I gave this three stars for the sole reason the plot was a bit different than usual and there were a couple of unexpected twists. However, the characters were poorly developed and there were too many to keep things moving smoothly.Things went unexplained or were inconsistent, ie.. why did Cole go to England to study? He was an artist but what relevance did that have to the story? Abby's hair was red and then golden or yellow.There were many times I had to go back to double check something I thought I missed, but discovered it wasn't there in the first place.There was no sex and a couple references to God but it would be a stretch to call it a Christian romance. The good: Interesting, well rounded characters. Some good plot devices.The bad: It gets too far to the wrong side of cheesy in several places mostly pertaining to unbelievable leaps in perspective due to unsupported motivations and somewhat contrived loose ends.One must forgive some level of eye rollingly ridiculous leaps in emotion in a romance book. Though I've read some great ones that had no hint of mawkishness, it is kind par for the genre, so I can't judge too harshly there.The plot has good bones, but I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary loose ends. The maps were given a lot of attention, but ultimately had no significance. Coal's "gut" telling him he's missing something but he never solves anything and there was never a clue he missed. Lilly is being sent to MT for who knows what she was off in the woods with Harris for who knows why and came away with feebly explained contusions and bruises. Oh, and Jenna's a Pinkerton.... I know this is supposed to be a series and you want some set up to sell your next book, but this just turned out feeling like spaghetti thrown at a wall. Let's see what sticks. There's so much spaghetti thrown it detracts from this book which makes me Really not want to read the next book(s).All that said, the character development was very good. Everyone was pretty interesting. Abby's insta-transformation from die hard tomboy to wearing dresses in order to get her way was unbelievable, but otherwise, great characters.
What do You think about El Ranchero (2014)?
Sweet love story, interesting characters, good plot development. I would read more of this series.
—Ted
Just okay. No redeeming qualities
—EmilieLovesMusic
