The Saddlemaker's Wife by Earlene Fowler

From the Publisher

Ruby McGavin has inherited part of a cattle ranch from her late husband, only to discover that his family is very much alive, in contrast to what he told her. Even as she is drawn to handsome saddlemaker Lucas McGavin, she learns more about her late husband's family-and wonders if she ever really knew him.

Piecing together the truth, Ruby uncovers a legacy of pain and denial that has pursued the McGavin family for too long.

Publishers Weekly

Fowler's lucky 13th novel, a departure from her Agatha Award-winning Benni Harper series (Delectable Mountain, etc.), offers a poignant tale of a family fractured by the secrets of the past. Ruby McGavin, grieving over the recent death of her husband, Cole, is shocked to discover that Cole lied to her about his family. They're not all dead, as he told her, but very much alive, and in his will, he has left her his share of the family ranch in California. Ruby heads to tiny Cardinal, Calif., with Cole's ashes, intent on selling her share of the ranch, but she quickly realizes that Cole had hidden many things from her. Cole's younger brother, Lucas, who has fled his life as a lawyer in San Francisco, has returned to Cardinal, where he scrapes out a life as a saddlemaker. Slowly Ruby and Lucas edge closer to the truth of a secret that haunts both their lives. Fowler, with her gift for drawing painfully real and credible characters, takes the reader along on an emotionally powerful ride. This could well be her breakout book. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Ruby McGavin discovers surprises on a California cattle ranch upon the death of her husband-plus a legacy of pain and denial. Fowler, author of the "Benni Harper" series, lives in Southern California. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A young widow confronts the family her late husband denied he had. During the six months they were married, Cole McGavin told his wife Ruby that his family had died in a traffic accident outside Bakersfield. But it's Cole whose truck is found at the bottom of a ravine off Ortega Highway, leaving Ruby to discover a will leaving her one-fourth of the Circle MG Ranch in Cardinal. Bearing an urn with Cole's ashes, she leaves Southern California for the high desert, not knowing what to expect from the kinfolk he's left very much alive. His aunt Birch, who loved Cole far better than his distant mother June did, treats Ruby kindly even before she knows who she is, offering her the best room at the Tokopah Lodge, which she owns with her half-Mexican, half-Paiute-Shoshone husband Bobby Hernandez. And brother Lucas, who took over Cole's saddlery when his law practice brought him too close to the dark side of humanity, also finds himself drawn to the lonely widow, even though his mother warns him that her claim on the ranch could bankrupt the Circle MG. But it's Cole's longtime friends Ely Grey and Lincoln Holyoke who tell Ruby about Cole's past, revealing the dark secret of the man she loved but barely knew. The creator of Benni Harper (Delectable Mountains, 2005, etc.) has produced a lovely crossover novel, a family tale with flair and heart.

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