Sunrise Ranch (The Canyon, #2.75) by Carolyn Brown

Sunrise Ranch by Carolyn Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A satisfying conclusion to Carolyn Brown’s The Canyon series set in the Texas Panhandle.P

Unbeknownst to the others, three half-sisters are summoned to the funeral of the father they never knew for the reading of his will. Ezra Malloy had wanted a son to follow in his footsteps, but after producing a daughter, the women he married were banished from the ranch and divorced. Never having gotten that son, he leaves the ranch to the three daughters with the stipulation that they only get their legacy after they’ve lasted an entire year on the property, keeping operations going successfully. If a daughter leaves the ranch, she’s out of the will and gets nothing.

Almost a year later, the only daughter still in residence is Bonnie, the other two having fallen in love and moved on to their own little piece of heaven on Earth, right there in Palo Duro Canyon. But Bonnie has no intention of remaining on the ranch even a day longer than necessary. After the year is up, she plans to sell up and return to the bright lights, fun, and excitement of the world she left behind: this time with the money to enjoy it.

One catch: Ranch foreman Rusty Dawson, who gets the ranch should all of the daughters pull up stakes, caught Bonnie’s eye from the first moment she met him, and he feels the same about her. However, neither one is willing to admit to the other the reality of their mutual and abiding attraction.

This novella is the first work I’ve read by Carolyn Brown, and it definitely won’t be the last. I loved it. It was included as an “extra” at the end of an unrelated novel, and while that book was great, I liked this one just as much! The sisters were fun characters, and there were enough hints about each of their stories, published previously, that I HAVE to track those down. But Bonnie is the last one standing. She committed herself to fulfilling that year on the ranch, which she accomplished with enthusiasm. She turned her hand at anything and became surprisingly well adapted to the life and skills needed for a ranching lifestyle. Rusty Dawson is the sweet and steady foreman who took care of the ranch and the previous owner, the girls’ crotchety excuse for a father, until his death, and is well-deserving of inheriting the place himself. How satisfying that maybe these two can come to a mutually beneficial agreement?

Sunrise Ranch was a great introduction to this prolific writer’s work, and I’m so looking forward to jumping into the rest of this series and her many others.

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