Christine Lynxwiler's Along Came a Cowboy ~ Reviewed

ALONG CAME A COWBOY

By Christine Lynxwiler

Published by: Barbour Publisher

303 pages

ISBN# 978-1-59789-896-6

Back Cover:

From the outside looking in, local Chiropractor Dr. Rachel Donovan seems to have it together. She’s returned to her hometown of Shady Grove and runs a thriving Chiropractic practice. She’s been nominated as Shady Grove’s Citizen of the Year, and appointed to the committee planning the town’s major centennial celebration and rodeo. Unfortunately, on the inside everything is not as it appears.

The committee duties come with baggage – cute, cowboy baggage to be precise. Jack Westwood is the epitome of the stereotypical cowboy; rugged, handsome and bull-headed. While he makes everyone else swoon, Rachel is determined to not get involved any more than necessary. She knows his type – T- R-O-U-B-L-E.

Unfortunately, the fallout from a mistake that Rachel made fifteen years ago still echoes today threatening to ruin her sterling reputation and bring the whole façade tumbling around her. She thought she had buried it deep in her past, but while she’d moved on she never really moved past that summer. Even though she knows that God has forgiven her, she’s having a harder time forgiving herself.

Review:

Dr. Rachel Donovan has worked real hard to build a name for herself in Shady Grove’s a town where she grew up. The people of this town voted her Citizen of the Year because she loves them and they know it. She wants to make people proud of her but how can she do that when the past is not far behind. Always overshadowing her achievements. She was the responsible child growing up, always easy going and someone you could rely on until that one summer when her world was turned upside down. One bad choice, that’s all it took to be out cast and all alone. She thought she would never recover from that one decision.

Rachel cries out to God one night when she can’t juggle the past and the present any longer. She asks God to listen to her just like the other times over the years. Her pain was great! ” How many times I’ve asked You to take this whole thing away. What am I doing wrong?” She searches her heart; it’s willing but what was it? Realization hits her hard; she had to forgive herself. Sometimes that’s the hardest person to forgive. She had to Stop punishing herself for what happened but how?

One of Rachel’s close friends says to her one day …”Your past made you the amazing woman you are today. But you still need to embrace the future, free of shame and guilt.” Rachel wasn’t fooling anyone but herself. She asked the Lord again for help she couldn’t do this on her own.

Jack Westwood cowboy rodeo star the one person she has been avoiding since he has come to town. She wasn’t going to get tangled up with another cowboy; it wasn’t so great the last time. Rachel was determined to not let anyone close to her again but Jack Westwood is turning up every where she goes. She knows his kind but the more she runs into him she is finding out he is not like the cowboys she knows. He’s real and he’s not playing. “Sometimes the most amazing things are right in front of us, but we never see them.” Rachel’s heart starts to feel again but her head and pride say “ No.” Can Rachel allow God to mend her broken heart? Will she continue to punish herself and be left alone and miss the opportunity to love and be loved?

Will Rachel stop hiding and embrace the love many want to give her. Can she embrace the redeeming love that will change her from the inside out. God wants all of her past and present.

This was definitely a feel good book. I totally enjoyed Rachel and her friends lives. This is a story of healing, love and restoration. Treat yourself to a good time cowboy style!

Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent