Since her parents' death six months ago, Jessie Hart has
been trying to make her dream come true: making the
family dude ranch into an equine rescue facility.
Unfortunately, her project has been steadily losing
money; she owns one-third of the Heart Fire Ranch with
her siblings, and her brother Justin asked his former
college best friend, Nathan Kerrington, to help out
without telling her. What Justin doesn't know is that
Jessie and Nathan had a summer romance before Nathan left
for college.
HEART'S DESIRE is not a quiet, little romance. Jessie's
anger and resentment knows no bound upon seeing Nathan
after eight years, and Ms. Kline conveys Jessie's emotions
so
powerfully that I almost felt as much pain as our
heroine. Jessie learned early in life that she must
appear tough: she's a horse trainer and has worked all
her life alongside men. But she has let her icy façade
creep right into her very soul: she is furious that the
man who broke her heart intends to tell her how to manage
her business and she is not even civil towards Nathan.
Nathan had never quite realised how deeply he had hurt
Jessie, and he bends over backwards trying to placate her
and fix her business, and while doing so he realises that
he had behaved like a coward in the past and sets out to
right several wrongs.
Watching Jessie at work is where Ms. Kline shines at her
brightest: Jessie is a horse whisperer and those scenes
are truly awe-inspiring. The author's obvious knowledge
of this particular gift is astounding; time stops as we
are privy to some of the most vivid and extraordinary
scenes. Ms. Kline is also a master at creating characters
that appear so very real and engaging, if not always
lovable that we really care what happens to them. This is
true of Nathan and Jessie, but the same can be said for
the secondary characters as well; I particularly liked
Bailey, who is somewhat the voice of reason in the middle
of what is a difficult situation, and I hope to see much
more of her in the future.
HEART'S DESIRE is also filled with passion as Nathan and
Jessie rekindle the love that was still smouldering, in
spite of mostly Nathan's reluctance to admit it. I love
that Ms. Kline paints a realistic romance and that
nothing ever looks set in stone.
HEART'S DESIRE is a book that grabs you from the opening
chapter and does not let go until the last page is turned
because of a tightly-knit plot, unexpected turns of
events, terrific writing, and superlative characters.
HEART'S DESIRE is a tremendous debut to the new
Healing Harts series, and I will be waiting with
bated breath for the future instalments in what promises
to be yet another brilliant series by the brilliant T. J.
Kline.
If you could have anything, do anything…what would it be?
Jessie Hart has a soft spot for healing the broken,
especially horses and children, but her business is
failing
and bankruptcy is looming. The one man who can save Heart
Fire Ranch is the last man she wants to take advice
from—financial expert Nathan Kerrington, the same man who
broke her heart eight years ago.
Nathan Kerrington has it all, except the one thing he
wanted
most—Jessie. Now that he’s finally freed himself from his
corrupt family, he wants to make amends. When he’s called
in
to save Jessie’s ranch, he sees his chance to win her
back—if only he can prove to her that she can trust him
with
her heart …
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