it have anything to do with the family feud thing? How does this effect Kennedy and Derek's relationship? Will the threats finally send Kennedy back to California? Thus dividing Kennedy and Derek forever.

To find out the answer to these questions...you guessed it--buy the book.

If you love sweet romance with a bit of suspense, then this book is for you. So make haste and buy, Love Finds You in Valentine Nebraska. You won't be sorry.

Popular inspirational romance author Irene Brand has penned a lovely story of two people who are polar opposites finding that love can overcome any difference. City girl Kennedy Blaine expects that her trip to Valentine, Nebraska will be a short one--just long enough to sell the ranch she inherited from her estranged grandfather. But circumstances draw her to the compelling ranch manager, Derek Sterling, and long-hidden family secrets demand her attention. She's determined to face the truth, but finds that it's much harder than she'd imagined. Only her dependence on God takes her through the difficult journey to the truth.

A lovely story, it is rich in details of the Nebraska setting and of ranch life. This is the first Summerside Press book I've encountered, and I am very favorably impressed.

This book, by veteran Christian romance novelist Irene Brand, lifted my spirits and reminded me of God's deep and wide love. Set in the charming town of Valentine, Nebraska, on a 20,000 acre ranch, it offers sweeping views of a beautiful part of America's heartland.
In the novel, Mrs. Brand addresses themes of forgiveness, reconciliation, and faith in the midst of trials. I especially like her use of Scripture as a part of the characters' spiritual journey along the road to love.
A bonus in this book is the character Wilson, who will win any dog-lover's heart with his loyalty to the hero and heroine.
It's a quick and delightful read!

Irene's story centers on a heroine who inherits a ranch in rural Nebraska. But she is a city girl and the adjustment just to visit are not easy. She spends the summer and while there meets and befriends a ranch hand--Derek Sterling. One of the elements that Irene offers in her Summerside book is readers get to watch a relationship grow throughout the story. (In other books, the romance is just getting started by the end of the novel.) She throws in suspenseful elements and gives readers a satisfying emotional climax near the end of the story. One more HEA for readers to enjoy coming from this new press. (HEA=happily ever after)