Mary Connealy
Book Summary: Kylie Wilde is the youngest sister--and the most civilized. Her older sisters might be happy dressing in trousers and posing as men, but Kylie has grown her hair long and wears skirts every chance she gets. It's a risk--they are homesteading using the special exemptions they earned serving in the Civil War as "boys"--but Kylie plans to make the most of the years before she can sell her property and return to the luxuries of life back East. Local land agent Aaron Masterson is fascinated with Kylie from the moment her long hair falls from her cap. But now that he knows her secret, can he in good conscience defraud the U.S. government? And when someone tries to force Kylie off her land, does he have any hope of convincing her that marrying him and settling on the frontier is the better option for her future?
Review: I liked the plot overall although Kylie did not pretend to be a man that long before she was found out. I had a difficult time connecting with Kylie and the over all plot. I thought a lot of the theme was sad. Their ‘Pa’ was an unlikable character. There was a lot of sadness surrounding this story that I had difficulty with. I did not expect the underlining theme to be so depressing. I liked Kylie and Aaron they were well developed and multidimensional characters. The writing was realistic, the summary lacked details that would have been more helpful deciding whether I wanted to read it. It did a good job of setting up the idea that homesteading was difficult and dangerous. Gage was very realistic as someone who used the land until homesteaders came to settle. I see at least two more books to come from this at the very least.
I would like to thank Net Galley and Bethany House Publishers for allowing me to read and review this book in return for a free copy and I was never asked to write a favorable review by anyone.
