This book got my attention from the start. Kate is training to take over a ranch but has to sign a contract that she will not marry but then falls in love. She is a writer but was banned from having her books published. This take place in the 1800's so what she wrote wasn't really bad just by the standards at that time. She has quite a time trying to learn the ranch life and made me laugh at times. This was my first book I read by Margaret Brownley and now plan on reading more of her books. Kate Tenney is a very determined young woman; determined to survive "Ranching 101" so that she can become an heiress to a very successful ranching operation in the Arizona Territory; Last Chance Ranch. Never mind that her love of literature and her previously successful writing career have faded into the sunset, Kate is going to remain single; ignore her aching muscles and her wounded pride every time a horse catapults her onto the ground. There's only one obstacle; a very real, very handsome, very tender-hearted blacksmith named Luke Adams, who has taken a "fancy" to her. Luke Adams has inherited a very profitable blacksmithing business from his uncle and there is nothing that he likes better than fashioning steel, that is until he rescues Kate Tenney from a two-bit want-to-be outlaw, Cactus Joe. She is quite lovely, consistently fascinating and full of "big words", but Luke finds himself entranced; except that Kate seems to ignore the attraction . . . . until a sandstorm rescue changes everything. I read this series backwards and thus I am sorely tempted to start them all over again. All three stories were "cast" with exceptional characters who had just the right amount of "true grit"!
What do You think about Dawn Comes Early (2012)?
Fairly typical Christian historical fiction. Western setting (Arizona), cattle ranch.
—rdsellezar
Just a fun read. Enjoyed the characters and the setting.
—LittleJ16
