This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Fit to Be Tied

Zondervan (November 1, 2009)

by

Robin Lee Hatcher

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction (Whispers from Yesterday), the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance (Patterns of Love and The Shepherd’s Voice), two RT Career Achievement Awards (Americana Romance and Inspirational Fiction), and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of over 50 novels, including Catching Katie, named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.

Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She is passionate about the theater, and several nights every summer, she can be found at the outdoor amphitheater of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, enjoying Shakespeare under the stars. She makes her home outside of Boise, sharing it with Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Cleo Arlington dresses like a cowboy, is fearless and fun-loving, and can ride, rope, and wrangle a horse as well as any man. In 1916, however, those talents aren’t what most young women aspire to. But Cleo isn’t most women. Twenty-nine years old and single, Cleo loves life on her father’s Idaho ranch. Still, she hopes someday to marry and have children.

Enter Sherwood Statham, an English aristocrat whose father has sentenced him to a year of work in America to “straighten him out.” Sherwood, who expected a desk job at a posh spa, isn’t happy to be stuck on an Idaho ranch. And he has no idea how to handle Cleo, who’s been challenged with transforming this uptight playboy into a down-home cowboy, because he has never encountered a woman succeeding in a “man’s world.”

Just about everything either of them says or does leaves the other, well, fit to be tied. Cleo Arlington knows everything about horses but nothing about men. And though Cleo believes God’s plan for her includes a husband, it couldn’t possibly be Sherwood Statham. Could it?

Their bumpy trot into romance is frustrating, exhilarating, and ultimately heartwarming.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Fit to Be Tied , go HERE.

Watch the book video Trailer:

MY REVIEW:

As I have said before, I love westerns, especially those with interesting characters and plenty of humor. Fit to Be Tied definitely meets all my requirements for a good western.

Cleo Arlington, a strong, independent cowgirl, dresses like a man and  can do most anything a man can do (and sometimes better) on the family ranch. When her father agrees to provide a job for Sherwood Statham as a favor to her sister’s husband, Cleo can only dread a year of trying to teach the stuck-up English dandy how to be a cowboy. Although the two clash from the beginning, it is only a matter of time before each of them begins to see a few redeeming qualities in the other.

How will it all turn out? Will Sherwood (Woody) overcome his stern upbringing and the nightmares from his war experiences that haunt him? Will Cleo find the man of her dreams in this unlikely fellow? If you are interested in finding out, run to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy. If you haven’t read A Vote of Confidence, the story of Cleo’s sister Gwen, you might want to pick up a copy of it too.

Fit to Be Tied was such a fun read I hated for it to end. I can’t wait for Daphne’s story in the next Sisters of Bethlehem Springs installment.