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–Synopsis–

In the wild mountains of the Montana Territory, the Coulter ranch is a place of family, second chances…and a hidden fortune.

Miles is the youngest of six brothers, and he’s spent most of his life helping guard the family’s secret: a sapphire mine hidden deep within the Montana mountains. With threats from a past enemy looming, a survey team’s arrival stirs suspicion—until he meets Clara Pendleton, whose presence captivates him.

Clara Pendleton joins her uncle on a survey team tasked with mapping the coming railroad’s path, only to find herself entangled with the enigmatic Coulter family. When her uncle’s accident leads them to find refuge in the Coulter home, Clara is irresistibly drawn to Miles Coulter and his quiet strength. This feels like the haven she craves…until a series of mysterious attacks endanger everyone on the ranch.

As Christmas approaches, a sleigh ride through a snowy wonderland fans the growing spark between Clara and Miles into a flame, but a broken runner leads Clara to discover the family’s secret. Now she’s faced with an impossible choice: betray the man she’s coming to love or risk the lives of his entire family—and her own uncle.

–Review–

Being the second-to-last book in this series, this installment mainly takes place on the Coulter Ranch. As per usual for these books, this is written in a dual-POV format, with Miles being the chosen brother and Clara Pendleton being the mysterious female love interest.

Similar to the previous book, I did notice some editing issues. For example, Clara is described as having both blue and green eyes. I can see if maybe the lighting was ‘changing’ her eye color, but the fact it was only described as blue one time, it makes it seem like this was just an editing error.

With this book being set predominately on the Coulter property, we do get to experience the familiarity of the previous characters more so than the last two books. I will say the ranch does feel much more crowded now with just about every brother having found him a lady, with some even having children at this point. I did enjoy getting caught up with who all is married, pregnant or still in the courting phase. I believe the only main character who did not make a reappearance was Two Stones’s wife Heidi from way back in the second book, but she has not been seen since the third or fourth book if I am not mistaken.

Similar to the previous installment, this book uncovers a bit of a conspiracy involving the family ranch as a whole. This conspiracy actually brings back characters from my favorite story of Jude and Angela, so that was interesting to see the connections being made. The plot felt much more consequential for the safety and happiness of the entire Coulter family, so there are plenty of moments of decent tension throughout.

Clara finds herself suddenly thrown into the Coulter story seemingly by accident. She believes she is assisting the railroad by mapping out the land for potential areas for the track. Unbeknownst to her, there is more than meets the eye to these plans. I will say, Clara was not my favorite love interest in this series. She was a lovely person with a strong faith and loveable personality; however, the decisions she was making were frustrating at times. Her ‘closed-door savior’ mentality could have spelt disaster for the entire Coulter family if God was not in control of the situation. That being said, she does learn a valuable lesson by the end of the book that I think we all could find useful in our everyday lives.

I was pretty excited to finally read Miles’s story. As the youngest of the brothers, he felt more like an individual than Gil did in the previous book in my opinion. His perspective of being the ‘baby’ of the family gave a refreshing change in his mentality and attitude from his older brothers. One of the more humorous examples of this was his previous disdain for PDA. You can imagine how uncomfortable it must feel being one of the last of the family to have a lady of his own, watching all of your siblings getting all snuggly with their partners. Being closer in age to Sean and Lillian, also gave him a special relationship with his niece and nephew that the older brothers simply did not have, and I thought that was sweet.

The relationship between Miles and Clara felt extremely innocent. This is mainly due to the fact Miles was not really expecting to find his own girl this early on, and his dislike for displays of affection. Needless to say, both Miles and Clara were caught off guard by their almost instant attraction for each other. You could tell, they were not quite sure how to move forward, plus Clara was only supposed to be there temporarily with her group, so the longing to get closer was very real with them. This tension, added to the fact everyone else seemed to be aware of their attractions for each other, led to some swoon-worthy moments between these two. Miles and Clara were one of my favorites of all the couples.

All in all, I gave three stars, mainly due to the frustration of Clara and the whole situation she found herself in. That being said, the end of the story led to some great character development for not just Clara and Miles, but Jericho as well that was wonderful to see. There is only one book left in this series that follows Sampson on his mysterious quest he has been on with the McPharland group, so I am excited to see where this whole saga ends.

-About the Author-

Misty M. Beller is a USA Today bestselling author of romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love.

Raised on a farm and surrounded by family, Misty developed her love for horses, history, and adventure. These days, her husband and children provide fresh adventure every day, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

Misty’s passion is to create inspiring Christian fiction infused with the grandeur of the mountains, writing historical romance that displays God’s abundant love through the twists and turns in the lives of her characters.

Sharing her stories with readers is a dream come true for Misty. She writes from her country home in South Carolina and escapes to the mountains any chance she gets.

Learn more at http://www.MistyMBeller.com.