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| ISBN13: 9780764211416 Bethany House |
After helping her grandfather at their Boston auction house, Miranda Wimplegate discovers she's accidentally sold a powerful family's prized portrait to an anonymous bidder. Desperate to appease the people who could ruin them forever, they track it to the Missouri Ozarks and make an outlandish offer to buy the local auction house and all its holdings before the painting can move again.
Upon crossing the country, however, Miranda and her grandfather discover their new auction house doesn't deal in fine antiques, but in livestock. And its frustratingly handsome manager, Wyatt Ballentine, is annoyed to discover his fussy new bosses don't know a thing about the business he's single-handedly kept afloat. Faced with more heads of cattle than they can count---but no mysterious painting---Miranda and Wyatt form an unlikely but charged partnership to try and prevent a bad situation from getting worse.
My thoughts: Author Regina Jennings brings good clean stories to life with her quirky, sweet, irksome characters. You’ll find as I always do when reading a Jennings book that you get a lighthearted feeling because there is fun, joviality, and downright silliness sometimes in the characters as she develops the story around them.
When Miranda meets Wyatt, it is under hilariously disturbing circumstances. She and her grandfather have just traveled by train from the cultured city of Boston to the rough and tough Ozarks. Expecting to be met by some transportation to take them to their final destination which they assume is a cultured auction house situated in a cultured city or town, they find themselves met by a suave young man seated upon a rough wagon. Right after his arrival, another “gentleman” arrives on the scene and snatches the wagon right out from under the first and departs. This leaves Miranda and her grandfather to fend for themselves.
As the story progresses, Miranda and grandfather find the fancy auction house is actually a stinking animal barn where cows, sheep, goats, and chickens are auctioned. Not some fancy place which they were expecting their newly purchased auction house to be.
As the story progresses, the funny turns sad and more realistic. Miranda’s grandfather is behaving weirdly and totally out of character. Actually, he is spiraling downward into dementia.
Wyatt shows a tender and caring side as he grows fond of Miranda and her grandfather. He is kindness embodied in a strong manly form.
I found this a fun and interesting story touching on a bit of Americana from the turn of the century. Spoiler alert: No, grandfather doesn’t get any better. This is a bittersweet tale that embraces the need for caring people to watch over those cascading down the dark halls of dementia.
I recommend this for light reading with a touch of serious matter.
GIVEAWAY
Begins December 15
ENDS December 30 @ 12:00 a.m. ET.
DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Litfuse Publicity Group on behalf of Bethany House a division of Baker Publishing Group and the author to facilitate this review.Opinions expressed are solely my own. I was not compensated for this review.
ENDS December 30 @ 12:00 a.m. ET.
Last Christmas because it was my grand-girls first!! Seeing the wonder in her eyes was so precious :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance to win "At Love's Bidding" :-)
When I was a kid we travelled by train from California to Alabama. My step grandmother picked just me from all the kids (The 5 of us and all the cousins) and took me to town with her to go Christmas shopping. I can't remember if it started snowing but I remember hearing Silver Bells on the radio for the first time and being thrilled that she picked me.
ReplyDeleteI remember the first Christmas with the man who was to become my husband. He proposed!
ReplyDeleteDianna
My special moment of christmas is that my son was born 2 days before christmas. When we came home we put him under the christmas tree for pictures.
ReplyDeletemarypopmom (at) yahoo (dot) com
Merry
What a hilarious plot! I know I'd enjoy this one! Thanks for sharing this at Booknificent Thursday this week! I hope you have a lovely Christmas Eve followed by the merriest of Christmases!
ReplyDeleteTina
Oh one that I remember so much was when I was 15, and went to spend Christmas with my grandmother in Florida. Was my first plane ride...and oh I had so much fun! Miss her dearly!
ReplyDeleteSpend time with family and friends.
ReplyDeleteI remember spending time with my mom and dad and my 4 siblings, 3 of them have now passed, so they are good memories.
ReplyDeleteSpending time in Nashville this year with my husband.
ReplyDeleteI remember Christmas spent with my grandma and my aunt. My grandma has since passed away. Great memories with her.
ReplyDelete