A Ranch Called Home-Candy Halliday

A Ranch Called Home
Candy Halliday
Harlequin SuperRomance, Jul 14 2009, $6.25
ISBN: 9780373783205

When Bill Coulter died at the World Champion Rodeo Finals in Vegas, his brother Gabe hired an investigator to locate his five years old nephew Ben. Gabe obsesses over bringing the child to his Colorado family ranch to raise the boy though he also has doubts whether the lad he never met is his blood.

In Conrad, Texas Ben’s mom Sara Watson is a lioness protecting her cub from the Coulter clan; she is always ready to run away with her son and start anew though that means poverty; she does not trust anyone who shares Bill’s DNA. She tells Gabe who looks just like Ben what he can do with his $50,000 as his nephew will remains with her though not in the lap of luxury. Gabe reassesses his pre-meeting perception of what Sarah would be like and likes what he has found out about her. He offers her a deal to come live on the ranch as his wife in a marriage of convenience so they both can be there to raise Ben, but also there will be no conjugal relationship between them. However, neither expected the inferno attraction between them as Gabe wants their marriage to be totally real, Sarah does too but assumes he wed her to bring Ben “home”.

This is an intriguing ranch romance due to the lead characters desire to protect Ben although the marriage of convenience seems unnecessary and somewhat contrived. The story line grips the audience when Gabe meets Sara waitressing in Conrad where the locals are as protective of her as she is of Ben. With real people in Texas and especially Colorado, fans will enjoy this “Cowboy Country” contemporary.

Harriet Klausner