The Reading Spot

A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith

A Connecticut heiress. A Florida cowboy.

Her secret. His heart.

And the very special family she's come home to find.

I won this a while ago from LibraryThing and never got around to reading it. I started it yesterday and finished it up today and really enjoyed it. It takes place in South Florida on a ranch. Now with me being raised in FL I loved the history and the backwoods (Cracker) culture. It took me a little bit to get hooked but once I was I had a hard time putting it down.
The story is told First person but switches back and forth between Ben and Kara, but it tells you at every section who is POV it is from. I am not a big fan of 1st person but I had no problem reading this one.
Ben is a poor Florida cowboy with a little brother with Down syndrome who he has been taking care of by himself since he was 16. Kara is a wealthy environmentalist who is now set adrift when her parents die and she finds out that she was adopted.
Ben has a unique little ranch that he has built unintentionally around a group of misfits. Most of the people at his ranch have some sort of disability (most mental) and he has made them a home. They all contribute and earn their keep and are productive on the ranch.
Kara has grown up following her wealthy parents around the world as they try to better the environment and learn from various native tribes in South America. She speaks many languages and has a great boarding school education, but dreads the limelight and wants a simple life. When her parents die and she find out that she was adopted, she wants to find her birth parents. When they turn out to be not exactly what she expected she stays to learn more about them. Under a pseudonym, which you know always bites you in the butt later.
The characters were great. Ben and Kara were very believable and the secondary characters were awesome and a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend this to any romance reader.
4 out of 5 stars from me

PS, the bedroom door was closed, so you could also let teenagers read it as well.

Labels: contemporary