Ida Sinclair has joined her sisters, Kat and Nell, in the untamed mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado for one reason: to work for the infamous but undeniably successful businesswoman, Mollie O’Bryan. Ida’s sisters may be interested in making a match for their determined older sister, but Ida only wants to build her career.
Under Mollie's tutelage, Ida learns how to play the stock market and revels in her promising accomplishments. Fighting for respect in a man's world, her ambition leaves little room for distractions. She ignores her family's reservations about Mollie O'Bryan's business practices, but no matter how she tries, she can't ignore the two men pursuing her affections—Colin Wagner, the dashing lawyer, and Tucker Raines, the traveling preacher.
Ida wants a career more than anything else, so she shrugs off the suitors and pointed “suggestions” that young ladies don’t belong in business. Will it take unexpected love—or unexpected danger—for Ida to realize where her priorities truly lie?"
I really enjoyed this book. Not because it was the best book I've ever read, or anything...it was just fun. A lighthearted clean Christian romance. I'll probably even keep it (I typically only buy books I've read, loved and want to read again). It's nice to have a few light bathtub books on hand! This appears to be the second in a series of books about the Sinclair sisters. I definitely plan on reading the others.
On a more meaningful level, I could relate to one of the main premises of the book: the struggle of priorities as a woman, between ambition and relationships. My mother was one of three women to graduated in business from her university in 1974. The first day of one of her business classes, she walked in and the professor said, "Miss, the typing class is down the hall." She replied she was in the right place, and sat down. She went on to have a successful career as a businesswoman. This is the woman who raised me, who taught me that I could do anything and be anything I wanted. But all that being said, after I was born, she gave up all of that success to be a stay-at-home mom to me and my two younger siblings that followed. And so, years later, when I found myself about to graduate from my undergrad with acceptances to two of the best graduate programs in the country...and a fiance who had to stay put, with two more years of undergrad on full scholarship...I chose love over ambition. I've never regretted it for even a moment. As I said then, I'm not giving up dreams, I'm choosing some dreams over others for the time being. Someday, I'll go back to school. But I'll do it knowing I have everything that really matters, because I chose that first.
I love books that relate to topics I feel passionately about.
I give this book 3.5 stars (which feels a little low honestly...but I just can't give many romances more stars than that!). A good read.
And yes, I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. And I can't wait to pick my next one!
