I've read a string of short novels lately and this one was the best of the bunch (and if you look at my other reviews, you'll see I've read some good ones!).

It's refreshing to have poignant Christian fiction written by a man. The two main characters in this story are also men. Most Christian fiction seems to be aimed at women, unfortunately, so this was freshing. Another reviewer mentioned that he was going to purchase copies of this book for high school graduation gifts, and I think that's an excellent idea!

The story begins when almost 20-year-old Alan reluctantly agrees to spend a week caring for his dying grandfather in a small town in the mountains of Montana. There has been some distance between Alan's father and his grandfather, and during Alan's stay, he learns the reasons for this through a series of 8 stories his grandfather has written, to go along with 8 gifts that are under the tree. Grandpa has told Alan he can choose one as his Christmas gift.

Maki's depiction of these characters is outstanding. You really know these characters. It's wonderful to see the young man in the story grow in compassion through this book. Their relationship is precious. This book isn't predictable or sugar-sweet. It's just perfect and I highly recommend it. Don't wait til next Christmas - read it now - and while you're at it, get in some early Christmas shopping and buy a few copies for friends and family!

You might want to check out my other reviews of Christian books and music!

If you liked Paul Evan's "The Christmas Box" Series, you'll be right at home with Alan Maki's "A Choice to Cherish." It is a wonderful read for all ages. Maki takes the readers into a family's heart and shows the life-long damage that can be done to every member of a family when foregiveness is withheld from just one person.

Like Evan's message in his Christmas Box Series, the message in this book needs to be retold over and over. It is a good read for anyone, but especially poignant for anyone who has ever struggled with forgiving someone and has just not been able to do it...or who has forgiven and been blessed by it...or who has seen families or friends separated by the withholding of forgiveness. The way Maki shows the ramifications that spread through generations from just one unforgiving heart is awesome.

Sometimes you feel like you're the dying grandfather; other times you feel like you are the grandson who has been estranged from this wonderful old man through no fault of your own. You'll share both the heartbreak and the joy as these two men are brought together by appoaching death, finding each other in time to break down the wall that has kept a whole family apart for a lifetime.

Well worth reading and sharing with a friend or family member. A book I'll reread. A message I hope I'll always remember.

This is quite possibly the best book I have ever read. The characters are not real although, Alan Maki, brings such life to them it causes one to desire to seek the town and people out. The stories that George writes, about his most cherished momentos, will make you laugh, cry, and contemplate your own life and what you will leave behind for others to cherish as much as they cherish you. It causes one to ask, "What will the sum of my life come down to...?" "A CHOICE TO CHERISH" also examines relationships and how sometimes we forget the importance of choosing our battles carefully, especially with loved ones. The lack of forgiveness sometimes carries a hefty price that pride sometimes won't allow us to see clearly past and humble ourselves into forgiveness. Alan Maki examines this human trait in a most poignant manner. My copy is autographed and carries a newspaper clipping from a local Montana newspaper that tells about Mr. Maki and "A CHOICE TO CHERISH". It was a Christmas gift from my mom and I will truly cherish my copy for all time!!

"Montana: Behind the Scenes" has already found its place among my most treasured reads, and I haven't even finished reading the thing yet. I've read slightly beyond the first couple of chapters but felt the need to put in my two cents' worth about this delightful paperback even before I got past the Gumbo chapter (more on Gumbo later). I was captured first by the witty cover, and soon found myself going way beyond the posted speed limit just to get to the Gumbo. What is this Montanan-style Gumbo, you ask? It's not what you think. It's even better. Rest assured, you'll want more Gumbo than this brief chapter provides, but it'll whet your appetite for more Montana, Durrae-and-John-Johanek style. You don't have to live in Montana to appreciate this book, but reading it will make you want to put THIS trip on your travel planner. The sooner the better.

The Johanek's have gone beyond your basic travel book and made it personal. Their writing style is refreshingly witty and enthusiastic. I can tell they really enjoyed writing this book. It made me want to travel to Montana and visit the places, as well as the people that they wrote about. If you haven't thought about visiting Montana before, I guarantee you will after reading their book.

Montana Behind The Scenes is an outstanding book. If you havn't been, you will want to go, If you have been you will go again after reading this book. The book is delightful and fun reading and is superbly written. I plan on getting my pickup truck gased up and ready to go.

