Happy Friday! This Friday I am starting your weekend off with an awesome book, Dances of the Heart by Andrea Downing. This is a modern-day cowboy romance. When City meets Country can they find a middle and allow love to bloom. It’s a great romance that will get your heart fluttering just in time for the weekend. For my full review keep reading after the book blurb. Have a great weekend and happy reading!
Book Blurb:
Successful, workaholic author Carrie Bennett lives through her writing, but can’t succeed at writing a man into her life. Furthermore, her equally successful but cynical daughter, Paige, proves inconsolable after the death of her fiancé.
Hard-drinking rancher Ray Ryder can find humor in just about anything—except the loss of his oldest son. His younger son, Jake, recently returned from Iraq, now keeps a secret that could shatter his deceased brother’s good name.
On one sultry night in Texas, relationships blossom when the four meet, starting a series of events that move from the dancehalls of Hill Country to the beach parties of East Hampton, and from the penthouses of New York to the backstreets of a Mexican border town. But the hurts of the past are hard to leave behind, especially when old adversaries threaten the fragile ties that bind family to family…and lover to lover.
Review:
Carrie and her daughter are travelling to a ranch to research her mother’s upcoming book. On their drive they come across a recently returned soldier in the rain walking along the highway. Carrie convinces her daughter to pull over and pick up this lonely rain-soaked soldier. What they don’t realize it this one action will change their lives and their hearts forever. Carrie soon meets the soldier, Jake’s, dad and sparks soon fly even if it is reluctant. But, it isn’t only Carrie and Jake’s dad that have sparks. Jake and Carrie’s daughter, Paige, find themselves in a reluctant love affair even if love isn’t on the menu. But, with four very different people with four very different lives can they find a way to open their hearts to love or will they lose their last chance at love.
From page one I feel into this book. I couldn’t put it down until I was at the end. Even then I wanted more. I adored Carrie and Ray’s love affair. It was wonderful to see a novel that shows love can develop at any age and can and will find a way when a heart is open. I did have hopes with Paige and Jake. I think this was the only part I was a bit disappointed with. There was no clarity as to what would happen to them. Throughout the book the two couples had paralleled stories, but when it came to the end we don’t really know what or if anything happens with Paige and Jake. I hope this means there will be a follow-up story. It really seemed like there was more to their story whether they ended up together or not. Overall, this was another great book by Andrea Downing. I truly can’t wait for another.