Lonestar series by Colleen Coble

 

Good evening all my fellow booklovers. I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday :)

 

As I mentioned in my Bookish Resolutions post here: http://www.thepreppybookprincess.blogspot.ca/2016/01/bookish-resolutions.html

 

One of my reading goals for this year was to read more inspirational fiction. Its a genre that I honestly love, but I haven't read too much of it in the last little while as I always seem to be choosing books from other genres first. but I'm very glad to say that I've been reading more of it this year already, and I'm definitely enjoying doing so.

 

To sound redundant, I also discovered this series from one of Book Outlet's amazing sales (yes I do know I have a book buying problem,) as Lonestar Sanctuary was one sale for only .74 cents!!! Yes that is correct, this book cost me less than a dollar. At the time I had no idea it was a series, since my only other experience with Colleen Coble was reading Alaska Twilight a couple of years back, which I enjoyed immensely, but since it was a stand alone I never really connected that this book was part of a series. I read Lonestar Sanctuary last year, but only got around to reading Lonestar Secrets, and Lonestar Homecoming this month. And I've recently discovered that this series also includes a fourth book and a novella so I'm looking forward to reading those within the next couple of weeks as well.

 

I have to say that after reading the first book in this series and really enjoying it, I was a bit apprehensive about continuing on with this series. This was simply because the plot of all the books sounded so similar. Each book in the Lonestar series is about a woman on the run from something in her life, with her young daughter, ending up in this small Texas town, and agreeing to a marriage of convenience to protect their child. I was really skeptical about how Colleen Coble could write this same storyline several times, and have it remain original. After all, how would it be possible to give each runaway single mother of a young girl agreeing to a marriage of convenience, running from her past with a bit of suspense and horses tossed in, their own unique story? But at the same time I was intrigued, because I honestly enjoy novels where a marriage of convenience is the center focus, as I love seeing the characters learn to love each other after the marriage has already happened, but it's something I've only ever read before in historical fiction, never in contemporary fiction. As this review is for three books in the series, I'm not going to list the synopsises as I feel it would tie up too much of the post, and instead I'm just going to give my overall thoughts on this series.

 

First and foremost I will say that Colleen Coble proved my initial doubts wrong. It was possible for her to write three stories similar in idea, and yet make each one unique. I loved how each couple, Allie and Rick, Shannon and Jack, and Gracie and Michael, agreed to a marriage of convenience for the sake of their children, but for many varying reasons. I especially enjoyed Lonestar Homecoming as I found Gracie and Michael's story to be especially endearing with the addition of his two kids in the mix, and not just hers. Plus I found this novel to be the most suspenseful of all the books, as it was about the Mexican drug cartel, and the many issues surrounding it. I loved seeing how each of the six characters learned to rely on God, even through the hard times, and how the horses often played a bit part in teaching them to do so. I also loved how Colleen Coble, in my opinion, made each of these novels realistic, and it was implied that many problems may never be fully resolved, but that is part of life. I would highly recommend these books to anyone looking for an inspirational fiction book to read, especially if you like suspense books. I found these books to truly be unique from a lot of other books I've read, because of the marriage of convenience angle, and I gave each of these three novels 4 out of 5 stars. I'm looking forward to continuing on with this series in the next few weeks.

 

Also, for my favorite quote I'm going to be changing a bit from how I usually do this. I had several quotes picked out from each book which may have been my favorite, but it was honestly reading the acknowledgements in book three, Lonestar Homecoming, that I truly found a quote that I fell in love with. While it may not be a quote directly form one of the novels, I felt it perfectly describes these books, and I loved how Colleen Coble worded it. Here it is: "A good marriage doesn't just happen. All marriages are between flawed people who have to figure out a way to meld their differences into a relationship that works. It's about learning how to give when you'd rather take. It's about agreeing to watch golf when you'd rather watch  The Biggest Loser."

 

Thanks everyone for reading. I will be back soon with more bookish posts, and I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend.

 

This is not a sponsored post. The book was not provided for review, and was purchased by me. The photo was taken by me with my IPhone. I am not affiliated with Book Outlet.