Family, community, hard work. It’s what always draws the folks of Morgantown back to the ranch—along with the promise of so much more . . . Widowed for ten years, now running the family ranch, Adam Miller is no longer the fun-loving guy who married his high school sweetheart the moment they graduated. His bitterness in the aftermath of her death even alienated his closest link to her—Lizzie … link to her—Lizzie Taylor, her best friend. But when Adam comes across Lizzie in a dire situation, he’s compelled to help—and finds himself with an unusual opportunity to make amends . . .
A struggling single mom, Lizzie’s extremely wealthy ex ran out on her when she got pregnant. But now he and his family have decided to fight for custody of her young son. When Adam shocks her by offering to pose as her partner, awkward as it may feel, it’s Lizzie’s best chance to hold onto her child. And as they strive to present a united front, their old friendship rekindles, sparking an unexpected attraction—along with past hurts and secrets. Soon they realize they’ll have to find a way to forgive if they want to move forward—especially with
each other . . .
Praise for Kate Pearce’s The Rancher
“Pearce’s fans and contemporary romance readers will want to pick this one up and read it to the end.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Fans of Pearce’s Morgan Ranch series and all who enjoy contemporary western romances will relish the love story.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)
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I have received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and I am voluntarily reviewing it.
This is a great addition to the Miller family series. I adored both protagonists, Adam Miller and Lizzy Taylor. Adam has a full plate that he is trying to cope with at the moment. His mother, Leanne is coming for a visit after a several decades absence. He is also still trying to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, Louisa (even though she died 14 years ago at the age of 21) to cancer. He has struggled with his grief and turned his back on everything except for his family and the family ranch. Adam has put the deceased young woman on a pedestal and some thing will come to light that will blow the pedestal to smithereens! His cup has runneth over his breaking point.
Lizzy Taylor has been best friends with both Louisa and Adam. She had a slight crush on him in school, at least, until he saw Louisa and fell in love with her. Now 14 years later, Adam has to come to Lizzy’s aid with her young son who was stung by a bee and has to be rushed to the medical center. It is the first time in 14 years that these two former best friends have anything to do with each other.
Adam and Lizzy have a long rough road to follow to get to their HFN. This one was difficult to read at times because of the depth of grief that Adam has to overcome. There really is no time period to overcome the 5 stages of grief.
I loved reading this in it’s dual POV format. I was really able to understand Adam so much better when getting that glimpse into his thoughts in a given situation. He was something of a jerk at times with Lizzy but reading his thoughts really revealing a side of him that still had a gaping hole that hasn’t healed yet.
While this is the second book of the series, you don’t have to read the first book to fully enjoy this one. I would though highly recommend it (to someone over the age of 18 though.)
This is a slightly sexy read so I would not be able to recommend this to anyone under the age of 18.
Young love lost but then found in a different way.
Great book!
The Rancher’s Redemption is Kate Pearce’s 2nd book of The Millers Of Morgan Valley series. It is a wonderful, heartwarming story about Adam Miller, a widowed for 10 years, finding a second chance in love—that is if he could let go of the haunted memories of his first wife. His bitterness in the aftermath of her death has alienated his closest link to her—Lizzie Taylor, her best friend. When Adam comes across Lizzie in a dire situation, he’s compelled to help—a chance to make amends. Lizzie, a struggling single mom, confronts her past when wealthy ex-husband’s family decides to fight for custody. Adams shocks her by offering to pose as her partner, awkward as it may feel, but it is her chance to hold onto her child. Their old friendship rekindles, sparking an unexpected attraction—along with past hurts and secrets. Kate Pearce is a gifted writer of contemporary western romances. The Rancher’s Redemption is about heartbreaking losses, families, forgiveness, and love.
Also included is a bonus story, THE UNEXPECTED GIFT, also written by Kate Pearce. This story is about Billy Morgan of the Morgan Ranch series. Once a suspect in his wife’s disappearance, he unexpectedly finds love after coming to the aid of an old friend, Bella Williams, the mother of Jay Williams, the owner of Red Dragon Bar. Billy butts in when he sees Bella being confronted by a disgruntled employee. From there, their friendship blooms, especially when Bella wants to hold a surprise wedding reception for her son and his new wife at the Morgan Ranch. It is a sweet, tender story about an older couple surprising everyone that no one is too old to fall in love.
