Accustomed to the sophistication of Philadelphia, Olive arrives in Spencer, Ohio, a rough and tumble world she is not familiar with, facing two traumatized children. Her niece and nephew, Mary and John, have been living with a neighboring farmer, widower Jacob Butler, the father of three young children of his own and a man still in pain from the recent loss of his wife.
Real danger threatens Olive and Mary and John while Jacob and his own brood battle the day-to-day struggles for survival. Will Olive and Jacob find the strength to fight their battles alone or together? Will love conquer the bitterness of loss and broken dreams?
Comment: I got interested in this book because it would be a western and I think I don't read many of these despite liking them for the most part. I was also captivated by the prospect of having a librarian protagonist but this was actually not such a big deal in the story...
In this book we meet Olive Wilkins, a 30-something year old woman who got the news of her brother and sister-in-law's deaths and came from Philadelphia to Ohio to get her nephew and niece back home with here. In the meantime, the children have been taken by Jacob Butler, a widowed farmer, but Olive is quite surprised to discover the situation she has always believed in is far from the truth and her brother didn't have such a good reputation.
The children, however, are wary of a change after such a trauma and of a person they had never met before, so Olive agrees to stay at Jacob's farm to get to know them better while they also get to know here and eventually they will return to Olive's steadier life.
Things get more complicated because the more time Olive spends with the children, with Jacob and his own kids, the more she falls in love with them all and the more difficult her decision will be. Or will something happen to allow her to chose differently?
This was a cute book. There are some less than positive situations and some violence towards children and Olive at some point but I wouldn't say it's impeditive of enjoying what can be described as, for me, a sweet slow burn romance with caring for children at the same time.
The slow burn side of things happens because this book can be labeled clean, I guess, but that isn't such an important part of things. Well, not for the plot itself or how obvious the main characters' feelings for each other are but after a whole book expecting the final step between them to happen, not really having it happen on page is quite a let down due to all the little sighs, the little looks, the little but strong development of feelings between them but...oh well.
The story isn't complicated and just like in any more formulaic romances, of course the HEA is a given and the conflicts are easily solved.
I was more interested in seeing how the characters, used to a certain way of behaving and living, would adjust to someone different, to someone they don't immediately trust in. I think this part of the romance was well done because being it slow, it allowed for them to go at a believable pace and for the reader to feel they were taking the necessary time to bond.
The relationship between Olive and Jacob had some obstacles but those were mostly in their heads.
Olive is an independent woman of 34 or 35 and she is used to a certain lifestyle. I mean, she is not vain but she is used to spending time alone reading and looking after books in the library she works in so it was cute to see her struggle a little to go with the flow of the life in Ohio, where most people - especially those she interacts with more - are simpler people, dedicated to more hard labor than fine arts activities. Her evolution was interesting to see and I liked how she was not afraid to ask for help when she needed, or to learn to do something.
Jacob is prouder but I got the sense it was so because he struggled more financially and he felt Olive might challenge that. He is younger too, around 25 if I remember right, and although for the romance this didn't matter for each had their own vulnerabilities going into a relationship, we do have situations where the age gap is mentioned and I do confess I prefer it the other way around. Ok, Olive isn't as used to certain aspects of life as younger Jacob was so in terms of matching emotionally and maturely, they weren't that wrong for each other. But down the line, their life would certainly be a little different eventually and I wish the age gap, having to exist, weren't as high as ten.
As I've said, the conflicts are easily solved as the story goes by and I suppose this could be one of the negative aspects. Things do happen very quickly after Olive makes a decision and that propelled the action to move even quicker after that. Without more obvious romantic situations happening, it just felt like the author had sued all the ideas and wanted to wrap things nicely. This did happen but I noticed and couldn't stop thinking about it.
In the end, this was a good, entertaining romance, made me savor a western without outlaws everywhere, that's for certain, but it could have been much better with some editing and extra content.
Grade: 7/10
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