Mary Connealy's Cowboy Christmas ~ Reviewed

Cowboy Christmas
By Mary Connealy
Published by :Barbour
ISBN# 978-0-602-0145-1
304 Pages

Back Cover:

Singer Annette Talbot used her voice to spread the gospel with a traveling missionary troupe. When the Latrells take over and want Annie to dress provocatively and give up singing her beloved hymns, Annie flees to Ranger Bluff, Wyoming, dreaming of reuniting with her father for Christmas. But trouble chases her—right off the edge of a cliff!

Elijah Walker’s heart turned as cold and barren as the high plains in December after his ex-fiancee betrayed him and caused his father’s death. But when he recues Annie out of a freezing river, Walker’s instincts tell him he must help a stranger in need.

Has Annie hidden the truth about wanted posters bearing her fact too long for anyone to believe her now?

Can Elijah, over come the painful past and learn to love again? Will there ever be peace in their hearts in time for Christmas?

Review:

I read the title of this book and plunged in, thinking I might read about a cowboy Christmas. What does that look like? If you are looking for the answer to that question you won’t find it here. What you will find is one wild, action filled adventure story, cowboy style.

Mary Connealy doesn’t hold back in this Christmas tale, get a grip on your seat belt when you start reading this book. On the first page there’s fist fighting, gun slinging and everything breaking loose at the seams. I’ve read some of Mary’s other books and they are a hoot. This one’s no exception.

Mary usually has at least one character in her stories that just gets under your skin, in this book it’s Annette Talbot, her main character. Annette is the smartest dumb person I’ve read about. She’s a strong willed, stubborn young lady that doesn’t know when to give up when the getting’s good! Ha! Ha!

Elijah the other leading character is crazed by Annette and her ways. He’s fed up with her and her stubborn streak. Why won’t she just listen to reason? After all he was the man and knew about things out in the west. Elijah thinks this about Annette, “even if he couldn’t quite pin down Annette’s lies, he knew for a fact she was a full-blown idiot. She’d pretty much only survived this long through direct, miraculous intervention from God. A woman shouldn’t need a miracle a day to stay alive. Not even God had time for that nonsense. A person needed some survival skills and Annette had none.”

Annette did trust God with her life how did she end up in such a mess? Hadn’t she heard and followed his lead?

If you are looking for a cozy, warm and fuzzy Christmas story you won’t find it here. What you will find are every loveable, characters like Ruby Elijah’s mother who loves the Lord with all her heart and her son knows that and so does Annette.

Ruby takes a liking to Annette and tries to do a little match making. She tells Elijah to lighten up in regards to giving Annette a bad time. It’s almost Christmas they have to enjoy the time they have and forgive. They all had a past they needed to get unstuck from, so they can enjoy the future. Don’t miss another wild adventure from Mary, it’s guaranteed a good time, with a good message just in time for Christmas.

Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent
Finding Hope Through Fiction


Bonus Review:


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first while reading the latest of Mary Connealy, a special Christmas book, "Cowboy Christmas", I was not quite as impressed as every other western comedy romance that I have read by such a fabulous author. Yet then I got to read chapters twenty-six and twenty-seven and every reason that I love to read Mary's books came out. I was just about hooting and hollering with chuckles. I even kept reading segments aloud to my dear hubby, who just does not care, yet even he enjoyed them. With this story, overall I love it. But I never really did connect to the main protagonist Miss Annette Talbot. She frustrated me too much. The character in this novel that I really enjoyed and anticipated each next page about was the other protagonist Elijah Walker. It was just everything about him that I loved.

This is a Christmas novel, yet can be enjoyed anytime of year. The plot just tells and anticipates of the special day to come. Once again we have a fabulous cast of characters with the good guys and the bad. This time we have both a woman that needs to understand growing in her faith, and a man who needs to find it again. Trust is a big issue, and moving past pain is another. Serious events are portrayed and of course the wonderful Mary laughs are filled through out bringing a fabulously enjoyable lightness to a page turner.

Reviewed by: Margaret Chind