The second book in The Millers of Morgan Valley series a well written story with a very good storyline the story flowed smoothly from page to page. This is widower, and rancher Adam Miller and single mom Lizzie Taylor and her son’s story. There is suspense, drama, an evil ex and his family, letting go of the past, and a second chance at romance. I received an ARC of this book and I am voluntarily reviewing.
As the second book in the series we continue to learn more of the families from Morgantown. Lizzie is a single mom trying to raise her son the best that she can without the help of his sperm donor or his family. Adam Miller hasn’t allowed himself to live since his wife died about 10 years prior. Together, they find what they’ve each been missing in life.
A quick read, that honestly felt more of a novella than a novel. Not my favorite Kate Pearce novel, but still enjoyable.
Adam and Lizzie are both struggling with pain and lots….can they help each other heal?
A very enjoyable book with engaging characters and an interesting storyline.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor.
As best friends, Adam and Lizzie’s story was a heartwarming emotional read. These two find themselves falling in love, but unresolved issues get in the way. Adam still carries the baggage of his wife’s death, and now the return of a mother that left the family. Both of those events were years ago, but Adam has never moved on. Lizzie has always been there for him, but his issues are causing more heartbreak than she can handle. She has problems of her own that she must deal with. As others in Morgan Valley stand by them both, some truths are revealed to Adam as he finally comes to terms with his past. Lucky for him Lizzie is still there for him as they finally get their own HEA.**I was gifted “The Rancher’s Redemption” by NetGalley and leave my review voluntarily based on my reading** 4.5 Stars!
Another enticing book by Kate Pearce – Adam’s story has been a long time coming and what a story it is!
Lizzie Taylor was Adams friend from childhood along with Adam’s departed wife. 14 years have passed and they both struggle to heal.
This story will give you the feels all the way around it’s a definite must read.
In this book, another Miller finds his love. Adam’s life is changing and he doesn’t like it one bit. All of a sudden he feels again and so many things from the past are revealed in completely another light. Lizzie his childhood best friend and single mother comes back again in his life and wakes up his body, and heart. Will he be strong enough to accept the changes or will he stay alone and miserable? Both Adam and Lizzie hat a lot going on and the things from the past are still haunting them. They help eachother heal, support eachother and they try to communicate better than in the past. I just wished there was an epilogue from their HEA but I think that we will see them when another Miller finds love.
I liked that the story had a bonus Novela and that we see that another person from Morgan ranch finds love. Lovely enjoyable short story, so happy for those two.
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book for NetGalley
Heartwarming, sexy, fun and engaging small town romance filled with intriguing charters, witty dialog, heart racing twists and undeniable passion…. was a great read from beginning to end. Really enjoyed this journey!
Lots of angst and drama in this one! I found the beginning of this story a little difficult to get into as the introduction of characters did not come across smoothly. Things evened out as the story evolved. I had a difficult time liking Adam. To me, he was too stuck in the past. And for Lizzie to wait 14 years for Adam to notice her again was too unrealistic to me. Even though I liked Lizzie, I felt she was a bit of a doormat since, despite Adam’s jerk moments, she took him back without too much fanfare. Only and OK read for me.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. This is my unbiased review.
A well written perfectly paced story pulling you in from the start. This is about Lizzie and her struggles of being a single parent and how she had to go about doing it. Then steps in Adam who struggles with moving on after the death of his wife. A great series to pick up and are standalone reads.
The Rancher’s Redemption is the second book in Kate Pearce’s Millers of Morgan Valley series, but it’s the first novel in the series that I’ve read, and it worked just fine for me as a standalone. I enjoyed Ms. Pearce’s earlier Morgan Ranch series, but as a first read in this series, I think this one is even better, and it gets 4.5 stars from this reader.
The Miller family, comprised of five sons and one daughter, were devastated when their father divorced their mother, especially the eldest son, Adam, who was 12 years old at the time, and who is the leading character in this novel. As is usually the case, the younger siblings don’t remember their mother as well as Adam does. He’s always sided with his father, despite his father’s self-absorption and inability to ever admit to being wrong about anything, even before he kicked their mother, Leanne, out of his life and his house. She left without a backward glance and her children never heard from her again. But that’s not the only issue in this complex family, nor is it the only trauma in Adam’s life. If you like angst with your romance novels, there’s more than enough of it in this novel.
