Mary Connealy, Gingham Mountain

Gingham Mountain

Mary Connealy

Barbour, Feb 28 2009, $10.99

ISBN: 9781602601413

In 1870 in Sour Springs, Texas Martha Norris leaves two more orphans with cattle rancher Grant Cooper. The boy Charlie has an attitude as he understands being a rejected leftover and the frightened little girl Libby has a noticeable limp. Still he will give them a home at the Rocking C Ranch and ask them like his other wards to pitch in at the spread.

New schoolmarm Hanna Cartwright meets Grant as he picks up the two orphans and concludes he is a slave-owner who will over work these children; part of her conclusion is his failure to shave and his smell as he raced from working cattle to meeting the orphan train. She plans to limit Grant's exploitation of Charlie and Libby by keeping them in school as often as she can. As meddling Hannah gets in his way, Grant falls in love with her; to her chagrin she reciprocates though she also reconsiders her initial opinion that he is a child labor abuser. However, he has other problems as two swindlers learn of black gold on his land; they arrange with Prudence the seamstress 'Shirt Lady' with a grip that could bring a grown man to his knees to steal his land. Only Charlie stands in their way.

The latest Lassoed in Texas hisotircal romance (see 'Petticoat Ranch' and 'Calico Canynon') is a wonderful tale in which the cast stands out as fully developed; not just the lead couple. Readers as much as Grant will be hooked by precious Libby whose champion is courageous out of control Charlie. The storyline is fast-paced once Hannah makes it clear she thinks Grant is an amoral child abuser and never slows down. However, it is Charlie who brings the freshness with his escapdes that will have the audicne agreeing with Libby he is our hero too.

Harriet Klaunser