Starting around Valentine’s Day and leading up to Easter, this touching romantic fiction brings two families together as they cope with changes. A TEXAS EASTER BLESSING awaits, although nobody is sure happiness lies ahead of them at the start.

Ryder Sinclair has a little boy, Shepard, and they have moved back to Ryder’s parents’ place as his mom is now undergoing chemotherapy. His dad still works and manages the ranch – a full-time job. Ryder can gain work on a nearby building site. Life hasn’t been great since the divorce, but Ryder knows he’ll bring up his son in a good fashion.

Young Kendall Hunt, daughter of another ranch family, is a trained chef and has been enjoying a hectic workplace in Austin. But a slimy senior co-worker spoils everything, and when Kendall leaves, he blackens her name on social media. Kendall comes across as someone who was always treated properly and saw the best in others, and is a little underconfident. She doesn’t know how to stand up for herself, and she’s certainly not going to go on a rant online. She goes home to Legacy Ranch to see how her folks are getting on with plans to turn the ranch into a celebration venue.  

Kendall isn’t needed yet, so she offers to help take care of Mrs. Sinclair while Ryder is at work restoring a barn at Legacy Ranch and Shepherd is at preschool. She can pick up the little boy and feed him. She’s doing this for love, not money, but I felt the Sinclairs should at least offer to cover her petrol money. They don’t, but they do invite the lady for meals.

Mrs. Sinclair has previously organised an Easter community event when the church provides a hot breakfast to all comers. As she can’t manage this year, Kendall volunteers. I think this is a lovely part of the story, showing how selfless acts can help us to grow and learn. Kendall and Ryder are together a lot – but busy – and neither one expects to be in Hope Crossing, Texas, permanently. This is a gentle romance, about respecting the strengths of others and developing new personal goals.  

I love the descriptions of Legacy Ranch and Hope Crossing, so A TEXAS EASTER BLESSING by Mindy Obenhaus will please those who have already read her books. As spring comes alive and the days lengthen, the characters fill their time in the outdoors rather than with screens – but modern media features. Kids learn to have fun outside, with an Easter egg hunt, which is how it should be.