a Cowboy's Touch by Denise Hunter Review

Goodread:  Four years ago, rodeo celebrity Wade Ryan gave up his identity to protect his daughter. Now, settled on a ranch in Big Sky Country, he lives in obscurity, his heart guarded by a high, thick fence.

Abigail Jones isn't sure how she went from big-city columnist to small-town nanny, but her new charge is growing on her, to say nothing of her ruggedly handsome boss. Love blossoms between Abigail and Wade--despite her better judgment. Will the secrets she brought with her to Moose Creek, Montana separate her from the cowboy who finally captured her heart?

My take:  This is just a nice, quick, feel-good book of two somewhat unlikely people finding themselves at the same place and time.  Wade's carrying the guilt of his wife's death from years before and feels unworthy to love or be loved by another woman.  Abigail is secretly doing research to try and save her mother's magazine.  There's a collision of wills and a fall-out, soul-searching, redemption and feeling good.

The protagonist is Abigail, a Chicago born and raised woman who is sent off to check on her old and eccentric Aunt Lucy in a small Montana town.  Abigail gets bored to tears and jumps on the first opportunity for something to do which is to be a companion for a motherless child whose father is a busy rancher.  Abigail's hypertension is starting to abate when she discovers the magazine is going down the tubes in Chicago and she's sitting on a potentially dynamite story about hunkish rodeo star who disappeared off the face of the earth shortly after the death of his wife.  Guess who she's working for?

Quick, fun read.

Do the secrets from our past affect who we become in the future? 

Can the hurts we’ve experienced really prevent us from finding true fulfillment? 

In her release, A Cowboy’s Touch, award-winning author Denise Hunter will explore these questions, and readers will discover that “the truth really can set us free.” 

As the first book in the Big Sky Romance series, A Cowboy’s Touch is the story about a truthseeker who ends up discovering the real truth and a cowboy who learns to let go of his past.  Hunter shines as she draws her readers into an intriguing world of boots, chaps and cowboy hats.  This heartwarming romance is a story of love, pain and forgiveness.  It has also been named a Women of Faith novel for 2011.

Hunter can also talk about encouraging others to go for their dream of becoming a writer. She talks more about that in her interview below.

An interview with author Denise Hunter:

Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer?  When did you first begin to write?

I’ve always been an avid reader, but I didn’t start dreaming about writing a novel until I was in my early twenties.  By then I was married and busy pursuing a degree.  I put writing on the back burner until my grandfather became fatally ill.  While I was visiting him in the hospital, I was struck by the brevity of life and felt God pressing on my heart to take the first step.  I started my first novel a couple weeks later.  I had two small children by this time, so I wrote while they napped.  I wrote my first four books that way.  Even if you can only write a page a day, by the end of a year you’ll have a complete manuscript!

Q: Are you a small town or a city girl?  What inspired you to write a book about the life of a cowboy?

I’m a little of both.  We live in a country setting just outside the city.  It’s the best of both worlds.  There’s something very earthy and organic about a cowboy’s life.  I was drawn by the idea of living off the land.  I think it takes us to a simpler time and place—even though the life of a cowboy is not necessarily simple!  And Montana is such a beautiful state.  I thought my readers might like to journey there with me through story.

Q: Can you tell us a little about what you have learned about the cowboy lifestyle while doing research for this book?

I learned a lot of fascinating details about the workings of a ranch: branding, breeding, cattle disease, etc.  But what I came away with is a great respect for cowboys and their families.  Those who choose this way of life do it because they love it.  It’s not easy, and it’s not for the faint of heart. 

Q: Abigail’s title at her job is “the Truthseeker.”  What is the significance of this title, and what do you think a real truthseeker does?

I thought it would be interesting to write about a protagonist whose job was to seek the truth and have her find out that she was missing the real Truth the whole time.  Since Jesus is the Truth, a real truthseeker follows Him.

Q: Forgiveness seems to be a recurring theme in your books.  Why do you feel it is so important?  Your main characters both dealt with forgiving their past mistakes.  Do you think that it is just as important to forgive ourselves as it is to forgive the mistakes of others?

With sin rampant in all of us, this is something we need to get good at!  Eventually, someone’s going to do something you struggle to forgive.  I think this is partly because forgiveness is easily misunderstood.  It’s not saying that what they did is okay.  It’s saying that you’re not going to hold it over them anymore.  I do think it’s just as important to forgive ourselves as it is to forgive others.  Oftentimes, it’s even harder. 

Q: Abigail and Wade both threw themselves into their work in order to escape their pasts.  Do you believe it is easy to find an escape in work in order to hide from our problems?

No one likes to hurt, so I think the tendency is to avoid it however we can.  Throwing ourselves into our work is certainly one way of doing so.  But these things have a way of bubbling up to the surface eventually, no matter how hard we try to avoid them.

Q: What would you like your readers to take away after reading A Cowboy’s Touch?

Abigail was essentially trying to work off her guilt.  She thought if she could just keep exposing other peoples’ wrongs, it would appease her own guilt.  I’d like readers to see that only God can redeem us.