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After breaking her engagement to her righteous, but utterly predictable, fiancee, 27-year-old Julia Darling knows she needs to get out of the Salt Lake Valley.  Longing for adventure, she answers a newspaper ad written by a "desperate rancher" in Wyoming looking for a "chef of mature years" to cook for him and his ranch hands.  A graduate of Boston's most renowned cooking school, Julia certainly knows her way around a kitchen.  She ignores the "mature years" bit and accepts the position.  

Before Julia's really had time to think about what she's doing, she's packed and on a train to Wyoming.  Her new boss, a crusty rancher named Paul Otto, is startled by her youth, even though, at 35, he's not as seasoned as he made himself sound in his ad.  More concerned with his empty stomach than by the impropriety of a young, unmarried woman living on a remote ranch full of men, Mr. Otto hires Julia.  His new cook is nervous, but determined.  Until she sees The Double Tipi.  It's obvious she can't cook—let alone live—in such a wild, untamed place.

As much as she wants to run straight home to Utah, Julia's struck by how much she's needed at the dilapidated ranch.  There are empty bellies to fill, an orphan child desperate for a mother figure, and, of course, an uncouth cowboy who grows more intriguing by the hour.  It's adventure she's craving—this qualifies in spades.  But can she really survive for a year out in the wilderness, so far from her family, her friends and her faith?  She'll find out as she battles everything from rats to snakes to deadly weather to the traitorous yearnings of her own heart.

Before reading Borrowed Light, a historical romance by Carla Kelly, I'd never heard of the author, let alone read one of her books.  Which is a darn shame because, frankly, I loved this one.  It's one of those novels that has everything—adventure, mystery, romance, humor, even spirituality.  Don't be turned off by that last one because the religious aspect of the story is interwoven so well with everything else that it doesn't come off as didactic or heavy-handed.  In fact, it's that balance between all of the different story elements that make Borrowed Light so enchanting, so compelling and so thoroughly enjoyable.  It might be a little far-fetched (Would a single LDS woman in 1909 really have been comfortable—not to mention safe—living out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of men?  Would her conservative, protective parents really have given her their blessing to do so?), but I don't care, I loved this book.  And, believe you me, it won't be the last Kelly novel I read.

(Readalikes:  Captive Heart by Michele Paige Holmes; the Sarah Prine novels [These Is My Words; Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden] by Nancy E. Turner; Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner; and a little like Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson)

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for scenes of peril and mild sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I received a PDF of Borrowed Light from the generous folks at Bonneville Books (an imprint of Cedar Fort) via the Whitney Awards Committee.  Thank you!

  

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

After being left at the altar by the man of her dreams, 26-year-old Kelly Grace Pickens doesn't know how to feel.  She's humiliated, of course, not to mention lonely, angry, worried, and—most of all—confused.  She hasn't heard a word from her fiancee.  Is he lying dead in a gutter somewhere or, worse, has he just changed his mind about marrying her?  With no answers, no money, and no husband, Kelly Grace can't just sit around tormenting herself with what ifs.  She has to do something.  But what?

Becoming a contestant on a reality t.v. show—especially one where a bunch of desperate women vie for the "love" of some narcissistic pretty boy—is a possibility that's never, ever entered Kelly Grace's mind.  But when her cousin, the co-producer of America's most popular dating show, begs Kelly Grace to fill a last-minute spot on this season's cast list, she reluctantly agrees to participate.  Kelly Grace is only in it for the money, of course, and has no intention of throwing herself at the show's star.  No matter how good-looking or sweet or wealthy Dillon Black might be.  Of course, things get mighty complicated when the suave bachelor puts the moves on Kelly Grace, who suddenly finds herself having to trying very, very hard to resist.  The question now is:  What (or who) does Kelly Grace really want and how far will she go to get it (him)?  

I should probably mention right off the bat that I'm not a fan of The Bachelor or anything of its kind.  Maybe that's what made Count Down to Love by Julie N. Ford so difficult for me to enjoy.  Or maybe it's because the novel got so far-fetched, melodramatic and contrived I could hardly stand it.  I think I would have actually found a behind-the-scenes look at reality t.v. interesting, but Ford skimps mightily on the "insider" details, focusing instead on the developing relationship between Kelly Grace and Dillon.  Which might have been okay, except that the romance was totally predictable.  Now, I realize it's a romance, so the guy and girl are going to get together, but to keep my attention, an author has to make me wonder if the couple can really overcome all the odds that stand in the way of their Happily Ever After.  Ford didn't do that.  I think the real problem with the book, though, is that Kelly Grace has no real goal, nothing admirable she's trying to do, nothing to make the reader root for her.  Plus, she gets the guy way too easily, which throws the plotting all out of whack because the climax of the story comes in the middle of the book instead of at the end.  So, yeah.  While I kind of liked the premise of Count Down to Love, it just really didn't deliver for me.    

