Country Strong

For anyone who follows my book reviews, you already know that I tend to start at or near the end of a series, so I was eager to get in at the beginning of a new series, Painted Pony Creek, by a talented author I’ve been reading for years, Linda Lael Miller, and I wish I could say I was absolutely thrilled with this novel, but since it took me what seemed like forever to get through this book, the best I can do is give it 2.5 stars. It was sort of okay but left a lot to be desired, in my opinion.

I liked the plot and the series summary, 3 male friends each of whom might just be the father of a teenage girl, who shows up in Painted Pony Creek, Montana one nigh, tin the middle of a rainstorm, breaking in on their poker game. She looks strikingly like Reba, a popular girl who showed up in town during their senior year in high school, and who, unbeknownst to them, had sex with all 3 of the men, Cord Hollister, Eli Garrett, and J.P. McCall, and then a short time later, Reba was suddenly gone. Eventually, the bedraggled young girl gives the men her real name, Charlotte (Carly). She tells them that her mother, Reba, is now deceased, and Carly wants answers. Although Reba wasn’t in town very long, she found a best friend in shy, quiet, unobtrusive Shallie, who grew up with these 3 men, and who was aware of what Reba was doing that long ago summer, but never told them that Reba was playing them, nor did she ever know why

Shallie’s aunt and uncle owned a motel in Painted Pony Creek, and her mother left her alone in a room there when Shallie was just 2 years old. She was never told the reason why, and never heard another word from the mother who abandoned her. Her aunt and uncle were heavy drinkers, were not good stand-ins for a loving mother, and they are now deceased, leaving the motel to their son, Russ, also a heavy drinker.

Fast forward 18 years and Shallie, a divorcee, now lives and works in Seattle. In addition to her job, she is now also involved with an equine therapy program run by a friend, and when she learns that Cord Hollister has earned quite a reputation training and rehabilitating abused horses as therapy animals, she decides to return to Painted Pony Creek and take the classes in horse training he offers. She hardly surprised when Cord doesn’t recognize her, but she sure remembers him. Cord Hollister was also abandoned by his mother, who left her abusive husband, leaving Cord to be raised by him, and to wonder whether or not his abusive dad in fact killed her. Cord also divorced his cheating wife 3 years earlier, and hasn’t dated since, but although he doesn’t recognize Shallie at first, he is certainly attracted to her, but from the outset, these two main characters are tentative at best, and although they eventually start a relationship, there wasn’t really enough character development for this reader, and so their slow-moving romance felt forced, flat and utterly without any chemistry between them.

Ms. Miller gives you a lot of backstory early on in this novel, and then adds so many other characters, everyone from Cord’s two best friends, to the gal who runs the local diner, to the man and his wife who’ve worked at Hollister Ranch for years, the town librarian, Shallie’s best friend in Seattle, Emma, Eli’s ne’er-do-well son, Eric, the guys who are in the local band, The GateCrashers, to the many volunteers Carly enlists to help care for the pets of the elderly and ailing in town, and on, and on and on, to the point where you feel you need a scorecard to keep them all straight.

The only character in this novel who was fully developed was Carly, who desperately wants to find out which of these three men is her biological father. Although Cord takes her in, Shallie is already occupying his guest suite as a paying client, and so Carly moves in with Tina and Mitch, Cord’s elderly cook and her ranch hand husband, who live in a double-wide trailer on the ranch. When Tina is doing Carly’s laundry she finds thousands of dollars in Carly’s knapsack, but doesn’t pry further, she just mentions it to Cord, who also never asks her about it. It turns out that Carly has been writing a popular blog on-line, about her search for her 3 possible dads, something else she’s hiding. She responds well to the care she’s shown by all concerned, but why on earth Ms. Miller dragged out getting the simple DNA tests to prove who actually fathered Carly for more than 90% of this novel both frustrated and mystified this reader.

While all the mysteries in this novel are solved and there is the expected HEA ending, everyone and everything in this novel lacked depth and emotion. Rather than coming to like, dislike, sympathize with or care about any of the characters in this plodding novel, they all just seemed two-dimensional and lackluster to this reader. I know from having read her novels for years that Ms. Miller is a far better writer than she exhibited in this novel, and I hope the sequels, J.P. and Eli’s stories will be more interesting, less crowded with extraneous characters, and more emotionally moving than this novel.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

I was excited to get this book as I’ve always enjoyed books by this author in the past. Unfortunately, this one was difficult to read. I hate to write negative reviews, and find it difficult to critique a writer, as I am not one. However, as I promised to give an honest review in exchange for the eARC … I found the dialogue between the characters to be poorly written, as if written by an amatuer. The writing was choppy and made it difficult to connect with the characters – most specifically Cord and Shallie. The whole relationship felt forced – whether it was the writing or poor character development. This was not a novella but was written as if it was one as quickly as the relationship between the two developed.

I finished the book because I did want to know how Carly’s story ended. If not for that, I probably would not have continued past the first couple of chapters.

Thank you #netgalley and #HARLEQUIN – Romance (U.S. & Canada) for the eARC.

Very enjoyable reading!

Linda Lael Miller always delivers.

I love Linda’s books. But this one didn’t have a good story line. I struggled to finish.

I love Linda Lael Miller books!!! This was a great read.

Miller is one of authors. I’ve been took on her books for many years now. I’m really enjoying this new series and plan to buy the next two books. I think everyone will enjoy these books

While I enjoyed this book & it’s been awhile since I’ve read her last series Big Sky, the writing seemed a little different, not as good as in past books. I did like all the characters, the friendships & sense of community and am looking forward to J.P. & Eli’s books. I also always love to read about animals & like that she has rescue pets being saved in the book. I don’t know that If I were Cord or Shallie that I could of forgiven my Mother so quickly for abandoning me but it’s nice they were reunited with their Mom’s. I’m thinking maybe Russ & Susan might get a story as well, Russ deserves some happiness too!!

This is the first book in a new trilogy by LLM about 3 friends who grew up together in the small Montana town of Painted Pony Creek. When they were at the end of their senior year in high school, Rancher Cord Hollister, sheriff Eli Garrett and veteran J. P. McCall allowed a woman, Reba come between them, when she played them all, but she left town and eventually they managed to rescue their friendship. Years have passed, but it turns out that Reba wasn’t finished with them.

Cord wakes up one morning with feelings of foreboding. Two people are headed to Painted Pony Creek, who are about to turn his world upside down. The guys weekly poker game is interrupted by a young version of Reba, who announces that one of them is her father. The next day, Shallie Fletcher, once their tomboy companion, also returns to town. She has come on 3 missions: ostensibly, to learn from Cord how to rehabilitate abused horses, but also to look for her mother, who had abandoned her at 2 years old, leaving her with her half sister, her husband and their twins and finally to see if Cord is still the man that she had crushed on growing up and if a relationship with him is possible. She and Cord have much in common besides their love of animals, they were both abandoned by their mothers and had been hurt in their previous marriages. With the help of a PI, they all find the answers that they were seeking and Shallie also manages to reconnect with her cousin, Russ, and help draw him out of the solitary life that he had been living.

This is a beautifully written tale about abandonment and recovery with the help of good people. There is no villain in the story, just flawed people, who thought they were doing the best that they could for the ones they loved, even if it did not turn out the way they thought. The only negative was that for some reason, and I’m not really sure what that is, this seemed to be a slower read than usual.

Note up to hear usual “standard of entertainment”