In Open Spaces is a quiet book - the plot is simple and nothing overly dramatic happens. But somehow, the story draws you in forcefully. Rowland infuses his characters and their harsh rural Montana environment with so much depth, creating a story of family ties and sibling strife that surprised me in its power to intrigue and move me.

A friend turned me on to this one. What a stunner! A pitch perfect description of the tribulations facing a family attempting to survive each other and the rough, rough world of Montana ranch country in the first half of this century. The challenges facing the Arbuckle clan are overwhelming and bleak, and yet this book is absolutely charged with energy, life, and passion. I could not get the main characters (esp. Blake, Jack or Rita (ooooh, i LOVED rita), out of my head. And if for no other reason, read this book to experience what I will only describe here as an intense medical procedure performed on an injured (and profoundly angry) cow by lay people with no anestheia, one of the most gripping (and if you can believe it, sexually charged) scenes I have ever read. Like the "Corrections", Rowland captures both the intimate details of family life AND the overall impact of large societal forces (in this case, WW1, the great depression and relentless dust bowl, and WW2). This book is not getting the attention it deserves, it is one of the finest books i have ever read, grand in scope and true in its details.

"In Open Spaces" rewarded my slow reading style with layers of intrigue, multiple story lines and a few choice innings of baseball.

Like people we know, "Spaces'" characters are seemingly simple, but ultimately tied up in complex personal interactions made difficult by their refusal to discuss anything, with both comic and tragic results.

The book is built a little like an extra-inning baseball game, where, just as one issue is put to rest, another rears its head. Why can't these relief guys get anybody out? Well, the story isn't over yet.

One can imagine Mr. Rowland as a boy, visiting his SE Montana Arbuckle relatives on the ranch during those dog days of August, the family and local lore boiling in the dust of what must have seemd like a rainless eon. This may help to explain his straight-forward, tactile despriptions that show he's lived it.

Rowland leaves just enough loose ends to remind you that, as a reader, you're a participant. If nobody's talking to you about the details...well, join the family fun and have a go at guessing what in the hell IS going on.

Slow reader or not, you'll be rewarded with a nice finish, a defining metaphor for Blake Arbuckle's life and for the story itself.

Thank-you Ivan Doig. This book is wonderful. I had started the book and then put it down realizing that I wanted to savor this book. I picked this book up again after reading Close Range by Annie Proulx. What a relief House of Sky was. Great way to see Montana, the writing takes you there.

This is Ivan Doig's story of growing up in Montana. It was not an easy life. His widowed father kept Ivan close, made sacrifices, taught him everything he knew. The father even made a truce with his mother-in-law for Ivan's sake. Ivan was raised by two strong characters! Which made Ivan a strong character.

I would highly recommend this book. It touches all the parts of your heart.

Ivan Doig's "This House of Sky" is an American masterpiece. It's easy to see the influence this book has had, both directly and indirectly, on other notable Western writers such as Gretel Ehrlich, Pam Houston and Ron Franscell. It is pure poetry in prose form, and we begin to see how the Western mind is formed by the forever landscape.

Doig is clearly an underappreciated American writer, particularly outside of the West. I would suggest this book to anyone who likes to read beautiful language about heartfelt subjects. I would further recommend "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich and "Angel Fire" by Ron Franscell, both cut from the same lyrical, evocative Western cloth.

This House of Sky chronicles the early years of a boy growing up in Montana under circumstances that to others might appear difficult - his mother died young, his father and grandmother bring him up, poverty is never far. The author is a remarkable man whose tale that describes a way of life gone by and people whose spirit and determination are hard to find. This is one of the few books that I have read more than once - even after four or five reads it remains fresh. This is also great book to give as a gift, and the recent hardcover version has a special forward by the author

The Big Sky is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. In my opinion it is better-written than its sequel, The Way West, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Both books are really great! The characters in the Big Sky are well-developed. The descriptions of both the people and the country in which they live are very well done. Guthrie has a real knack for pulling the reader into the story. This book was extremely hard to put down. Boone Caudill, Dick Summers, and Jim Deakins are the stuff of which legends are made. I am so glad there are 6 Big Sky novels. I am currently reading the 3rd one, Fair Land, Fair Land, and so far it is every bit as good as the first two. If you enjoy reading about the early West you will definitely go for The Big Sky and its sequels. Enjoy!!

