True Heart

A month after she announces her pregnancy to her husband, Kaley Cotter returns to Trueheart, Colorado and the Circle C., the ranch her family has held for four generations. Instead of finding sanctuary, however, she finds the ranch in financial peril. Although Kaley has always been a silent partner and sent half of her schoolteacher's salary each month to help financially, it's not enough. Her brother has struggled for years to hold the ranch together, borrowing extensively from the bank and even from their neighbor, Tripp McGraw. Now he's ready to cut their losses so that he might follow his own dream. He's enlisted in the air force, and his letter stating that he's selling out to Tripp is probably sitting in Kaley's mailbox even as she pulls into the ranch. She hasn't the heart to tell her brother of her pregnancy when she announces her divorce; instead, she simply wishes him well as he departs. And when Tripp turns up, she sure isn't going to tell him of her impending motherhood, either; at least, not until it becomes self-evident. Tripp sold his best cutter, a horse he began gentling when it was only an hour old, to finance the purchase of Circle C. It's a fair offer; he pays what the ranch is worth minus the forty thousand his neighbor borrowed in a last ditch effort to turn a profit. When he knocks at the door, however, he is shocked to find Kaley, the girl he loved deeply nine years ago. Even when he asked her to marry him back then, Tripp never understood what a pretty girl would want with an uneducated cowboy with a sliced up face. His own mother had proven the fickleness of pretty women when it came to ranching. Anyway, something that good was to too good to last and when Kaley postponed their wedding a second time, he'd seen the handwriting on the wall. So while she was in Europe, he sent the letter that ended their engagement. Two months later she met Richard, who she agreed to marry ten months later. Only now she's back and he holds a balloon note for forty thousand dollars.Filled with the struggles faced by ordinary people, TRUE HEART makes the ordinary extraordinary. Author Peggy Nicholson's storytelling abilities result in a beautiful tale about second chances and the power of love. Kaley's resilience in the face of overwhelming adversity coupled with Tripp's closely guarded, deep emotions result in delightful, memorable characters. The struggles of ranchers in the face of challenges from weather, the economy and day-to-day struggle to preserve their way of life likewise come alive with this author's pen, lending TRUE HEART a strong background. Very highly recommended.