During high school, Adam’s was best friends with Lizzie, who secretly crushed on him, but when he set eyes Lizzie’s other best friend, Louisa, it was love at first sight for both of them, and the two got married right out of high school, and hoped to live happily ever after. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Louisa was diagnosed with cancer, refused experimental treatments, and died 3 years later–leaving Adam crushed, defeated, and unable to come to terms with those emotions, instead closing himself off from family and friends. Shortly after Louisa’s funeral, Lizzie went to visit her friend’s grave, and found Adam there. In his grief and despair at losing the love of his life, he was holding a gun, and planning to kill himself and join his Louisa in death. Instead, Lizzie got him to drop the gun, held him as he sobbed out his grief, and later that day, she consoled him with her body, having sex with him. It’s something Adam can’t forget and it’s also something he can’t forgive himself or Lizzie for, and for the next 14 years, he wrote Lizzie out of his life, hasn’t spoken to her since, and has actively avoided her, but that’s about to change, because one day, Lizzie’s 4-year-old son, Roman, gets bitten by a bee while in day care, and collapses, and when Adam sees Lizzie struggling to carry her son to the doctor’s office, he offers her a lift, and the 14-year silence between them is finally broken, and thus begins the rekindling of their friendship, which is filled with the same angst, wrong impressions, guilt, and recriminations that ended their friendship 14 years earlier.
Lizzie eventually put aside her feelings for Adam and moved on with her life. Four years earlier, Lizzie had a one-night stand with Ray, who is now a minor celebrity, and her birth control failed. When Lizzie told Ray she was pregnant with his child, he headed for the hills, and ever since Roman was born, she’s worked two jobs to keep a roof over their heads. Ray left town, never bothered to meet his son, and she’s never received one penny of child support from him. Ray’s family believed what he’d told them, that Lizzie was a gold digger and tried to trap him by getting pregnant–all lies of course, but Ray’s family has ignored Lizzie and Roman too, never even met the charming little boy, and Ray has steered clear of Lizzie ever since, but that too is about to change. Especially when Ray’s demented great-great-aunt starts spying on Lizzie, photographing her and her son while he’s at day care, and she has decided that Lizzie is a terrible mother, hires a private investigator, and sets Child Protective Services after her.
This is a novel with great depth, it’s filled with well-drawn, fully-fleshed out characters whose interactions are complex, heartbreaking, and most of all, it’s a story about forgiveness–for past and present wrongs, past impressions, past misconceptions, past behavior and living in the past while forgetting there’s a future. It’s filled with regrets, grief, loss, and coming to terms with all of them, and not just the main characters, but the entire cast of characters, and finally, as the title states, redemption. It was one excellent, deeply moving and well-written novel. My only issue was the abrupt ending. At 75% of the contents, this novel comes to a somewhat unresolved end. Instead there’s a short novel teaser about an upcoming book by this author, and I’d have much preferred that the author ended The Rancher’s Redemption with an epilogue, which would have made this a 5-star read. It’s still an excellent read and Ms. Pearce is an excellent writer.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
I was a little conflicted on this one. I love the Miller’s of Morgan Valley series but I didn’t feel as invested in this one as I normally do.
I found Adam to be unreachable and Lizzie to be a bit of a doormat.
There was definitely some real emotion and some twists and turns. So, it kept me interested. I just had a little trouble getting thru it. I have absolutely loved everything else of Kate Pearce’s that I’ve read so far and will continue to read her books.
I gave this one 4 stars.
The Rancher’s Redemption is Book 2 of Kate Pearce’s The Millers of Morgan Valley series. Even though this is the second book in this series and many of the Morgan Ranch characters appear throughout, this story stands perfectly fine on its own.
After meeting Adam in the last book, I was eagerly waiting for his turn and Ms. Pearce did not disappoint. There was angst, drama, conflict and a few tears but this story captivated me right from the start and I look forward to what she has in store for us next!
Awesome modern western style romance. Adam lost his wife years ago and sunk into a dark world of not letting anyone in so her have to feel again. Lizzie was best friends with Adam’s wife as well as him. Unfortunately, Adam shut her out for about 14 years. I enjoy his Ms. Pearce slowly gives background information on the characters so that you need to keep reading to understand they’re pasts and present. Excellent characters and storyline. I received a complementary copy of this book via Net Galley and chose to write a review. I look forward to reading future books by Ms. Pearce.
WOW! This was a very emotional story that will leave you drained. It does work as a standalone but it doesn’t hurt to read the first book. Loved the characters and am really enjoying getting to know the Millers. Wonderful series.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher and voluntarily chose to review it.
The great character and storyline development kept me totally engaged throughout the entire book! I was totally invested in this story as I turned each and every page until the very end!