Home on the Range

Choosing what to read can sometimes be a conundrum. Most of the time I read the blurb on the back of the book, but sometimes I just pick it out based on the picture on the cover. This time I picked out the book based on the cover, and while the cover is intriguing, it can be just a bit misleading.

Nick's daughter, Cheyenne, is failing at school and her anger is getting in the way of her school progress, which at her young age, can hang her up in years to come. The principal of Cheyenne's school recommends a psychologist who deals with children and anger issues, but the only kink in the works is that the psychologist isn't currently practicing. Elsa has suffered hurts of her own and in her own healing feels she cannot work.

Ruth Logan Herne writes compelling novels set in an area that I know quite well, and while Gray's Glen is an imaginary town, the area is a place where I've lived. It was so much fun to read about places I know so well.

Home on the Range is such a wonderful description of ranch life, family life, and daily struggles common to many of us. Ruth's second novel in the Double S Ranch series is a great book that dives into some of the hard issues of today's society--absentee parents, anger that comes from misunderstandings and unsolved issues, and guilt over failures that are no one's fault. Add to the mix a bit of precociousness from a six-year-old child, a rude macaw, and a couple of whelping dogs, and you have a recipe for a great novel. Ruth's ability to develop her characters and settings make her books so readable. While I haven't read the first book in this series, this second book stands alone quite well, but I am waiting with 'bated breath to see the final book of the series come out.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a macaw who yells that you're a jerk

My thanks to Waterbrook/Multnomah for allowing me to read and review this book.