March was a month full of historical fiction releases (and oddly, a few of them had heroines named Catherine or Caroline). The names were so close, I had to go back and double check myself a few times while reviewing. Really, that’s just an aside in case you were wondering if I’d mixed up my heroines when I talk about A Borrowed Dream by Amanda Cabot.
In My Opinion
Though this is the second book in Amanda Cabot’s Cimarron Creek trilogy, it stands on its own. In fact, it’s the first book I’ve read by the author and I followed the story just fine.
In this small Texas hill country town, gossip is a favorite pastime, followed closely by matchmaking, and the citizens have their eyes and ears open for the next scandal—especially if it involves any member of the town’s founding families.
There’s a lot happening in this one. From Catherine’s students and her extreme dislike and distrust of doctors to the man posing as a rancher who has captured Catherine’s attention to the question behind a long-lost relative, this book rarely hits a lull.
Catherine is kind, intelligent, and loves the Lord despite her prejudice toward those in the medical profession. I loved that she and Austin form a friendship before more grows between them. And Austin’s daughter is precious.
Cabot even managed to throw in a little shocker of a scene in this book (and I’d been warned that there was in there yet I still didn’t see it coming).
There’s a little something in this one for everyone—history, romance, suspense, adventure, mystery, and more. Sit back and visit Cimarron Creek, but be sure and have a little chocolate handy because the goodies shared are sure to leave you a little hungry.
Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
About the Book
Catherine Whitfield is sure that she will never again be able to trust anyone in the medical profession after the town doctor’s excessive bleeding treatments killed her mother. Despite her loneliness and her broken heart, she carries bravely on as Cimarron Creek’s dutiful schoolteacher, resigned to a life without love or family, a life where dreams rarely come true.
Austin Goddard is a newcomer to Cimarron Creek. Posing as a rancher, he fled to Texas to protect his daughter from a dangerous criminal. He’s managed to keep his past as a surgeon a secret. But when Catherine Whitfield captures his heart, he wonders how long he will be able to keep up the charade.
With a deft hand, Amanda Cabot teases out the strands of love, deception, and redemption in this charming tale of dreams deferred and hopes becoming reality.
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Amanda Cabot says
May 11, 2018 at 4:01 PMSuzie — Thanks so much for taking the time to read and review my book. I smiled when I read your advice to have chocolate at hand. That was both of my editors’ reaction to A Stolen Heart, the first in the series. It’s Lydia’s story, and she spends a lot of time making chocolate.