Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Reining in the Rancher by Karen Templeton
Contemporary romance released by Silhouette Special Edition 1 Jan 09

One of the things I appreciate about Karen Templeton’s books is that they feature characters who could be real people, with real problems. There’s no flighty, over-the-top conflict. It’s all pretty well-grounded in reality, or as I like to call it, “Hey, This Could Really Happen” conflict. Which infuses the romance with more emotion and has me reading with my heart lodged in my throat. Reining In The Rancher being no exception.

For a time, Thea Benedict and Johnny Griego were having a friends-with-benefits style relationship. Until the day when Thea realized she could no longer keep fooling herself. Yep, even though she told herself she wouldn’t, she found herself slowly giving her heart over to Johnny. Frankly, a foolish thing to do since the man had made it more than apparent that he wasn’t looking for Wife #2. Oh no. When his first marriage ended in divorce, Johnny swore he wouldn’t do something foolish like fall in love again. So they break up. It’s odd. The tension is palpable, but Thea is convinced she did the right thing by ending it. As long as Johnny kept his heart locked away, there was no future between them.

Then Thea discovers she’s pregnant and all bets are off.

Having a history of miscarriages, Thea keeps the pregnancy to herself for a while. However when it appears this baby is going to stick, she drives out to Johnny’s ranch to tell him he’s going to be a daddy. Slight wrinkle in that plan though. His teenage daughter Rachel is also out at the ranch to give Johnny some news. She’s pregnant, and she’s going to marry her 19-year-old boyfriend. A boyfriend Johnny has never been too thrilled about. Uh oh.

What follows is an emotional story of two people who have been badly burned and are hesitant to put their hearts back in the line of fire. Besides her past miscarriages, Thea’s previous marriage was nothing short of a disaster. Johnny is not only gun shy because of a miserable childhood and failed first marriage, but now he’s got a pregnant 17-year-old daughter to contend with. It’s a lot for one man to take, especially considering his ex-wife had grand plans for Rachel going off and exploring the world outside of the backwater New Mexico town she chose to live in with her father.

This is not easy conflict to write about, and I was impressed with how well Templeton handled it all. Certainly unplanned pregnancy, and teen pregnancy are not the stuff of sunshine happy rainbow day dreams. Certainly the odds are stacked against all of the characters in this story, and Templeton doesn’t sugarcoat any of it, but I was swept along and truly believed the happy ending.

However, like all books with mountains of internal conflict, there were moments when I wanted to reach through the pages and shake the stuffing out of the characters – most notably Johnny, who might hold some kind of world record for stubbornness. He’s not cruel or a jerk, but dang, there was more than one moment in this story where I wanted to reach through the pages, smack him upside the head and scream “Snap out of it!”

All that said, this is another emotional read from Templeton featuring authentic characters who have made mistakes, but are trying to move on with their lives. If you’re already a fan, this is another solid read from a go-to contemporary romance writer.  And if you haven’t hopped on the bandwagon yet? Heck, what are you waiting for?

Grade: B

Summary:

Thea Benedict had been about to—honest to God—tell her ex-lover Johnny Griego she was pregnant. Until Johnny’s teenage daughter beat her to it with her big news!

Thea knew Johnny wasn’t a happily-ever-after kind of guy. And now he had his little girl’s impending motherhood to think about. So you could have knocked Thea over when the sexy rancher asked her to be his wife! She should have guessed Johnny was the type to do the right thing by her. Except Thea had some crazy notion about marrying for love…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series: