Finding Love and Coming Home

Lainie Johnson travels to the Lone Tree ranch in West Texas after her mother's death in order to meet her maternal grandfather--who doesn't even know she exists. Because of the twenty-five-year estrangement between her mother and grandfather, Lainie doesn't tell him who she is, wanting first to find out what kind of man he is before inviting him into her life.

But she finds that he isn't the only man she must contend with. Reed Smith, the bossy and cocky ranch foreman, figures that Lainie is the woman for him the first time he lays eyes on her. She feels the same about him but because of the secrets she's holding she fights it. So...just who's going to blink first?

I had the pleasure of reading Bobbie O’Keefe’s Lone Tree. As a Texas girl myself, it was like having a taste of home for me. I loved reading some of the things those guys would say, certain phrases that are so Texas. Later in the book, when Lainie returns to California, and everyone notices her accent, put a smile on my face. Having been well into my talking years before my family moved to Texas, I know how easily that accent is picked up, and all these years after leaving Texas, I still have my twang and key phrases that mark me as a Texas girl.

Lainie’s reason for visiting Texas was a powerful one. Every encounter between her and Miles leaves you holding your breath. You anticipate how this meeting will go. You may be wrong, but you are never disappointed. You are suspicious of everyone’s motives, actions and thoughts. At times, you want to scream at Lainie for the choices she is making, but she seems to have a good reason for each of those decisions.

Enter in the sexy, Texas cowboy. I love the way O’Keefe introduced him to the story. I wonder if she always planned for him to be a major part of Lainie’s adventure or if he was originally meant as a piece of eye candy for her to get a taste of Texas. Whatever her original intent, she did a wonderful job building his character and the secondary (or was it the primary) storyline.
Night after night, I hated to put Lone Tree down. I found myself lying in bed, speculating on where the Lone Tree Ranch was going to lead me tomorrow. When the story lines began to explode, one right after the other, it was in a totally unexpected way. I was caught off guard when Lainie was caught off guard. This is what makes a story all the better to me.

I try to anticipate where a writer is going; sometimes I have the whole story figured out within the first few pages. This was definitely not the case with Bobbie O’Keefe’s Lone Tree. She left me wanting to see more of life on Lone Tree Ranch. This is not to say the story is incomplete, rather that more stories could be told.

O’Keefe did an excellent job with this story. I recommend it to all who love a good romance or a good story of coming home again.