Swept Away

I first read Mary Connealy books last month.  I got her book, Out of Control, free on Kindle loved it and bought the other two in the series. I found her new book, Swept Away on Netgalley and decided I had to read it, so I signed up to review it.  The interesting thing was that the main character from Swept Away, Luke Stone, is the brother of Callie who is Seth Kincaid's wife in the third book of the Kincaid Brother's series.  So, since I loved that book, I had to read this one.

Swept Away starts out introducing us to Ruthy who lost her parents and was taken in by her neighbors.  They make her do lots of work and hit her a lot.  She also has to deal with their son who tries to take advantage of her. The family is on a wagon train when the wagon is carried away by a flooded river.  Ruthy is swept away and later found by Luke as he is trying to get back to his home that someone killed his father and has pretended to own the land with a fake document.  When he gets home he finds friends and they make a plan to take over the ranch.  If you like shootouts in stories this is definitely your book as there is a really good one in the story.

 I really loved this story.  I could not put the book down.  I love the author's detail to the historical aspects of the story.  I also enjoyed the romance that seemed to blossom with Ruthy and Luke.  I never knew how much I liked historical westerns until I read Mary Connealy's books.  I really cannot wait to read the rest of the Trouble in Texas series.  There was definitely trouble in this book and I loved every minute of it!

This e-book was provided through Netgalley and Bethany House publishers, I was not required to give a positive review.

The Rancher's Secret Wife

The Rancher’s Secret Wife is the first book I have read by Brenda Minton.  The book starts out in Las Vegas when Cheyenne, a waitress, is really upset because the father of her baby tried to get her to have an abortion.  She wants to keep the baby but does not know how she can make it.  Along comes Reece, a cowboy, who is getting ready to go fight in the war.  He decides to help her out by marring her.  While he is gone she will get insurance and some money.  After the baby is born they will dissolve the marriage.  Their plans go bad when Cheyenne gets a visit and is told her husband was hurt in the war.  Cheyenne decides to go visit his parents to see how he is doing.  She finds out that he went blind from his accident.  She decides to stay around and with the help of Reece’s grandmother opens a beauty parlor.  Reece and Cheyenne seem to have feelings for each other, but both have reasons that they feel they cannot act on those feelings.  Will they stay together or go their separate ways after the baby is born.

I really enjoyed this story.  I feel in love with the characters.  The author really seems to bring them to life.  I liked how the author added blindness as a problem in the story.  We get to see what a person who goes blind really goes through to start living their life again. It seemed to me that God played a big part in both of their lives by putting them together before Reece lost his sight.  I enjoyed seeing them learn to love each other.

I only had one problem with the story and that might be because I have had experience with preeclamsia.  I wondered why after the doctor’s told Cheyenne she had high blood pressure she was still working as a hair stylist.  She talked about getting shoes that would fit and she continues to cut hair.  In one scene she even cuts Reece’s hair and gives him a shave.  I do not think many doctor’s would let her continue working in a job that she is on her feet most of the time while suffering from this.  Other than that I really loved the story.

There are more books in the series and I plan to check them out after reading this one.

I was given an advanced copy of the book through Net Galley and Love Inspired Books was not required to give a positive review