Review: Better value to buy the collection
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2014
A Cowboy for Katie is part of the Four Weddings and a Kiss novella quartet, from four authors who are well-known for their Christian historical romances, set in the American West during the years after the US Civil War. Each of the wedding stories is a tale told to a young minister who feels compelled to break up with his lady love because she wouldn’t make a suitable minister’s wife. The stories of four weddings, related by four more experienced colleagues, are intended to make him reconsider. If you are interested in these stories, then the four-in-one "Four Weddings and a Kiss" novella collection is better value than buying the novellas one at a time.A Cowboy for Katie by Debra Clopton might have been my favourite of the four. Katie Pearl’s father, her only relative, died three weeks ago in a tornado that flattened their house and left her trapped for days. Since then, every no-good cowboy in town has been by to propose to her—after all, she’s now the sole owner of their farm. She hires drifter Treb Rayburn to rebuild her house, even though she’s too traumatised to go inside. Treb has his own issues. He’s also an orphan, and feels guilty for the death of his family.I liked this because Katie and Treb were both broken characters in their own way. Katie was the one with obvious problems—no house, a speech impediment, scared of the dark and afraid of enclosed places. Treb was incredibly kind and patient, growing attached despite his personal vow never to love again, because it hurt too much to lose. Yet Katie, despite her own weaknesses, was able to make Treb reevaluate his past, and his future.