The Rancher's Homecoming (Return of the Blackwell Brothers, #5)

by Anna J. Stewart

[phyllish]

Finally, Katie gets her story told. After seeing her struggle with keeping the Blackwell ranch afloat in the past four books of the series, we now get to see more of what has been going on. The pressure she has been under to hide her father’s secret and to keep that “other” secret is almost too much.

Chance finally returns, albeit very reluctantly, to Montana with his adorable daughter. He was so fun because despite appearing to be the very typical cowboy, it ends up that he is scared to sit on a horse. A fact that ends up making for a very gallant act on his part.

As a songwriter, Chance has come up empty since his wife died. It was humorous how throughout this story, all those around him kept saying things that he knew would make great lyrics so he would be scribbling them down. That theme of him needing to find his song again was a sweet one.

Rosie captures my heart in the way well-written children will. It was so fun seeing her tough father melt at her requests and dress her in all the pink her little heart desired. Probably the funniest scene in the book was when, at Jon’s ranch for dinner, Rosie talked about naming the cows. As the adults tried to explain to her why that was a bad idea, things went from bad to worse!

The story was well written and the tension relating to the secrets was just right. Add a missing father, an accident in the rain and secrets coming to light at just the wrong time and you have an enjoyable read.

I couldn’t help but notice how the author kept going back and forth about whether Jon and Lydia were married. At one point in the story they were planning the wedding and enlisting help. Then they were married with the twins calling her “mom”, and then the wedding was being planned again. I also felt the resolution of the situation with Big E was anti-climactic after the build-up through the other books.


Read my full review with a Preview at Among the Reads


I was given a copy of this book for free. I was not required to give a favorable review nor was any money received for this review. All comments and opinions are my own.