She had worn the Celtic Cross the day she rode toward the ranch, her hands bound to the saddle, her horse leading the way, working to save his mistress from not falling off...Everybody had run to help her, quickly seeing the blood-soaked cloth that clung to her leg. One ran to quiet the horse with his special words, as the others took her into the house... Where had she come from? Did anybody recognize her from nearby? The unfortunate part was that, even if she were conscious, awake, she wouldn't now be able to tell them... Earlier she had been conscious and she had remembered a little...After the trauma of the events, she had moved into amnesia...
This is my first time reading Tammy Doherty, but the title and blurb sounded interesting--and I'm certainly happy to have read and enjoyed it. If you are into romantic suspense, with an emphasis on romance, do check this one out!
The suspense starts right at the beginning with a young woman comes riding onto the ranch owned by Matt Donovan... She is near death, having been shot in two places and beaten as well. They call the doctor and quickly learn that there is no choice, she will need to stay there until she recovers or they find out who she is...
Matt, his sister and her fiancee, plus an older man who has essentially become part of the family, live there and do as much as they can to help her get past her initial fear, especially of the men. Without many words, however, readers quickly see that Matt has already formed an attraction, especially when he sees how much she comes to love the ranch the mountains and the horses. We soon see how his kindness and gentleness and gentlemanly ways wins over her fear of him... And, of course, his sister is wonderfully happy to have another woman, a sister, to have there, even for a short time...
As time went by, the woman started to have nightmares and things began to come back to her through the dreams...Her childhood was not a happy one. Her mother, who had given her The Celtic Cross, had died early and her father had taken to drinking, striking out against her because she had grown to look like her mother. Her younger sister looked more like her father's side of the family, so he tended to favor her... Things got so bad that she had run away, dressed like a boy, and had participated in many dangerous activities...
Thinking of her sister soon led to nightmares of what had happened--how she had got here! And no matter what time of the day, Matt was there to calm her and either listen to her tell about her dreams or change the subject to keep her from thinking too deeply
Ty, who took care of the horses, was the first to notice how comfortable she felt around the horses, spending time and talking to them and soon they became friends and spent time talking about her life... He was the one who got her to admit something that she didn't know how Matt would think about it--she was prone to first consider how Matt would react and as she began to care for him more and more, her fear grew as well--that she was a horse whisperer...
But one night she had dreamed of her heritage of the fairies and music was guiding her dreams... And when the music suddenly stopped, she awoke and went hunting for it... she found that Matt had been playing the piano... Was it then that they began to grow closer? For she soon was showing an entirely different side--a mischievous tease who could playfully and quickly turn a conversation with her control of words--that he became enchanted...and those on the ranch was watching their every move...
But this was not to go on...soon her dreams were opening up to the day when she had first come to the ranch...to what happened as she was shot in the leg, in the shoulder, and beaten... She knew now that her sister had been with her that day and she clearly now knew who she was...
Somebody else, though, also remembered that time and still raged that he had not been able to stop both women and get rid of them for killing his friend...
Doherty's attention to small details and her wonderful ability to set a scene and bring readers into what is happening is remarkable and allows us to totally sink into the intimacy of the lives we are watching. A Christian author, I was impressed with how and when she brought God into the storm...i.e., when Matt saw her cross, he hoped that she believed in it enough to help her through the turmoil she was going through.
For Cristeen, she had been away from any type of religion for so long--using her cross to bring her mother's presence to her--that we watch as she begins to hear Matt's own commitment to God and how he came to make that decision. The author has led us through an inspirational experience, just by watching the lives of two people falling in love and sharing about the importance of their faith. Enchanting and almost mystical, especially when we learn that Cristeen speaks Gaelic without ever having learned it and gentles her time with horses by using the language from her heritage.
When it comes to the dramatic danger as the book closes, we all see that it was surely God who controlled exactly what happened--and everybody who had come to love Cristeen were right there to add their support! A beautiful sensitive yet exciting story that I highly recommend!
GABixlerReviews
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A Pure Page-turner
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2015
