Reunions don't always go smoothly. When Blake Cooper's wife who vanished ten years ago with their daughter returns, it's only because the child is sick. Young Lindsey has a kidney ailment; she's in Tulsa needing a transplant.

THE COWBOY'S REUNITED FAMILY finds bitterness to overcome. To begin with the background is unclear because we see Blake's point of view and he doesn't like remembering the past decade. Jana is English and she left the US with their child. Now the reason she's back is because a tissue match with relatives might provide a kidney donor. Blake meets twelve-year-old Lindsey, finding that though she's small and frail, she wants to ride a horse. Blake is reeling from the shocks to his system but he realises that the stress has been hard on Jana too. They just have to get on with talking to the medical staff and trying to find a donor... and hope there are no complications.

Jana met Blake as an exchange student and they married too young. Now she admits to herself that she was living with serious depression on the Cooper ranch. Nothing related to the life she'd known in London and even loving Blake could compensate. She saw leaving as survival. While her husband is handling matters with great maturity she wouldn't blame him if he told her to get out of his life now he's got his daughter. Blake's sister Mia, a DEA agent, doesn't trust Jana one inch, and she's not the only one.

This unusual scenario caught my attention from the start. We see a contrast of cultures and a plea for redemption. Blake is perhaps too calm, quietly resenting having been deprived of his child. Mia is suitably hardheaded, giving young Lindsey an MP3 player with a secret tracking device. I also liked that the fragile girl starts to assert herself, tired of being dragged from pillar to post and growing up without relatives. Now she's got a chance of a stable home, she wants to grab it with both hands. This is an inspirational romance so we see that the churchgoing community tries to be open-minded and warm; in the interim, Jana has learnt to pray for strength.

Brenda Minton is an admirable writer and her characters, animals and settings feel very real. THE COWBOY'S REUNITED FAMILY is well worth a place on your shelf.