This powerful start to the Ransom Canyon series will be
enjoyed by anyone who reads modern western romances. Staten
Kirkland still runs his family's ranch although his wife
has died and his teen son was killed when his car ran off
the road into RANSOM CANYON. Staten just gets through life
using work as a prop. He has taken a lover, Quinn O'Grady,
a single woman in her forties. But their relationship
hardly exists outside her cabin. Something is about to
change.
Lauren Brigman, the sheriff's daughter, shows us the other
end of the generational cycle. She and her school friends
are too young to drive, so their walk past a spooky
abandoned house lures them in to look for ghosts. There's
not much else to do in a small town. One lad falls through
a floor, and the emergency services have to be summoned. A
lad called Lucas quietly works to save others and Lauren,
fearing she's in for a scolding, decides he's the most
genuine guy she knows. Meanwhile, a bus pulls up in
Crossroads, Texas, and lets off Yancy Grey, a man out of
prison with plans to get rich somehow.
I enjoyed Yancy's first day of work at handyman jobs in a
retirement community, surprising himself by making friends
among normal people. He's no reformed character, but I
found myself wanting him to go straight. Staten's
grandmother lives a busy life in this retirement community,
and her chats with Staten start tying the disparate stories
together. Crime comes to the area, aided by the fact
that people live far apart and the winding roads are unlit.
The whole town and wider spread of ranchers are involved,
and I liked watching the story play out with an edge of
danger.
To me Lauren is not yet an interesting character, busy
waiting to turn sixteen and then unsure what to do about it
since she's not allowed date. However at the end we get an
introduction to the next book in this series, which will be
called Rustler's Moon, and no doubt the determined teen
will be growing and learning through the series. The adult
characters are the focus of this first instalment and in
RANSOM CANYON Jodi Thomas introduces people we almost feel
we know, with understandable dilemmas and ambitions. She
makes me want to drop in again next week and say howdy.
From New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas
comes
the first book in a compelling, emotionally resonant
series
set in a remote west Texas town—where family can be made
by
blood or by choice
Rancher Staten
Kirkland,
the last descendant of Ransom Canyon's founding father,
is
rugged and practical to the last. No one knows that when
his
troubling memories threaten to overwhelm him, he runs to
lovely, reclusive Quinn O'Grady…or that she has her own
secret that no one living knows.
Young Lucas
Reyes has his eye on the prize—college, and the chance to
become something more than a ranch hand's son. But one
night, one wrong decision, will set his life on a course
even he hadn't imagined.
Yancy Grey is
running
hard from his troubled past. He doesn't plan to stick
around
Ransom Canyon, just long enough to learn the town's
weaknesses and how to use them for personal gain. Only
Yancy, a common criminal since he was old enough to reach
a
car's pedals, isn't prepared for what he
encounters.
In this dramatic new series,
the
lives, loves and ambitions of four families will
converge,
set against a landscape that can be as unforgiving as it
is
beautiful, where passion, property and pride are worth
fighting—and even dying—for.
Excerpt
Twenty miles away Quinn O’Grady curled into her blanket
on her front porch and watched the night sky, knowing
that Staten was still driving home. He always came to her
like a raging storm and left as calm as dawn.
Only tonight, she’d surprised him with her request.
Tonight when he’d walked away at midnight, it felt
different. Somehow after five years, their relationship
felt newborn.
She grinned, loving that she had made the first move. She
had demanded a kiss, and he hadn’t hesitated. She knew he
came to her house out of need and loneliness, but for her
it had always been more. In her quiet way, she could not
remember a time she hadn’t loved him.
Yet from grade school on, Staten Kirkland had belonged to
her best friend, and Quinn had promised herself she’d
never try to step between them. Even now, seven years
after Amalah’s death, a part of Staten still belonged to
his wife. Maybe not his heart, Quinn decided, but more
his willingness to be open to caring. He was a man
determined never to allow anyone close again. He didn’t
want love in his life; he only wanted to survive having
loved and lost Amalah.
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