{"id":6925,"date":"2011-02-12T12:40:16","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T17:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/\/?p=6925"},"modified":"2011-02-12T12:40:16","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T17:40:16","slug":"kaydie-by-penny-zeller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=6925","title":{"rendered":"Kaydie by Penny Zeller"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour<\/a><\/strong><\/span> <\/strong> book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Today’s Wild Card author is: <\/strong><\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

Penny Zeller <\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

and the book:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaydie \u2013 Book 2 in the Montana Skies Series<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whitaker House (April 5, 2011)<\/p>\n

***Special thanks to Cathy Hickling of Whitaker House for sending me a review copy.***<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Penny Zeller is the author of McKenzie, first in her Montana Skies Series, along with several other books, numerous magazine articles and her blog, A Day in the Life of a Wife, Mom, and Author: http:\/\/pennyzeller.wordpress.com. She\u2019s committed to nurturing women and children in their Christian walk, through a women\u2019s prayer group, as a Bible study leader, through the organization she co-founded, \u201cThe Sisters in Christ Community Girls Night Out,\u201d and as a frequent speaker. She desires to use her gifts of writing and storytelling to glorify God and draw others closer to Him. When she\u2019s not writing, Penny enjoys spending time with her family, camping, hiking, canoeing, and playing volleyball. She and her husband Lon, along with their two children live in Wyoming.<\/p>\n

Visit the author’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

Since the death of her abusive husband, Kaydie Kraemer\u2019s life has been easier, but she\u2019s wary of men and builds a wall of protection around her, staying with her sister McKenzie as she awaits the birth of her baby. Haunted by her painful marriage, , Kaydie is determined never to fall in love again, and it will take the grace of God to change her mind\u2014the same grace that works in the heart of ranch hand Jonah Dickenson, a confirmed bachelor who has unhealed wounds of his own to overcome.<\/p>\n

Product Details:<\/p>\n

List Price: $9.99
\n Paperback: 144 pages
\n Publisher: Whitaker House (April 5, 2011)
\n Language: English
\n ISBN-10: 1603742174
\n ISBN-13: 978-1603742177<\/p>\n

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:<\/span> <\/strong>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

October 1889<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Pine Haven, Montana Territory<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Darius, I\u2019m not going with you!\u201d Kaydie Kraemer winced in pain as her husband, Darius, grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door of her sister\u2019s house toward his waiting horse. She tried to pull her arm loose from his tight grasp, but her efforts were futile.<\/p>\n

Darius then reached around and grabbed her other arm, squeezing it so hard that Kaydie could already see the bruises he would leave behind. \u201cYou don\u2019t have a choice, Kaydie. You\u2019re my wife, remember?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Darius. I\u2019m staying here. I don\u2019t want to be married to you anymore.\u201d Kaydie fought back her tears, hating that they would be sign of weakness to her callous husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have a choice,\u201d he snarled. \u201cNow, you can either come willingly, or I can carry you. Which will it be? Because I ain\u2019t leavin\u2019 without you.\u201d He turned his head to the side and spit on the front porch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought\u2014I thought you were dead,\u201d Kaydie stammered.<\/p>\n

Darius threw back his head with an evil laugh, which caused the nostrils on his prominent nose to flare in and out. His mouth was open wide, revealing more missing teeth than Kaydie remembered. His stringy brown curls bounced from his collar, and he removed a hand from Kaydie only long enough to slick back the few strands of greasy hair that had fallen over his forehead. He narrowed his eyes, which were already too small for his large face, making them appear even smaller. \u201cI had you fooled, didn\u2019t I? You\u2019re a foolish woman, Kaydie. Ain\u2019t no way I\u2019m gonna die and let you go free! When you said \u2018I do,\u2019 it meant that you were bound to me forever!\u201d He gritted his teeth and gripped her arm even tighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Darius! No!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaydie\u2019s eyes popped open, and she stared into the darkness. She could hear her heart thumping in her ears, a sound loud enough to rival cannon fire. She placed her hand over her heart and felt it thudding wildly. Sweat poured down her neck; her hands were damp with moisture, and her forehead was covered in beads of perspiration. It was just a nightmare, she told herself, still breathless with terror. The vision had seemed so real.<\/p>\n

Her heart continued to pound as she reached with her other hand and rubbed her belly. \u201cI think it was only a nightmare, little one.\u201d She sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed, and stood to her feet. Groping in the dark, she made her way to the window and looked outside. The moon and the stars were the only things she could see. Darius and his horse were nowhere in sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank You, Lord, that it was just a dream,\u201d Kaydie whispered, then turned around and went back to her bed. Burying her face in her pillow, she whimpered softly, not wanting to wake McKenzie, Zach, and Davey. \u201cThank You, God, that Darius is not coming back,\u201d she prayed, her voice muffled by the pillow. \u201cThank You that You are my \u2018refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

