Maureen McKade, A Reason to Believe

A Reason to Believe

Maureen McKade

Berkley, Aug 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 9780425216620

When her husband died, Dulcie McDaniel and their four years old daughter Madeline returned to her Texas family home, a place she fled a few years ago to escape her bitter widower father. Now her alcoholic dad Frank Pollard has been lynched by a mob who needed an unpopular fall guy. Although she does not believe her father committed the crime, Dulcie has no time to care; instead she has the farm to run by herself as no one will help her or work for her since she left town single and pregnant while her father was scorned. Dulcie will do anything to insure Madeline has a nice home.

Rye Forrester has traveled from Kansas to tell Dulcie the truth about her husband's death; the hard part will be explaining his role. When he arrives at harvest time, he helps her with the crop, delaying the inevitable. As they fall in love and he serves as a kind gentle male role model to her daughter, he fears she will kick him off the her farm once he confesses why he came.

This is a terrific Forester Brother Reconstruction Era romance (see A REASON TO LIVE) starring two nice people who deserve much better than what has happened in their past. Although the theme has been used before, but Maureen McKade keeps it fresh as sub-genre readers anticipate the poignant High Noon showdown once Rye tells his beloved the truth.

Harriet Klausner