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The Reluctant Rancher

— feeling confused
The Reluctant Rancher - Patricia  Mason, Joann Baker

This seemed all over the place to me. Mary, the heroine, is a nurse. Luke, the hero, is a rich rancher. Mary owns some nursing business. She apparently has six part-time nurses working for her (in a town with a population of 782) and needs a loan to keep the business in business. She can't get a loan from the bank and she hasn't heard back from the small business association (uh... follow up with them??), so she decides to ask Luke for a loan.

 

Luke is super gruff and grumpy because he thinks people only want him for his money. So, Mary shows up on Luke's ranch to ask for a loan. Luke tells her that he'll give her the loan if she cares for his grandfather for the next month (he broke his arm). He'll pay her a salary during that month period, etc.

 

So, Mary leaves her nursing business for an entire month and never checks in on her employees or the business itself. She doesn't seem like a responsible business owner. She's also overweight. It's stated in the beginning that she has experience with men - she knows from personal experience that some men are fine with a little extra weight on a woman. She's portrayed as being confident and sassy and at peace with her body. And then she frets throughout the entire book about her weight and what Luke thinks. She also turns out to be a virgin.

 

Luke runs hot and cold. He's supposedly damaged because he married once and he couldn't consummate his marriage because his wife faked loving him until his wedding night and then she came clean with the fact that she only married him for his money. She also said a bunch of hurtful things to him, but no real detail is given about it. That I remember, anyway. But, she apparently didn't get any of his money. So, that didn't really make sense, but he's super damaged over it.

 

Anyway, I just didn't care for these two together. Or apart. Oh well.