No Way Up Published by Bethany House Publishers on July 5th 2016
Genres: Christian, Fiction, Literary, Romance, Western
Pages: 304
Goodreads
When Cimarron ranch patriarch Chance Boden is caught in an avalanche, the quick actions of hired hand Heath Kincaid save him. Badly injured, Chance demands that his will be read and its conditions be enforced immediately.
Without anyone else to serve as a witness, Heath is pressed into reading the will. If Justin, Sadie, and Cole Boden don’t live and work at home for the entire year, the ranch will go to their low-down cousin Mike.
Then Heath discovers the avalanche was a murder attempt, and more danger might follow. Deeply involved with the family, Heath’s desire to protect Sadie goes far beyond friendship. The danger keeps them close together, and their feelings grow until being apart is the last thing on their minds.
This book is one of the new series of novels called The Cimarron Legacy. No Way Up takes place in the New Mexico Territory in the late 1800’s and is a good introduction to the Chance Boden family. Mary Connealy included romance, suspense, family mystery, and a good lesson on relationships.
This story takes place in Skull Gulch, New Mexico Territory, and it’s about a father trying to make his adult children Cole, Justin, and Sadie get along with each other and stop arguing, love each other, and have pride in the family ranch.
Caught in an avalanche and rocks coming down on his leg, Chance Boden’s only hope was to have Heath Kincaid, a ranch hand at the Cimarron Ranch, try to save his leg and maybe his life. Having watched the army doctor, Heath had a little medical knowledge so he patched Chance up the best that he could. Heath then heads to Denver, Colorado because there was a doctor there who might be able to better evaluate and treat his injuries.
Before leaving on train to receive treatment and being uncertain that he would survive, Chance wanted Heath to read his last will to his children. The will required required that the 3 adult children live and work on the ranch together for one year or the ranch would go to a cousin that no one liked. Justin was living and working at the ranch, but Cole and Sadie lived and worked in town. Cole and Sadie comes back to live and work the ranch and this was the beginning of their troubles.
While Chance is gone, the ranch hands that are left behind start to think that the avalanche was not accidental and they work to figure out what really happened. Was the avalanche an accident? Heath suspects it was not. Another attack on several of them from the mesa of a mountain where there appears to have no way up shows that more danger is waiting for them.
Heath and Sadie are forming a deep feeling for each other and desiring a future together, but her brothers do not want her to marry a ranch hand. Where does this romance go?
The book was full of interesting turns, and it also showed readers characters who learn who they can trust even when when they feel different. I liked how the father wanted to bring his children back together again, while at the same time I wondered how I would feel if I had to leave my current life to accommodate my father’s wish to go home.
This is a very good book with a suspenseful tale that has you wanting to skip ahead to see how it all comes out. I really enjoyed learning some of the history of New Mexico and the Pueblo tribe. I’m also looking forward to the sequel to come out in March of 2017 titled, Long Time Gone. I look forward to finding out how the parents react when returning from their trip to find Sadie’s life changed and how Cole ends up healing from wounds he sustained in a fight. I cannot wait to see what Mary Connealy has in store for this fictional family and the Cimarron Ranch coming next year!
If you really want to know everything you can about the Cimarron Ranch series, you can also read the prequel to this book, called The Boden Birthright (The Cimarron Legacy): A Cimarron Legacy Novella, offered on Amazon for FREE by clicking HERE and downloading the free Kindle book!!
Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy…with cowboys. You can catch her at http://www.maryconnealy.com. She is a Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy and Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist. She is the author of bestselling Kincaid Brides Series: Out of Control, In Too Deep, Over the Edge. The Trouble in Texas Series; Swept Away, Fired Up, Stuck Together. The Wild at Heart Series; Tried and True, Now and Forever, Fire and Ice. Her work also includes Lassoed in Texas Trilogy, Montana Marriages Trilogy and Sophie’s Daughters Trilogy. And Novella collections; A Bride for All Seasons, Four Weddings and a Kiss, A Match Made in Texas, Hope for the Holidays Contemporary Collection, Hope for the Holidays Historical Collection, With this Kiss Contemporary Collection, With this Kiss Historical Collection and many more books.
Under the pen name Mary Nealy, she also wrote Ten Plagues–a romantic thriller, and The Historical Society Murders–three cozy mysteries. Mary is married to a Nebraska rancher and has four grown daughters and a small bevy of spectacular grandchildren.
I received a copy of this book without cost from the publisher through the Bethany House Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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