You are safe here, My child, she felt the Lord say to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, Lord, but I don\u2019t feel safe\u2014not with the memory of Darius,\u201d she whispered. Turning over on her back, she gazed up at the ceiling, and the words of Psalm 91 filled her heart: \u201cHe shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears of joy slid down Kaydie\u2019s face and onto the pillow. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be all right, little one,\u201d she whispered to the baby within her. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be all right, because the Lord will keep us safe.\u201d She gently rubbed her belly again, thankful that God had been there when her husband had been tormenting her and had delivered her from him.<\/p>\n

Darius was dead, and he wasn\u2019t coming back to take her away. Kaydie had been there. She\u2019d seen it happen. Now, here she was, staying with her beloved sister McKenzie, McKenzie\u2019s husband, Zach Sawyer, and their young son, Davey. Never would Kaydie have guessed that McKenzie would move to the Montana Territory and marry a rancher. For one thing, McKenzie had always despised hard work; for another, she\u2019d had her eye on a wealthy doctor from Boston for years. Yet, from everything Kaydie had seen in her first month at the Sawyer Ranch, McKenzie was happy and wouldn\u2019t trade her life there for anything.<\/p>\n

McKenzie had told her that God had changed her heart. Kaydie smiled at the memory because He had changed her heart, as well. She had learned about the Lord from Ethel, the woman who had taken her in after Darius\u2019s death and given her a steady dose of God\u2019s Word. That solid foundation had stayed with Kaydie, and she yearned to know more about her Creator day by day. Yes, she had grown up knowing there was a God, but she hadn\u2019t truly experienced Him until Ethel had helped her begin a relationship with Him.<\/p>\n

Kaydie turned from one side to the other, unable to fall asleep. In a few short hours, it would be dawn, and she would join the Sawyer family and their hired help at the kitchen table for breakfast. The day she\u2019d met each of the members of McKenzie\u2019s new family filled her mind, and she recalled asking McKenzie in private about each one of them. Fearful of placing herself and her unborn baby in danger again, Kaydie had felt it necessary to find out as much as she could about the people with whom she would be living as long as she stayed with her sister. She felt safe around Zach\u2014and, of course, precious Davey. But the others she wasn\u2019t so sure about, especially the hired man named Jonah, who had met her in downtown Pine Haven and driven her to the Sawyer Ranch the day she\u2019d found McKenzie\u2026.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, McKenzie, for taking me in like this,\u201d Kaydie said as she sat with her sister on the front porch, sipping tea. The late September air was chilly, but the fresh breeze felt good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have it any other way,\u201d McKenzie said. She leaned over and put her arm around her sister. \u201cI have missed you something horrible, Kaydie. I thought for a while that I might never see you again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the same thing, myself,\u201d said Kaydie. \u201cI never dreamed you would go to all that trouble to find me. I hoped that you would, but I knew better than to count on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened thanks only to the Lord,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cMontana Territory is a huge place. I could not have imagined how big it is until I arrived here, and I\u2019ve seen barely a fraction of it. To have found you within its borders is a miracle, indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is,\u201d Kaydie agreed. \u201cI must have thanked the Lord more times than I can count for rescuing me through you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I must have thanked the Lord more times than I can count for rescuing you and bringing you to me,\u201d McKenzie said with a giggle.<\/p>\n

