Catch Hold Of Christmas At Dove Creek Created By Scarlett Dunn Provided As Digital Version

at Dove Creek by Scarlett Dunn

Sharpshooter Lily Starr saves Wyoming rancher Thorpe Turlow in more ways than one in this historical Christmas romance.
Thorpe joins Lilys small group of travelers on their journey from Missouri to Wyoming and with Indians, bandits and weather to contend with it is an eventful trip indeed.


The travelers eventually include:
Lily: looking for her grandfather and traveling with a horse, mule and Blue her blueeyed wolf
Dora: saloon girl looking for a new life
Isabelle: pregnant and on her way to marry a soldier
Jed: blacksmith looking for his brother
Thorpe: disillusioned rancher
Stone: Marshall taking bandit in for hanging
Harlowe: bandit hoping to escape hanging

This is a sweet tale of hope and love with a big dose of faith and promise.
I wasnt expecting quite so much “faith” but it was still a very enjoyable, well written, intricately plotted story,

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC, This is my honest review,

.Stars
Great inspirational romance, A warmhearted historical Christmas romance, Strangers who meet during dangerous times and become a small group of travelers, determined to reach Wyoming each for their own reasons, They become a family along the way,
A sweet story of love, faith and hope, Loved this book. Beautifully written. Laughter, tears, inspiration galore. Thorpe Turlow is headed on a long ride back to his Ranch in Wyoming,   His luck is about to run out when he is rescued from a confrontation with a group of Indians on his tail,   He finds himself in the camp of several women and one lone man, This rag tag group is traveling from Missouri to Wyoming praying to arrive by Christmas,   Thorpe decides to joined the group due to the fact that the journey is dangerous and he can not see how their leader, crack shot Lily Starr thinks she can be their sole protector.


The journey brings additional oddballs to their group such as an outlaw wanted for murder and the Sheriff whom arrested the said outlaw.
  This makes Thorpe and Lily uneasy having the outlaw travel with them,   One of the women is pregnant and due to deliver in December this is why they must be at the end of the journey before the baby comes.


Lily and Thorpe can not deny the spark growing between them,   But they can not give in to that spark due to both of their lack of trust in the opposite sex,    They keep hitting a wall in their trek to Wyoming,   They knew from the beginning it would be hard but not as hard as what they have had to face, there for no time for sparkin, Will they make it to Wyoming unscathed  Is there a rainbow at the end of their trail  The good Lord only knows,   He will lead and protect them if they trust and believe in Him, Lily is one tough little lady,  Maybe she can find someone to care for her instead of her feeling like she is the only one that can get the job done.
  Trust!You will not want to put this book down, It is  fast, furious, full of adventure and danger at every turn of the page,

Disclosure: I received a free digital copy of this book from Kensington/Zebra Books via NetGalley for an honest review,   I was in no way compensated for this review it is my honest opinion,   E Scarlett Dunn sets up an amazing historical tale with a resourceful, to the point, crack shot lead woman,

ed for RT BOOK REVIEWS Typical cheesy Christmas novel This last month I have been randomly picking out Christmas books to read.
I came across this book and started reading the first chapter, Now this type of book cowboycountryhome on the range type books used to be in my wheelhouse, but I haven't read one in years if it doesn't have anything to do with asswhipping and cat o nine tails.
Meaning, Its been forever I have read a book that the man still thinking he is the protector and the woman must listen to his spoken word.
Now I am more into strong female characters that take matters into their own hands, That being said this book started out well with a woman leading the way on a dangerous trip, not to say she was not capable to doing it, but she clearly wanted a man to show herprotect her blah blah blah.


The story line is great, I was interested. It could have been worse, Happy reading : Christmas at Dove Creek By Scarlett Dunn

Rating:out ofstars




Story Notes

Scarlett Dunn's story of a missmatched group of travelers seeking to make the journey from Missouri to Wyoming headed by the fearless Lily Starr is one of thrilling adventure but left this reader a little disappointed.


