When Julia is confronted with a problem of major proportions, she runs away from it. Over and over. As the book opens, she is running away from Chicago after a first-time meeting with her birth parents, a meeting that ends badly for Julia. Somewhere in Colorado, there is a detour and Julia chooses to not stay on the crowded detour route. She gets so very lost and then her car stops working in a small town. The residents are pleasant and helpful, but Julia is unwilling be graceful and thank the people offering to help her. The town’s mechanic tells her it will take a week to fix, but makes no promises until he gets under the hood; once he does, it will cost a few thousand and it will take months. She has no money to get the car fixed. When another resident, Elijah, steps up and says he’ll pay for her car repairs and she can work it off on his ranch. She really doesn’t have a choice.

When Elijah hires Julia to be a ranch hand, he teaches how to become one. Her first job is to muck out the stables. Not an auspicious beginning. When she meets the curmudgeonly owner of the ranch, Elena, Julia is smitten. Elena is not interested in another relationship after being unceremoniously dumped by her last lover. Her entire focus is her son Cole and the ranch. She begins to reconsider her decision to let no one into her heart when Julia turns out to be a competent ranch hand and able to communicate with horses especially the one Elena buys for her. When Elena’s ex returns to the ranch to win her back, Julia hopes Elena will not fall for the women’s lies because she’s beginning to feel like she’s found her home.

This is a very well written book with an interesting setting and well-drawn characters in Elena and Julia, including the secondary characters, Elijah and Cole. The ranch is also a character as are the horses.

The book is written in the third person present tense. If I hadn’t liked the characters, etc., I would have stopped reading on page two. I’m very glad I didn’t. I got used to the use of the third person present tense. This is a book that you’ll not want to put down and will read into the wee hours of the morning. ( )