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a little of Not My Type by Melanie Jacobson)

Grade:  C-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I received a PDF copy of Count Down to Love from the generous folks at Bonneville Books (an imprint of Cedar Fort) via the Whitney Award Committee.  Thank you!   

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Staggering under the debt of the fancy wedding she financed, but never got, 23-year-old Pepper Spicer has come back home to lick her wounds.  There's nothing glamorous about the life she's living now—she's sleeping under her parents' roof, bunking with a 7-year-old, and working a dead-end job at a sandwich shop.  She's got no social life, no romantic life, no life at all.  Pepper's got plenty to complain about.  And she does.  Loudly.  Constantly.  Exhaustingly.  It's wearing her—and everyone around her—out.  

It's not until Pepper's therapist father suggests she start expressing a little gratitude that Pepper realizes her life might not be a complete waste.  Through the weekly thank you notes she writes (at the insistence of Dr. Dad), she begins to see the truth:  Pepper Spicer might not be quite as pathetic as she seems to be.  She's got connections, a support system, maybe even some prospects for a brighter future.  With that little glimmer of hope leading her on, she starts taking chances, praying they'll lead to something better than Handy's Dandy Sandwiches.  

Before too long, Pepper's traded in her hairnet for a writing job in the city.  It's a dream position at a start-up online magazine, something that doesn't pay a whole lot, but has enormous career-making possibilities.  There's only one problem—she has to work her way up by producing a column on her experiences with online dating.  By actually experiencing it.  It's not an ideal assignment for someone as jilted and jaded as Pepper, but her snarky outlook on the whole thing strikes a chord with Salt Lake's similarly frustrated single crowd.   Pepper's pleased with her popular column, even if she doesn't feel right about deceiving her dates.  But, when she finally finds a man who's actually worth dating, her dubious job may be the one thing that stands in the way of Pepper getting what she really wants—true happiness.  

Like The List, Melanie Jacobson's debut LDS novel, Not My Type offers a fun, lighthearted story about a girl struggling to understand who she really is and what she really wants.  Unlike the former, the latter gives us a much more likable heroine, someone who's self-deprecating and sympathetic, with a focus that extends beyond just herself.  The warmth and humor that has become Jacobson's trademark writing too, comes through loud and clear with this one, making Not My Type a quick, enjoyable read with a lesson about gratitude that's difficult to ignore.  The story did get a bit contrived, with some bits that were difficult to believe (How does Tanner not realize Pepper's really Indie Girl?), but all in all, it's a happy book that's clean, uplifting and, unlike other LDS romances, not totally nauseating.  As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed it. 

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a little of The List by Melanie Jacobson and My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite)

Grade:  B

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for mild sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I bought Not My Type from Deseret Book with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.   

(Image from Deseret Book)

Bostonian Emmalyne Madsen thinks she's ready for a big adventure.  But when outlaws attack the train that's carrying the 22-year-old schoolteacher to Colorado, she realizes with a jolt that her "adventure" could very well end in her death.  Or worse.  Abducted at gunpoint, she's forced to follow grizzly Thayne Kendrich into the desert with no food, no water and no cover from the unrelenting sun.  Emma's parched, sunburned and beyond exhausted—if the gruff bandit's going to kill her, why doesn't he just get it over with already?  She can't understand the strange man who's dragging her away from his cohorts, deeper and deeper into the wilderness on some mysterious errand.  Thayne insists no harm will come to her, but how can Emma trust the man who's just kidnapped her?

Thayne leads Emma into South Dakota's Black Hills, which can only mean one thing:  he's going to sell her to a savage Indian tribe.  But, as she soon discovers, that's not it at all.  Thayne has an entirely different reason for abducting a schoolteacher.  As realization dawns, Emma must ask herself who the man beside her really is, what he really wants, and how far he'll really go to get it.  Can she escape his clutches, gain back her freedom?  And, more importantly, does she even want to?

I didn't expect to enjoy Captive Heart, a historical romance by Michele Paige Holmes, nearly as much as I did.  But, to my surprise, the novel offered an exciting, well-told story along with characters who sprang to life, quickly capturing my heart.  Holmes did the romance the right way, too, taking time to really develop the relationship between Emma and Thayne, so that it felt authentic.  True, the story itself gets predictable (it's a romance), contrived (Really?  Emma's mother just happens to be deaf?), even melodramatic at times (the ending), but I still found it enjoyable.  The main thing that stopped me from really loving Captive Heart is that I couldn't figure out why the kidnapping was necessary in the first place.  Considering what I found out about Thayne along the way, it just seemed like the most difficult, illogical way he could have possibly chosen to accomplish his purposes.  That gaping plot hole bugged big time.  Still and all, the novel kept me entertained.  If it weren't for that one little (okay, huge) problem, I would have really, really liked this one.   

Grade:  C

If this were a movie, it would have been rated:  PG for violence and scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I received a PDF of Captive Heart from the generous folks at Covenant Communications and the Whitney Awards Committee.  Thank you!