Branded For You
The Riding Tall series, Book 1
Cheyenne McCray
Pink Zebra Publishing
Fiction, Romance
Themes: Country Tales
**+
Description
Months after her divorce from a verbally abusive man, Megan Wilder moves to Prescott, Arizona, to be with her family... and quickly remembers why
she was so eager to get away. Though her older sister, Tess, has always been supportive, her father once more tries to take over her life and her
mother's constant criticism opens old wounds. Maybe Bart and her parents are right; maybe she really is an overweight screw-up who doesn't know how
to run her own life.
Then she runs into Ryan McBride.
Tall, handsome, and endlessly kind, the Arizona cowboy makes Megan believe she's beautiful. But with the family restaurant in trouble and her
parents' disapproval, can she hope to find a happy ending?
Review
I wanted to give this one an Okay. I really tried to look past the problems. But, by the end, I just couldn't do it. Megan starts out an insecure,
flawed, and hurt woman, but she only apparently has to do one thing to fix everything wrong with herself and her family: trust a man like Ryan McBride to
take care of everything. Ryan, on the other hand, is impossibly perfect. He's rich, he's handsome, he's the perfect boyfriend and lover, and he knows just
how to solve everyone's problems. How he learned is a mystery, as he apparently has no problems of his own. (Some lip service is given to a little family
tension, but it's nothing compared to the impending ruin facing Megan's clan.) Within a week of meeting each other, they're already thinking marriage. The
only possibly fly in the ointment of their happiness is a simple misunderstanding - shoehorned in because this kind of story needs a crisis - that's cleared
up with a chapter of its introduction. Silly Megan, thinking her man might have had a flaw! She should've known better! But, then, she is just a woman. Men
are the only ones who can really do anything.
The plot, like the generic cover art, is a thinly redressed retread of the quintessential (bordering on stereotypical) romance. I was almost laughing by the
end as one ridiculous cliché after another played out. The writing does the job, but I have to admit my inner editor cringed at several pointless
stretches and phrases. ("He pressed the accelerator and the truck sped up." What else is supposed to happen when the accelerator is pressed? And why interrupt
the dialog to tell me this when I already know he's driving on a highway, where speed is required? And why was I so bored that this kind of thing really started
getting on my nerves?) I suppose I just expect more out of a story, even a romance, than I found here.