Book Review: McKettrick's Pride by Linda Lael Miller

McKettrick's Pride
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Series: McKettrick Men (Book 2)
Publication: Hqn Books; First Edition (January 1, 2007)

Description: The only wide-open space Rance McKettrick wants to see in his future is his hometown in his rearview mirror. The down-to-earth ex-rancher is determined to make a fresh start with his two young daughters—and leave his heartbreaking loss and family's corporation far behind. He sure doesn't need Indian Rock's free-spirited new bookstore owner, Echo Wells, confusing his choices…and raising memories he'd rather forget. But her straightforward honesty and reluctance to trust is challenging everything Rance thought he knew about himself. And when their irresistible attraction puts their hearts on the line, Rance and Echo must come to grips with who they really are in order to find a once-in-a-lifetime happiness.

My Thoughts: Echo Wells is heading for a new start in Indian Rock after a bad break-up in Chicago when she finds an abandoned dog at a truck stop in New Mexico. She can't leave the dog; she reminds her too much of herself - lonely and abandoned. 

Almost the first persons he meets in Indian Rock is Rance McKettrick, scion of the famous and very wealthy McKettrick family. They don't exactly hit it off. Rance is still grieving for the wife he lost five years earlier and is using work to fill up his time which leaves his seven and ten-year-old daughters in the care of his wife's mother more often than not. 

Echo and Rance have had very different pasts. Echo was orphaned at four and reluctantly raised by an aunt and uncle who already had four children of their own. She hasn't seen them since she left for college at eighteen. Her loneliness wasn't eased when her fiancé abandoned her at the altar of a wedding chapel in Las Vegas. She's hoping for better in her new life in Indian Rock, but it is starting with her adopting a dog that likely belongs to someone else. 

Rance was raised surrounded by a bunch of cousins and other family. He has suffered loss; his sister Cassidy died of leukemia when she was seventeen and he was in college. He also lost his wife to a horseback riding accident. 

I liked the way the two of them grew to like and trust each other. There were a bunch of interesting side characters from Rance's cousins to his mother-in-law and other townspeople who both welcomed Echo and encouraged her relationship with Rance. 

This was a nice contemporary romance from a very prolific author. 

Favorite Quote:

All of a sudden, Echo wanted to break down and cry, right there on the sidewalk. Because little girls lost their mothers. Because their fathers were too busy to attend birthday parties. Because maybe no one cared enough about this dog to search the Internet and then come take her home, and because someone might do just exactly that. 

I bought this one when it was released in 2007. I'm seeing three different covers at Amazon. I chose the one on my paperback copy. You can buy your copy here.