The Big Sky, by A.B Guthrie,tells the too-real-to-be-fiction story of Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers. The great description of the area, Northwestern Montana, is 100% accuate, from the indian tribes found in the region, to the local dialects of the men. Guthrie wrote this story as if he were actually in the place of the men, and if everything actually took place in the story. Boone is the stereotypical "mountain man" of the story, the rough, rugged, hard nosed hero. His best friend, Jim Deakins, is the anti-Boone character. Jim can also be considered a mountain man, but his personality is completly different then Boone's. Throughout the book, the characters come to life, where the reader becomes concerned and scared for Boone, Jim, and Dick through their trials. The tone almost throughout the entire story is Paranoia. Thsi is true, because Boone and Jim start to realize their paradise in Montana is becoming new stomping ground for people coming west to settle. Boone then becomes paranoid of people around him, where he finally isolates himself in the woods, with no human contact beside a few blackfeet indians. Boone also becomes weary of staying inside a house, or any space where he is not outside in the free land. He becomes depresed if he is taken out of his habitat for a great period of time, perhaps because he is paranoid that he won't be able to stay in nature any longer if he is stuck outside it. This becomes clear when his father dies, and he travels back to Kentucky. He describes his feelings of Kentucky as follows "He had felt at home outdoors. It was as if the land and sky and wind were friendly, and no need for a pack of people about to make him easy. The wind had a voice to it, and the land lay ready for him, and the sky gave room for his eye and mind. But now he felt different, cramped by the forest that rose thick as grass over him, shutting out the sun and letting him see only a piece of sky now and then, and it faded and closed down like a roof. THe wind was dead here, not even the leaves of the grat poplars, rising high over all the rest, so much as trembled. It was a still, closed-in, broody world, and a man in it went empty and lost inside, as if all that he had counted on was taken away, and he without a friend or an aim or a proper place anywhere."(page 357) Overall, this book is a great book if you love reading a passionate story about a man and his one true love, nature. Boone represents the man with the call of the wild in his soul, and his struggle to keep what he has while he can. Living in Montana, this book is also an interesting story that depicts the lives of people living where I now call home in the 1830's.

I have read The Big Sky three times, and scanned it many more. Having grown up in Browning, MT, this book really takes me home. What sets Guthrie's work apart from other writers of the mountain man genre, is character development. The way characters like Jim Deakins, and Boone Caudill, and Dick Summers, become complete people, is uncanny. The internal dialogues each carry on is fascinating. Jim's thoughts about god are succinct, and( I feel) right on the money. Boone Caudill is a misfit in any society, and the only way he could possibly live and let live, is utterly on his own. He becomes "broody" when in the company of others, and is nowhere near likable. His demeanor is completely opposed to that of Jim Deakins, who is carefree, and refuses to take anything too seriously. Boone's words, upon their meeting, "A man would have to be willing to stand by his partner, come whatever" (a paraphrase), turn out to be very ironic. Dick Summers is really the main character, as his saga continues through "The Way West", and "Fair Land, Fair Land". He is the balance between the two, and the glue that holds the partnership together. This book chronicles the heyday of the fur trade, and signals the end of that era, and the open west. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, be it for it's accurate descriptions of the time, or it's sociological implications. It is not just another mountain man story.

The reader becomes mesmerized and impressed by the thorough and meticulous process of constantly checking witness testimony with known topography and horse/walking/etc. mph rates, then time/motion studies with all possible data examined to see what plausible explanations can be more pushed forward as likely scenarios.

At the center here is the infamous Indian scout, Mitch Boyer and the testimony of the young Curly, survivor with Custer.

Amazing how the evidence Gray presents turns Custer 180o around from what is historically bantered, an aggressive disobiendent hawkish leader. Gray's reconstruction reveals soldier who emphasized and implemented what orders were given to him, to pin the Indians from left flank escape, and all the time awaiting Benteen's company and ammo train, which never arrived in time.

Disappointed that no chronology chain here shown how the followup takes place to discover the battlefield. Possibly Gray's other books on this subject cover that.

Remarkably well written, able to keep this reader's attention easily even with all the careful calculation checks, etc.

Most historians would be happy, nay overjoyed, if they located a diary, a journal or a set of letters by a participant in some historical event. In tracing some relatively unimportant activities, Gray is not satisfied unless he can find three or four itineraries, four or five journals and diaries, and two or three sets of letters! Another reviewer commented that the writing of this book took 25 years! I can well believe it. With the well-known fallibility of eyewitnesses, this overwhelming mass of documentation is barely enough to allow Gray to sift event from confabulation.

