Debbie Macomber, Morning Comes Softly

Morning Comes Softly

Debbie Macomber

Avon, Mar 2007, $7.99

ISBN: 0061080632

Louisiana librarian Mary Warner expects to never have a man in her life, let alone a husband, because her reticence is crippling. So when she reads a personal ad from a Montana rancher named Travis Thompson who is seeking a wife and mother, she shocks herself by responding.

Travis needs someone to nurture the three young orphans that he has become guardian to ever since a tragedy took away their parents. If it means marriage to reunite them under his roof, so be it, as having them in foster care is killing him. However, a Southern belle in the cold remote Big Sky country seems an anomaly to him. He expects her to last less than a Montana summer heat wave, but when Mary meets the three grieving kids, she knows she has finally found her home. She falls in love with the rancher whose personal ad began her odyssey and Travis quickly reciprocates.

This is reprint of a warm, early-1990s, contemporary ranch romance. The fun in the tale is to take the nineteenth-century, mail-order bride theme and bring it into the late-twentieth century. The lead couple is a delightful pairing as he is gruff and she is shy; yet the three kids steal the hearts of the audience. Debbie Macomber's fine tale feels a bit dated with the boom of all sorts of gadgetry to place personal ads over the Internet but still remains a strong tale due to a solid cast not understanding that "love will find a way."

Harriet Klausner