Nora Daniels was a successful film star who fled Hollywood pregnant and amidst a divorce.  Far from being cast aside, she left to find herself and decide what to do with her life.  She fled to a friends home in Montana and had her baby and realized she wanted only what was best for her daughter, Ashley.  Her life in Montana during the winter has been interesting enough to keep her active, learning to cook, care for a newborn and making friends that don’t judge on looks and weight has been reassuring.   

Burke Elliot is a money cruncher and friend of Nora’s is sent to convince her to sign a contract and return to Hollywood for the next big movie in her career.  When he arrives in Montana he finds himself attracted to her, yet in awe of how she has surrounded herself and made the wilderness her home.  He cannot foresee how she will manage to make a living for herself but finds he only wants what is best for her – and the little baby he is falling head over heels in love with.   

Terry McLaughlin has written a novel about a successful star who left the lap of luxury to become a real mom, and has placed it in a setting that is the least likely to feel realistic, yet she has made the novel into a work of art.  The realness of the characters come from the pages and left this reviewer sighing in wonder at how easily Hollywood and Montana ranching merged.   

The downfall to this novel was the number of secondary characters.  This reader was totally baffled by Jody and Maggie.  It seemed they came out of nowhere, and were never defined.  From the second chapter, when Jody comes home from school, she felt lost and undefined, as though she wavered between child and adult.  Perhaps this reader missed something but her mother is Ellie, and again she never seemed to materialize into a real character.  This however is the third novel in Ms. McLaughlin’s Bright Lights, Big Sky series; so perhaps, this book would be better read as a series, and not a stand alone novel. 

Secondary characters aside, Burke and Nora are wonderful characters that have tale that will leave readers smiling and wishing they could be as lucky as to have found a man who loves them as completely and truly as Burke does Nora and her daughter Ashley.  The main plotline makes this a delightful tale, and gives enough of a merit to keep this reader wanting more for Terry McLaughlin, and has encouraged her to seek out the first two books in this series, MAKE BELIEVE COWBOY and THE RANCHER NEEDS A WIFE.

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