Kaydie giggled then, too\u2014something she hadn\u2019t done for a long time. Oh, how she had missed her sister! \u201cI think you were the only one in our family who didn\u2019t give up on me,\u201d she said, growing serious again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Mother did come out here to take me back to Boston\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, McKenzie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are more than welcome. Besides, I couldn\u2019t let \u2018my baby\u2019 stay lost somewhere in the uncivilized Montana Territory forever!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaydie giggled again. \u201cI think Mother feared you would call me \u2018my baby\u2019 as long as you lived!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMother feared a lot of things,\u201d said McKenzie. \u201cHowever, I don\u2019t think she ever counted on my leaving our home in Boston to become a wife on the wild frontier and then falling in love with a rancher!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaydie smiled and shook her head. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t believe she did, or her worst fear would have come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the worst thing, though, would have been for Peyton to have done the same thing we did\u2014follow a man to the ends of the earth and forsake our privileged upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Peyton never would have done such a thing.\u201d Kaydie rolled her eyes. \u201cPerhaps she isn\u2019t our true sister. She\u2019s so different from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s our true sister, just unique. I pray for her daily that she will someday find true joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would take a completely different outlook on her part\u2014as well as the part of Maxwell\u2014for that to happen,\u201d Kaydie said. She thought of her oldest sister\u2019s uppity, prudish husband. \u201cSpeaking of husbands, Zach seems like a good one,\u201d she said, choosing to change the subject to something more positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is. I\u2019m blessed beyond belief, Kaydie. It took me so long to see the gem that he is. Someday, I\u2019ll have to share the entire story with you. To think that I could have missed out on him because of my own pride and stubbornness\u2026.\u201d She shivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy for you, McKenzie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday, God will give you a love like that, Kaydie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I think the days of courtship and marriage are over for me. I have my little one to think about now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know marriage is the furthest thing from your mind right now, especially in light of the horrid circumstances in which you found yourself while married to Darius. Still, I have faith that someday God will bless you with the husband He\u2019s planned for you all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose I might reconsider marriage\u2014when I\u2019m forty-five,\u201d Kaydie said, laughing. But she wasn\u2019t kidding. Never again would she trust a man, especially with her heart. She now had not only herself to consider, but also\u2014and more important\u2014her baby. How many times had she thanked the Lord that her baby hadn\u2019t been born while Darius was alive? She shuddered at the realization that her survival\u2014and her baby\u2019s survival\u2014would have been unlikely, at best, if she had remained with Darius. No, never again would Kaydie be so foolish as to fall in love. Things like true love happened only to others, like McKenzie, and not to her. Such a thought might have in the past bothered her, but not now. She was content in the thought of being reunited with the sister she loved and of soon becoming a mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell you whose marriage is a wonderful model: Asa and Rosemary\u2019s,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cThey both have taught me so much about a marriage that\u2019s centered on God, and they\u2019ve been married pretty close to forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it was so nice to meet them yesterday,\u201d Kaydie said. \u201cThey seemed quite friendly and charitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are. I wasn\u2019t fond of Rosemary at first, and I didn\u2019t really know Asa, since he works with Zach outside most of the time, but once I became acquainted with them, I realized the treasures they are. They have both taught me so much\u2014especially Rosemary. She\u2019s like the mother we never had. No offense to Mother, for I know she tried the best she knew how to raise us, but Rosemary\u2026she\u2019s different. She has always been so accepting of me, even when I didn\u2019t accept her. She taught me how to cook and stitch and how to survive in a home so different from anything I had ever known. She and Asa are like grandparents to Davey, and I believe Zach has all but adopted them as a second set of parents, even though he speaks very well of his parents, who, as I told you, are deceased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I shall like Rosemary, too,\u201d Kaydie said. \u201cAnd Asa does seem like a good father figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat he is. His Irish accent makes him unique in these parts. I think Rosemary confided to me once that was one of the things that drew her to him when they began courting so many years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey live just down the road, right?\u201d Kaydie asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, they do. It\u2019s nice having them so close. I know you\u2019ll come to love Rosemary as much as I do.\u201d McKenzie paused. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s Jonah Dickenson, the other hired man. He\u2019s a hard worker, always willing to help. He lives alone in the bunkhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe makes me nervous,\u201d Kaydie admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cJonah?\u201d McKenzie asked. \u201cWhy do you say that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he brought me here from town yesterday, there was just something about him\u2026I can\u2019t place my finger on it, exactly, but it was odd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure what it could be, Kaydie. He\u2019s never been anything but polite, and Zach doesn\u2019t know what he would do without him. I think the two of them have become brothers, in a way. When Davey\u2019s father, Will, died, I think Jonah slipped into the spot he\u2019d had in Zach\u2019s heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s wonderful that Zach adopted Davey after his parents died,\u201d Kaydie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. A man who accepts another\u2019s child as his own is a special man, indeed. Of course, who wouldn\u2019t want Davey for a son? I loved him almost immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you don\u2019t think I need to be afraid of Jonah?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t, Kaydie, but if he makes you uncomfortable, you are within your rights to keep your distance. If he ever does anything\u2026.\u201d McKenzie paused. \u201cIf he ever lays a hand on you or anything else, tell Zach or me right away. Promise?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise,\u201d said Kaydie.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, again, I don\u2019t see any reason to fear him. He\u2019s a godly man with a heart the size of the Montana Territory. I think you\u2019ll discover that for yourself once you get to know him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaydie nodded but still wasn\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MY REVIEW:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kaydie<\/a> is an easy-to-read prairie romance that is perfect to those who enjoy that genre. The second installment of Zeller’s Montana Skies<\/strong><\/em> series,\u00a0Kaydie<\/a> tells the story of McKenzie’s younger sister Kaydie who has recently been reunited with her family following the death of an abusive husband. Because of her traumatic marriage, Kaydie is afraid to trust anyone, especially men, and certainly entertains no thoughts of a future marriage. Jonah is a hand on Zach and McKenzie’s ranch who also has no desire to ever marry for reasons of his own. As the two of them get to know each other, a friendship blooms between them that could surprise them both.<\/p>\n

Kaydie<\/a> is well-written with interesting details about life in the Montana Territory which include Founders Day celebrations complete with three-legged races, box lunch auctions, baking and sewing competitions, etc. It is a fairly straightforward story with little mystery or suspense but plenty of character studies. The detailed courtship of postmaster Gerald and Geraldine seemed unnecessary to the story in my opinion but did not take away from its enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Kaydie<\/a> is typical of books of this type and is an excellent book for a relaxing evening, a day at the beach, or whenever a quick, easy read is desired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34,41,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-historical","category-romance","category-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6925"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6931,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6925\/revisions\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}