Friday, March 05, 2010

Lynnette Bonner's Rocky Mountain Oasis ~ Reviewed


ROCKY MOUNTAIN OASIS
By Lynnette Bonner
Published by: Oak Tara
ISBN# 978-1-60290-214-5
300 pages

Back Cover:

Brooke Marie Baker, eighteen, has been sent West as a mail-order bride. As the stage nears Greer’s Ferry, where she is to meet the man she’s pledged to marry, she tries to swallow the lump of nervousness in her throat. Can it be any worse than living with Uncle Jackson...or Hank?

Sky Jordan, holds a single, yellow daisy in his hand as he watches the ferry cross the river. Ever since he’d found out his surly cousin, Jason, had sent for a mail-order bride, his mind and heart had been ill at ease. No woman deserves to be left with the likes of Jason. But now he questions his own plans to claim the bride for himself.

REVIEW:

Brook—mail-order-bride, was sold to Mr. Jordan by Uncle Jackson, so she’s off to Idaho to marry a stranger. Brooke Baker’s life changed forever after her family died in a buggy accident and she was sent to live with her physically and verbal abusive Uncle. Brooke hoped for a better life in Idaho, away from her Uncle and abusive FiancĂ©. But deep down in her heart she knew men were all the same.

Sky Jordan, rancher and a man after God’s own heart, interrupts his cousin Jason’s plans to marry a mail-order-bride. Sky wasn’t certain why he was drawn to a women he didn’t know, but he just knew he couldn’t let an innocent woman marry his drunk, violent tempered cousin. He was bad news.

Lynette pens a tender, heart warming, action adventure story based on real events in Idaho history. Lynette creates believable characters that take the reader through a wide range of emotions. Sky watched Brooke’s reactions to situations and knew she had been mistreated. He was determined to show her unconditional love. Sky says this to Brooke after she flinched because she thinks he’s about to hit her, “I will not hurt you.” His voice was low and tender, “I promise not to touch you until you say it’s okay…You have nothing to fear from me…I will never hit or abuse you in anyway.”

Brooke thought, “the probability of his keeping his word is about as good as finding an oasis in the middle of a desert…Hank her fiancĂ© had started out being nice to her too, and look how that turned out.”

Sky and his family’s faith in God touches the people around them and Brooke in a big way. She hadn’t known any Christians before. Sky helps the sheriff track down the person responsible for murdering his friend; things get tense and suspenseful as Lynnette describes how this town tried to capture the bad guys and how justice was done. This is the first book in the Shepherd’s Heart series. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series you will too.

Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent
ACFW Book Club Coordinator

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