PETTICOAT RANCH

Day 1 Sunday

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...sorry, that's about someone else. Yet you get the same kind of feel though with PETTICOAT RANCH. Is it a Western? Is it a Romance? Is it a Suspense? Is it a Comedy? With the most unique talent at combining genres and depicting her characters Mary Connealy leaves you wondering just what genre to place this book in. It neatly falls into any one of them. This is something I found truly awesome, especially since I'm not a big romance fan. Yet with the infusion of these other aspects she was able to get me to not only read, but truly enjoy this story, romance and all.

Let's take these one at a time. Western. This is a true old western story, told in the fashion that us “Baby Boomers” relished on TV when we were growing up. There's the harsh, unrelenting nature one had to deal with in the old west. No paved roads. No automobiles. No convenient stores. No modern appliances to make the daily chores easy. Yet there were those great qualities of human nature that overcame these obstacles. This is what we enjoyed watching our favorite westerns on TV as kids. And it is this that she brings back to life again in her novel.

Now in a western you have someone who wears the black hat and someone who wears a white hat. The bad guy verses the good guy. Mary makes it a little more complex, and enjoyable, than that. Sophie Edwards witnessed the brutal execution of her husband and has taken her 4 small girls into hiding. The men who killed her husband did so under the false premise of carrying out justice. She knows better, but has little time to seek revenge. In comes Clay McClellan, a man she at first fears, but later on spends much of the time arguing with. Clay has been hunting down these murderers on his own, well, as a deputized Texas Ranger. He's not used to family life, especially women. With little but raw courage and several firearms they take on the villains. How that comes about you'll have to read for yourself.

The story takes place in the panhandle of Texas, a wild and unforgiving place. The villains are just as unforgiving. Yet they serve a just God. One of the interesting this about this story is the ability to show that God has a sense of humor as well as one of compassion and justice. I truly urge everyone to go out and get this novel. Read it and enjoy it. You won't regret it.

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Don't miss her site at Real Life Petticoat Ranch