Wildflower Falls + Giveaway

He’s here to train her horses and then skip town. She’s keeping her true identity a secret. But their spark complicates both of their plans.

When Charlotte Honeycutt, owner of Stillwater Ranch, discovered her deceased mother’s safety deposit box, she was not expecting life-changing news inside—the long-hidden identity of her biological father and the location of her two half brothers, Gavin and Cooper Robinson. While her father’s location is unknown, her brothers have grown up in Riverbend Gap, just as she did. Charlotte is determined to know them, but she is unsure how the revelation of a new sister might be received. Fortunately, her plans to build a new stable on her horse farm coincide with this dilemma since Robinson Construction is the only game in town, and she jumps at the chance.

Horse trainer Gunner Dawson is averse to the idea of settling down—or having lasting connections of any kind. His time at Stillwater Ranch is only meant to be temporary, but the young woman he finds there isn’t at all who he expected. Despite an inner warning that she might threaten his peace of mind, he accepts the task of getting her training program off the ground. Before long, he’s not only working at the stables—Charlotte has somehow dragged him into a search for her biological father. And Gunner soon discovers he was right about his peace of mind. Meanwhile, an abused horse tugs at his heart, Charlotte’s brother becomes a loyal friend, and the town of Riverbend Gap is getting some kind of strange hold over him. He’s always run from connections before, but this time leaving seems harder than ever before.

Both Charlotte and Gunner will have to be honest with others and themselves if they have any hope of the future they’re both starting to long for.

My Review:

I am a huge fan of an animal loving hero and horse whisperer Gunner Dawson ticks all the boxes…except for one: he’s commitment phobic. Thankfully Charlotte (and Denise Hunter) work on that so, while it’s a rocky ride, we do eventually reach a happily ever after!

While this is fourth in the Riverbend Gap series, it reads well as a standalone (I’ve only read the second book.) It does feature characters from the previous books in a pretty significant plot thread but in such a way that you don’t have to be familiar with the other stories. You’ll still get the same emotional impact if you come into the series as a newbie.

I have to say I was almost more invested in Charlotte’s search for her biological father than the romance. In fact, there’s a little hiccup involving a mild version of my most dreaded trope that had me squirming a bit. 🙂 But, my oh my, Charlottes’s struggles over finding her father and when to reveal herself to the brothers who haven’t a clue about her real identity just sucked me in and kept me reading. All kinds of angst — realistic and heartfelt.

There’s a central theme around fear and the way we can stagnate under it’s power. Both Gunner and Charlotte have let fear and uncertainty impact important decisions and their journeys are both painful and believable…and ultimately triumphant. I felt the faith elements were quite light, though, which was a bit of a disappointment.

If you can pair ‘heartwarming’ and ‘angst-riddled’ as descriptors for a book, then that’s what this one is. A captivating escape read.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY:

ebook available to anyone, anywhere who has a .com (US) Kindle account

US — paperback or ebook — winner’s choice

Canada — paperback or ebook (via a gift card to Canadian Amazon) or audible (.ca)

If you would like a chance to win a copy of Wildflower Falls, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday November 4, 2023

31 thoughts on “Wildflower Falls + Giveaway”

    1. Good luck, Nora! Re your duplicate comment — I deleted it. That’s happened to me a couple of times, usually when it seems to be taking long to post the comment so I’m thinking maybe I didn’t hit the reply button, when actually WP is just being a slowpoke. Then it posts my first comment and tells me my second one is a duplicate. 🙂

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  3. Always enjoy reading Denise’s books, but sadly I have to admit I haven’t had the opportunity to read as many as I would wish to. “Wildflower Falls” is on my TBR list and your review just makes me want to read it all the more. Love it when an author can show how it is ourselves that mess things up most times over our fears and ways of looking at things.

    Thank you for the wonderful chance to win a copy of this great sounding book.

    May your day involve more treats than tricks – Happy Halloween!
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  4. Shortly after I retired I saw a Denise Hunter book under new releases at my library and picked it up and read it. Which led to reading almost every book in her backlist plus every book released since then! She’s one of my favorites and I loved this series. Fortunately my library orders all of her books, but I’d love my own copy!

    Thanks! Sandyavery at comcast dot net

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  7. This really sound like a very good story with a number of layers to gradually peel back as one reads. I enjoy books like that to keep my attention. Plus the horses! Thanks!

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    1. Yes — this author is really good at creating all those beguiling layers. Sometimes I get impatient, wanting to know everything right away, but I also love the excruciating journey of discovery. 🙂 Good luck, CC!

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  12. I haven’t read this series, but I have a copy of at least one of the other books on my shelf. Would love to add another in the series to my collection.

    pattymh2000(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    1. I only read the second one — didn’t care for the first book’s love triangle-y trope (between brothers) but readers who aren’t LT shy loved it and said it was done really well. Good luck, Patty!

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