What we have here are two books in one. The first book, in 180 pages, traces the life and career of guide and translator Mitch Boyer. At first one might dismiss such a goal as impossible, but Gray is equal to the task, and Boyer emerges as a convincing, consistent and competent historical personage.

The second book, in about 200 pages, uses what Gray calls "time-motion studies" to trace the troop movements from June 9, 1876 to and through the culminating Battle of the Little Bighorn. His "time-motion patterns" are what physicists call "world lines," with one space dimension as the vertical axis, and time as the horizontal axis. Where these diagrams indicate the interactions between a dozen separated groups they virtually amount to the classical equivalent of Feynman diagrams--- tools used by theoretical physicists to disentangle the various processes occurring in the realm where relativistic quantum physics hold sway.

The Mitch Boyer connection between the first and second parts of the book occurs because Boyer was the only scout who chose to stay with and die with Custer's columns. Much of Gray's reconstruction of Custer's movements and strategy depends upon Gray's extraction, from the mass of confused interviews with Curley, the 17-year-old Indian scout who was the last to get away alive from Custer's troops, of a fairly consistent and highly plausible set of events.

There is one place, at the book's end, where Gray's thought patterns betray him. With no documents to guide him, he chooses a completely absurd counterclockwise movement of Army forces, from Calhoun Ridge, to Custer Ridge, to Custer Hill (where Custer was found), on to the "South Skirmish Line" (where Mitch Boyer's body was found) and thence to the "West Perimeter," where the last survivors (Gray assumes) died. But this movement actually takes the troops TOWARD the river and the Indian camp, from which braves and even squaws were literally boiling, like thick clouds of hornets from a disturbed nest, in the last half of the battle!

In this case, I think the reconstruction by Gregory F. Michno, based on a collation of a vast number of Indian accounts, is infinitely more plausible. It shows Custer's surviving companies driven roughly northwest, parallel to the river, along Battle Ridge to Custer Hill, with companies on Finley Ridge and Calhoun Hill being cut off and quickly destroyed, leading to a traditional "Last Stand" indeed being made on Custer Hill. See Michno's LAKOTA NOON for details. I might mention that comparison of all accounts of troop movements in the six or so "Little Bighorn" books I have read is made incredibly difficult by a complete lack of consistent nomenclature for the topographic features of the battleground!

Grey is remarkably even-tempered in his discussion of the many command problems and highly questionable command decisions that arose in this campaign, including the inexplicable behavior of Gibbon and Benteen. Somewhat ironically, it is Custer who comes off best from this all-around debacle. He was about the only commander who made any effort to follow orders, and about the only commander who tried to strike a balance between total inaction and suicidal total commitment of his forces.

I can't praise this book highly enough.

I absolutely agree with the other reviewers on the quality of Gray's work--it is astounding. I would like to emphasize what I took away from the book: a new picture of G.A. Custer. For a hundred years it has been the "customary wisdom" that Custer, being a flamboyant, egocentric, arrogant commander, rushed into battle at the LBH because he wanted the glory of defeating the Sioux all to himself, and met his doom because his hubris blinded him to the Indians' superior forces. Part of this "customary wisdom" came with an implied view that this hubris was due to a belief in racial superiority of the white soldier vs. the Indian. As is so often the case, the "customary wisdom" is superficial, and when held up to rigorous analysis, proves wrong. Gray's trenchant logic make it clear that Custer was attempting to follow his orders from Terry, found himself in a battle situation that was not favorable, but due to the perception that the 7th Cavalry had been discovered, had no alternative but to attack. His battle plan was improvised at the moment, and was thwarted not because of Custer's hubris, or his false belief that his soldiers were fighting "only Indians", but for the reason many battles are lost: the failure of one of his unit commanders (Benteen) to follow orders and coordinate his actions with the actions of the remainder of Custer's command. I expect, however, that the old, comfortable, politically correct view of Custer will die hard, if at all--to some, logic means naught.

Hidden in an underground laboratory the military are conducting experiments on human beings. The military desire to enhance the human's brain capacity and intelligence. Computer chips are used as implants to facilitate this experiment. Unfortunately, the military-prisoners subjects chosen for the experiment are not as carefully thought out. They escape and wreak havoc along their way to global domination. However, one of their members dies and his corpse becomes hard evidence of their evil plot.

That is as much as I should tell of the plot....I don't want to give too much away.

This novel is similar in style and feel to the "X-Files" television series and yet in many ways far superior. Most of the characters are realistic and behave as real people would and the plot is very realistic. You get the feeling that this could have happened (well...sort of) and that's what makes it fun. The whole concept of "one person against a hidden society of criminal geniuses" is always exciting and full of action.

