She's Gone Country by Jane Porter (Book Review) and Giveaway!

Title: She's Gone Country
Author: Jane Porter
Publisher: Hachette

My synopsis: Shey is a Texas girl, born and bred - but for the last 20 some years she has lived in the city (New York) and traveled as a high fashion model.  She has even had her own tv show.  She married another model and together they had 3 boys.  But then, what she thought was everything she wanted, started to chip away.

Her husband of 17 years tells her he is gay and is leaving her for a man. She returns home to Texas and her family after her brother Cody commits suicide.  Feeling like she really has returned "home" she packs up her 3 boys and moves back to the family ranch.  The ranch house has been empty since her mom has moved in with her mom to take care of her. Brick and Blue, her 2 remaining brothers both live in the area, but with wives and children of their own.

Hank, her oldest son at 15, is miserable in Texas.  He misses his prep school and the lacrosse team.  Bo, her 14 year old, suffers from depression and Shey is very worried that he is too much like Cody to chalk his problems up to just being a teenager.  Then there is Cooper.  Cooper is only 12, but is already almost 6 feet tall.  He is also probably the strongest willed of the 3 boys and is bound and determined he is going to be a bull rider like his Uncle Brick was and Dane Kelly.

Now Dane is a man from Shey's past.  When she was 16, Shey was sure she was going to marry Dane, but Dane was 6 years older than she was.  Her parents thought she was too young for such intense feelings and shipped her off to a private school in California.  From there she went on to Stanford, and when she finally returned to Texas, discovered that Dane had married a girl from her class.  She is angry and hurt, always thinking that he would wait for her. And now here he is. Divorced. No longer a bull rider due to an injury. But still as sexy as she remembers.  But he is carrying around a lot of baggage of his own.

My thoughts: I liked Shey's character.  You can tell she is very strong - being a single parent to 3 teenage boys - but her whole life has been shaken up by the announcement of her husband that he is gay.  For 17 years she has lived as his partner, his lover, and she considered him her best friend - and now she finds out that it was all a lie.  It is enough to make you question how much of your life has been real. Her boys are no angels either.  Hank feels he is entitled to his private school education at any cost.  Bo, once a straight-A student is struggling to get by.  Cooper will do anything to get Dane to teach him all about bull riding.  Talk about having her hands full.  Then there is the whole family dynamic of 2 older brothers still trying to tell Shey what is right for her and a mom that disapproves of pretty much everything Shey does because she doesn't take her family to church on Sundays! 

In the course of this book, Shey is able to shake off the stuff that doesn't matter, and discovers that you have to take what life throws at you. Iit may not always be what you wanted - or when you wanted it - but stay true to yourself and your family - and things usually will work themselves out.  With cooler weather coming (hopefully!) - this would be a good one to curl up in front of the fireplace with.

~I received a copy of this book from BookSparks in exchange for my review.~

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Thanks to Hachette Books I have 3 copies of She's Gone Country to give away to 3 of my readers.  School is back in session, so even though the heat is still here - simple summer rules have gone away.  But don't worry - things aren't THAT tough.

1.  To enter, must be a follower - but I don't care how, just let me know (Facebook, twitter, Google Friend Connect, email subscriber).  Leave me that information in a comment with your email address and you are in!

2.  You can also twitter about this giveaway by just using the twitter button at the end of the post - or spread the word in any creative fashion that you want - just let me know where to find it.

3. If you comment on any of my non-giveaway links - just let me know here and you can have another entry.

So you see - you can get 3 entries - nothing real difficult - and you can leave them all in one entry if you want!  Amazing!  Just don't forget that email address!

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada, but no PO boxes.  It will end on Sept 21.  Winners will have 48 hours to respond, and if at that time there are unclaimed books, they will be given away on twitter.

She's Gone Country
Publisher/Publication Date: Hachette, Aug 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-50941-1
382 pages