All Gabriel Coulter ever wanted
was to live a comfortable life as a successful gambler, but a confrontation
with a disgruntled cowboy who’d just lost to Gabe leads to a family man dying
in his arms. Even though it was self-defense, the only way Gabe knows to get
rid of his guilt is to return the money he won to the man’s wife. Lara Talbot
sees Gabe as a derelict like her husband and wants nothing to do with him. But
as she struggles to provide for her family and makes plans to claim property in
the upcoming Oklahoma land rush, she wonders if God might have sent the
meddling gambler to help.
Gabriel’s Atonement is the first book in
Vickie McDonough’s Land Rush Dreams
series, and is also the first full length book I have ever read by her. I have,
however, read one of her novella collections in the past, so I knew a little
about her writing style going in. in all honesty, though, I didn’t expect that
I would love this book nearly as much as I did. The synopsis sounded
interesting, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I have been able to read so
many wonderfully written books over the last few months, so I’m never sure just
what to expect any more when I pick up a novel. Gabriel’s Atonement is such a sweet, captivating romance with just
enough mystery and intrigue to make it extremely difficult to put down.
Lara
Talbot is such a strong character! I cannot imagine having to care for my son,
sister, ailing grandfather, and farm all on my own, and definitely not in that
day and age, but Lara does, and does well. Even though her late husband was a
no-account and they are strapped financially, Lara really does an amazing job
of taking care of her family, especially considering the fact that she pretty
much did it all without much help since her grandfather was ill so often. She is
also a wonderful mother to Michael, and is just an all-around easy to relate to
character, especially when it comes to how she treats Gabe in the beginning.
Gabriel
Coulter is such a character! Despite his somewhat unsavory past and occupation,
he truly is a wonderfully kind, caring, and compassionate man, and as he grows
throughout the course of the story he really does become a man worthy of
admiration. I don’t want to give away anything, but Gabe definitely is one of
my favorite heroes based on all that he becomes. And even just through the
transition. His heart is one of gold, once he allows himself to use it of
course.
Gabriel’s Atonement is such a wonderful
book, with plenty of romance, action, and just enough intrigue to keep you
captivated until the last page. You’ll even be captivated after that as it
pretty much sets you up for the next book in the series—Joline’s Redemption—which I’ve already finished and loved as well (I’ll
be reviewing it tomorrow). The only flaw I found with this book is one simple
part of the ending, I just don’t want to describe it too much because I don’t
want to spoil the book for you. Let me just leave it at this: there’s an argument
between certain people because of a certain circumstance, and I felt like it
was resolved and went back to “happily ever after” a little too quickly and easily
for my tastes. Of course, I still loved the ending, it just felt a little too
unrealistic for me, which leads me to the decision that I must give this novel
four and a half bookshelves instead of all five. However, since most review
sites don’t allow you to give books half stars, but only wholes, I will round
up to five because I loved this book enough to round up instead of down. Outside
of that one teensy-tiny flaw, this was a wonderful book that comes highly
recommended from me.
Happy
reading!
To check out where I’m linking up, click on my Where I Party
page.
All credit for the wonderful photo goes to my sister Allie,
whose blog you can see here.
All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Vickie
McDonough and Shiloh Run Press.
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