A note on the author's style, I found Wilson to be short on description and visual cues. What you are left with is the plot, which is pretty darn good. Wilson writes this taut thriller very well and leaves it up to you to fill in the gaps. I know he couldn't have told us more about the people involved because some of them are the bad guys...Wilson wants us to figure out which side a person plays on. Overall a good story and fun to read.

Charles Wilson is the man to beat in the techno-thriller category. As good as his work is, he actually grows stronger with each new book. GAME PLAN is his best to date.

Chilling, terrifying, and fast-moving, GAME PLAN is a study in tension from the first page. If you've read all of his books, you will be delighted. If you haven't, this will make you hunger to read every one of his novels.

Do it! You will be hooked for life.

If you have ever read any of Charles Wilson's books you know that he is a master storyteller, and a plotter of extreme talent. And when "DONOR" was released a few months ago, I thought it would be hard to beat. But Charles Wilson has done it once again in creating the page turning suspense thriller "GAME PLAN."

The characters are wonderfully drawn, the storyline has you guessing until the last pages, and there are no loose ends to frustrate even the most critical reader (Me!). This is probably the finest fiction book I have read in a very, very long time. Highly recommended.

I picked up this book after reading Long's collection of stories "Blue Spruce" and feel sure I am going to be reading his other works as well. Long's story gives us an insight into smalltown America, totally different from what we see in Hollywood movies and such. It's simple and honest and explores the basic and fundamental intricacies in human relationships. I personally find the protrayal of the Stavros sisters interesting as one can see the mirror and similarities in the characteristics of the four of them. Although the main focus of the novel was on Mark and his marriage to Olivia, I think more enduring was the flashbacks of Nick's marriage to his long-dead wife, Grace. That is a bond that overcomes differences, difficulties, temptations and time -- gathering all the strands of the novel together and thereby providing a centre for the story. I would have liked to have the WHOLE TRUTH about Celia and Linny, Olivia and Linny, and all the other little mysteries peppered throughout in the novel, but that would just have detracted from the novel's purpose and might just have reduced it as a whole. I enjoyed this book which spoke to my heart and by the way, isn't Davey just adorable?

On many different levels, the Falling Boy is a joy to read. The story of Mark Singer and the family he marries into is a fairly simple one, but the reach of the novel is so much greater.

David Long invests the ordinary with so much meaning and life, without making his observations at all contrived. The Falling Boy will make you look at your own familiar surroundings in a new light.

A perfect read for a quiet day.

I have just finished reading this exquisite novel and I know it will be with me for days to come. Mr. Long has written a beautiful story, not just about marital infidelity but about the "messiness" of life in general. His characters are distinctly drawn without ever becoming archtypes, recognizable even if we have never met anyone exactly like them. There is so much here that strikes a chord of recognition not in a showy, lightning striking way but as gentle thoughts curling up in those many recesses our souls develop as we age and experience. The short story writer that Mr. Long is shows in the well-crafted but clean prose that is a hallmark of this novel. Thank you, Mr. Long. I look forward to reading your other work.

I just loved this book! For anyone who remembers the movie "Witness", and enjoyed the forbidden love caused by the cultural clash, read this wonderful story and finally achieve satisfaction. Ms.Williamson is an excellent writer who writes equally well when dealing with sensitive isssues, or when building sexual tension between her characters. Just when you think you can't wait any longer..."wham" she DELIVERS! "The Outsider", along with "Hearts of the West" are both in my top 5 all time favorite romance reads.

I have never been so affected by a book as I was reading THE OUTSIDER. This book is absolutely incredible! It is the story of two very different people who come together to find the most beautiful and sweetest love, and of one man's figurative journey from the utter depths of hell to the light of heaven.

I think what made me love this book so much is the depth of the characterizations, especially that of the hero. Ms. Williamson writes with a lyric beauty that makes you come to know the mind, heart, and soul of *all* the characters. I can't quite find the words to describe the hero, Johnny Cain. He is so completely lost, so very tortured, and so desperately in need of love....and the heroine, Rachel, gives to to him wholeheartedly, and by doing so, saves him. Ironically, there is only one scene in the entire book, where we get a glimpse of Johnny's thoughts. Because Johnny is an "outsider", we never learn what he thinks and feels, never see his point of view (a quite ingenious and appropriate [but at times, a bit frustrating] tool, I must say). Except for one scene at near the end, and oh, what a heartbreaking scene it is! A life long man-killer, Johnny believes himself to be beyond redemption, ("I *like* being damned," he says at one point) but it soon becomes poignantly clear that he craves and needs redemption (and the hope that comes with it) above all else. There is an aching sweetness and tenderness to Johnny Cain, the notorious, hardened killer, that makes him so unforgettable. I completely fell in love with him. ;-)

I know I haven't mentioned anything about the plot or the other characters, but, to me, it is Johnny, the outsider, that defines this book.