I'm going to be a little harsh with this review there were just some things in this story that did not agree with me.
Its not often that I get this picky about these things but I would have really loved this book if they didn't throw me off.
First, no offense to anyone with this name, but the name Thorpe just does not a romantic name make, I am used to authors putting unusual names in books but this was not a good fit in my opinion, It puts me in mind of a hulking bully type man who uses his fists more than his brain and this

is not ideal when starting a romance.
How many people can imagine sighing "Oh, Thorpe, . . " without immediately bursting out into laughter, . . that would not be me, Second, I know Ms. Dunn was intending to show that everyone makes mistakes but I was not okay that she had Lily be so completely fine with Thorpe's affair with his exfiance.
I would not be one to hold past mistakes against someone but Thorpe didn't really show any true remorse for what happened, just thought it was a waste of time to regret it and Lily just accepted this with no problem.
Perhaps this fictional character is better than I but I would have liked it better if she had pointed him to God to seek true forgiveness.
Further, I never felt that Thorpe was ever really shown as a Christian, If this is supposed to be a Christian Romance I expect the main characters in the story to be, or at some point in the story become, just that Christians.
Ms Dunn tells of his attending church and going to see the pastor to ask him to marry Thorpe and Lily but there was very little to indicate his spiritual state.
Third, I found some of the phrases and thoughts that Ms Dunn wrote for Thorpe in relation to Lily to be a little to risque for this type of book.
Having a character tell another that he "wanted her" rather than saying he loved her, writing that two characters were exhausted after their wedding night, and that a character "couldn't keep his hands off his new bride" is just too crude and descriptive for my liking.
I would have loved for Ms, Dunn to preserve more of the specialness of the deep relationship married couples share by not having her readers imagination sparked by these phrases.
Fourth, I did not like the way that whiskey flowed pretty freely throughout the book, It was like it was expected of every man to want to drink whenever they sat down for conversation, I'm not going to tell people whether or not they should drink but I do think Thorpe's familiarity with drink is what led him to attempt to seduce Lily one night at his ranch.
Again, not in keeping with a "Christian" book, And finally, I found it a little odd that this book was called "Christmas at Dove Creek" but the majority of the book took place in the Fall and only the lastpages were at Christmas and at Dove Creek Ranch.
Perhaps Ms. Dunn should have chosen a more appropriate title,

There were many things that I did like in this book, however, and I wanted to share some of them as well.
I found Lily's kindness to all who crossed her path to be really great, She was nonjudgemental towards everyone no matter their treatment of her or their past mistakes, Ms. Dunn created a very lovely Christlike character in her and she is why I finished the story, I also was intrigued by the relationship that Lily had with the wolf Blue who had become her companion and defender, It is unusual for a wolf to want to remain with humans rather than fend for itself and I liked how Ms, Dunn had Blue be the one Lily depended on until Thorpe came along to take his place, I also liked how Blue was the one to find and return Lily's grandfather to her, Her grandfather's story of having and caring for a wolf of his own when he was a boy came fullcircle in Blue's devotion to Lily.
The adventurous parts of this book were very well written and the best part of the story I thought, Each confrontation and chase was appropriately descriptive and thrilling and I was glad to see that Ms, Dunn allowed her heroine to have equal skill in defending others as did the hero, Its not often that an author chooses to make her heroine skilled in weaponry and I was glad to see Ms, Dunn take this risk that paid off in her writing, Lastly, I really liked Lily's true faith and willingness to share God's love with others, Lily wanted everyone to know they were loved and cared about no matter their mistakes and she was never pushy in her sharing of her beliefs.
Ms. Dunn showed how Christians should treat others through Lily and it reminded me to be kind and caring when I speak with others of my beliefs.
But, although these are some of the redeeming qualities in this book, I would be hesitant to recommend it to others without telling them of my issues with the story.
I will have to consider whether or not to purchase this book for my shelves in the future,

I received this Ebook from Kensington Books via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review, I will receive no fiscal compensation from either company for this review, .