Title: | Montana Dreams | |
Author: | Jillian Hart | |
Publisher: | Harlequin | |
Imprint: | Harlequin Love Inspired | |
Genre | Contemporary romance |
This is a delightful contemporary romance. It’s a story I’ve read before—estranged couple meet again after 10 years or so and are brought back together again by a child that the father didn’t know was his—but well enough executed that that didn’t detract.
What brings Millie Wilson home is her dying father. She’s come to care for him. He’s a right bastard, but she cares for him without complaint, and works hard to try to bring the farm and the decrepit house back to some semblance of functioning order.
Hunter McKaslin is the sexy fellow with his heart securely locked away, but he can’t hide the fact that he cares enough about Millie to come to her aid on the crumbling farm when the workers leave because their pay-checks bounced, again.
Both Millie and Hunter spend a lot of the book telling themselves how they can’t let themselves fall for the other. They constantly—a little bit of overkill here—remind themselves that loving means getting hurt, because each blame the other for breaking their heart when Millie left, unknown to Hunter, pregnant with his child. So they hide their true feelings beneath stony exteriors, but their real feelings just can’t be kept down and eventually . . . well, it’s a romance, you can work the rest out for yourself.
It’s also Christian fiction which, in this case, means that the couple are surrounded and supported by, in the words of the blurb, ‘the powerful bonds of faith, family…and forever love.’ In this respect, it reminds me of The Reunion by Dan Walsh, and has the same kind of wonderful role model for community, as I said about that book, it shows the best kind of Christian. If all communities had that kind of kindness at their base, it would be a wonderful world and I love to see this kind of role model in fiction.
All in all, it’s the kind of book that leaves you feeling warm-hearted. It’s a totally traditional romance, but there’s no sex, just a chaste kiss. If you’re feeling like a romance, this is a good one. 4 stars.