Needless to say, THE OUTSIDER is a very emotional, and often difficult, read. I don't think I've ever cried so much while reading a book. The last 30 pages or so are especially sad and poignant...I don't want to give anything away, but I have never seen a hero and heroine go through what Johnny and Rachel did.

I cannot say enough about Ms. Williamson's writing. She is truly unparalleled. I've read two more of her books, and loved them both, but this one is definitely my favorite (if not favorite book I have ever read). Thank you so much for this book, and for creating Johnny Cain. :-)

"The Outsider"is the best book I read during the Year 1996.
There are books which you read and are almost immediately forgotten. Then, there are some will linger in your mind and heart forever. "The Outsider" is one of these rare books. There is an awesome beauty about this books which makes it one of the most unforgettable book I have every read.
The story takes place in an Amish community. Rachel is one of the Plain people. She takes care of her 10 year old son while trying to run a small sheep farm. Her life is one of religious contentment - until "the outsider' comes into her life and stirs passions she had thought buried with her husband. Johnny Cain, a famous gunslinger, comes badly wounded into her life. Rachel soon realized underneath the harsh exterior lies a soul which is crying out for love. Cain believes that he is damned and there is no redemption for him. Rachel, gentle and kind, gives him a ray of hope and he begins to slowly accept that there is some good in him. It is a joy to watch their love for each other slowly grow and finally blossom into the rare and beautiful flower it is. Their growing love for each other is complicated by the obvious, her religion. Rachel fights the attraction she feel for him. Her pious brother-in-law who is also in love with her does not help to make things easy and he continues to judge and criticize her.
The ending of the story is sure to bring tears to readers' eyes. Rachel allows love to guide the hard choices that she has to make. With "The Outsider", Ms Williamson establishes herself as one of the best of the genre. "The Outsider" is a major achievement. It is a hauntingly moving and powerful story. The language of the book is like beautiful poetry, but there is a simplicity that reflects the gentle qualities of the Plain People. One of the qualities I admire about the book is that Ms Williamson's portrayal of the Plain People is detailed and realistic. She lets us see them as the gentle, simple folk they are but we also see the inherent cruelty in their ways.
Ms Williamson, I feel honored to have read this book.
Wayne Jorda

Molly Cogan was doing everything she could to cope on her own in the big city. Her husband left her and her two sons a couple of years ago. When he gets jailed for fraud for stealing from his clients, the child support payments are cut off and she and her sons now live in shame for what her exhusband did.

When Sam Dakota,the foreman of her grandfather's ranch in Montana, calls to tell her that Gramps is dying, Molly quits her job, sells what she can and moves to the ranch to spend what time she can with Gramps. When Molly and the boys get to the ranch, she is shocked to see how run down it's gotten since the last time she was there. Molly begins to try to put things in order but it's not easy. The bank will not lend them any money to operate on and someone is trying to sabotage the ranch. When Gramps and Molly find out that Sam is looking for jobs elsewhere when Gramps dies, they try to get him to stay. Gramps finally offers Sam part of the ranch if he'll marry Molly.

Molly is a fiesty heroine. Sam is the kind of hero I like, strong but yet considerate of Molly. The secondary characters are very colorful and well developed. The story is excellant with alot of twists and turns.

Montana is a novel I couldn't put down until the very last page. The author skillfully mixes a single mother of two boys, a ranch foreman who is ashamed to have served a term in the state pen in with a dying grandfather, a fanatical group of militia like those at Ruby Ridge in with a lawyer who is in love with a prostitue and comes up with a very belivable story. A Montana family ranch is going belly up. Rustlers are trying to make the owner sell until the foreman pulls some suprising tricks that makes the story end like Roman candles on the Fourth of July. This is a Zane Gray thriller set in modern times! You won't be sorry you bought this book.

Montana was the first book I have read by Debbie Macomber. She is a great writer. I will be on the "lookout" for more of her great books.