Published: August 23, 2010
Publisher: 5 Spot
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 376
Source: Publisher
Characters: Shey Darcy, Dane Kelly
My Rating:
Synopsis:
Shey Darcy, a 39-year-old former top model for Vogue and Sports Illustrated led a charmed life in New York City with a handsome photographer husband until the day he announced he'd fallen in love with someone else. Left to pick up the pieces of her once happy world, Shey decides to move back home to Texas with her three teenage sons. Life on the family ranch, however, brings with it a whole new host of dramas starting with differences of opinion with her staunch Southern Baptist mother, her rugged but overprotective brothers, and daily battles with her three sons who are also struggling to find themselves. Add to the mix Shey's ex-crush, Dane Kelly, a national bull-riding champ and she's got her hands full. It doesn't take long before Shey realizes that in order to reinvent herself, she must let go of an uncertain future and a broken past, to find happiness--and maybe love--in the present.
"Shey Lynne, you've been here three months now and not once have you taken those boys to church."
This book was a mix of humor and frustration for me. Shey's interaction with Dane and her mother provide the bulk of the bright spots of the book. Her romance with Dane seemed to get off to a somewhat slow start, but once it did, it progressed at light speed. Shey's relationship with her mom seemed a little strained, but it provided the comedic outlet.
What kept me from really liking Shey more, was how she seemed to let her children treat her. Her two oldest children, Hank and Bo, seemed to talk to her and behave with her any way they pleased. With me being raised by a Southern mother, I seen their behavior as very disrespectful and she did nothing to correct it. When it came to her boys, I have to agree with her brother Brick, in the fact that she was babying them. Shey kept saying how she used to be this strong woman, but I never seen her as such. She came off as more passive than strong.
Overall it's worth the read, but in the end I would have liked to seen what happened with the young girl Shey befriended who was having family issues at home. Or more about how Dane and Brick's friendship was progressing. Or not. I just felt like I was left with a lot of unanswered questions.
