Thursday, December 2, 2010

MONTANA GLORY by R.C. Ryan

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date Published: November 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-54864-9
Romance/Western
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Tammy
Obtained via: publisher


The third book in R.C. Ryan’s Montana trilogy, MONTANA GLORY, pulls the series together and truly gives meaning to the phrase “gold at the end of the rainbow”.

Riley and her four-year-old daughter have come to Montana to start a new life where no one can find them. As she gets to know the McCord family and its last bachelor cousin, Zane, Riley starts to think she may be able to give her daughter more than just a life on the run. Zane left the ranch and moved to Los Angeles with his parents when he was a child, but he never forgot his cousins or the ranch. Now Zane is back to search for the lost McCord gold and to his surprise, finds himself mesmerized by Riley and her little girl.

R.C. Ryan’s MONTANA GLORY is the perfect ending to a perfect western romance trilogy. The McCord family is bound and determined to find the lost McCord gold and in this final book, readers see that the cousins end up with far more than some shiny stones. Riley and her daughter are just what the ranch and Zane need. And the McCord family, and Zane in particular, are just what they need. While Summer, the little girl, is perhaps too perfect for a four-year-old, Riley is secretive and over protective. Zane is a cowboy with all that entails. The McCords are a close knit family and quickly take Riley and Summer under their wing. The pace of the story is what you would imagine it’s like, to float down a lazy river on a warm summer day; nice and relaxed. The characters are interesting and hardworking. The secondary story, the search for the gold, flows through all three books in the series and serves to pull the stories together.

My only disappointment with MONTANA GLORY comes from the way Riley’s secret is resolved. The bad guys are made out to be comic book like in their bumbling, over the top mobster personas. Readers are left wondering why Riley would feel the need to run from such inept flunkies in the first place. But by then, the gold search has been resolved and the cousins are all headed towards their happily ever afters, so perhaps we can let that go.

All in all, R.C Ryan’s MONTANA GLORY, may not be the best of the books in this trilogy, but it is a sweet and comfy western romance that nicely ties up the series in a pretty package with all mysteries solved. If western romances with happy endings and cowboys riding happily into the sunset with their equally happy honeys are your thing, then R.C. Ryan’s Montana trilogy may be just what you are looking for.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

1 comment:

Caridad Pineiro said...

Met R.C. at RWA National and she was a doll. Have this on my TBR. Do you think it's ok to read them out of order?