Book Review: A Tender Hope

A Tender Hope
By Amanda Cabot
Revell, 2019
352 pages

Widowed midwife Thea Michener moved to Cimarron Creek hoping to escape the painful memories of her murdered husband and stillborn son and help her friend Aimee find the mother she’s never known. She doesn’t expect for handsome Texas Ranger Jackson Guthrie to be waiting for her the day she arrives with an abandoned baby and questions about her deceased husband.

Though he is expecting to find the female member of the notorious Gang of Four that killed his brother, Jackson quickly comes to realize that Thea isn’t a suspect, though he still thinks she might know something about her husband’s involvement. But when he locates the body of the mother of the abandoned baby Thea agreed to care for only to find that her resemblance to Thea is uncanny, they begin to realize that Thea is in real danger.

As Jackson comes to care for Thea and the baby, he feels the pressure to track down the gang and keep them safe. Thea wants to picture a future with Jackson but her troubled past marriage makes her hesitant. As the threat from the remaining members of the gang gets closer to home, Jackson and Thea must work together to bring them down and decide if they are willing to build a life together.

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Thanks to Revell for sending me a copy of A Tender Hope to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amanda Cabot is a new author to me, but one that I’ve frequently heard that others enjoy, so when I got the opportunity to review A Tender Hope I decided to give her a try. My verdict: I thought this book was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. The premise was interesting and the characters had problems that felt true to life and relatable. There were a couple of twists in the Gang of Four part of the storyline that I didn’t see coming, and I liked that there was a side storyline of Thea’s friend seeking the mother who gave her up for adoption.

Similar historical romances I enjoyed:

• With This Pledge
• The Lieutenant’s Bargain
• The Weaver’s Daughter

I have to say it did take me a few chapters to really get into the story. It felt like the set up took a little too long, but I was in after Jackson found the body of the woman who looked just like Thea around page 55 and the rest of the story went more quickly after that. I also got the feeling that I might have enjoyed A Tender Hope slightly more if I had read the first two books in the series already and understood some of the nuance of the town, but overall it was pretty good as a standalone read. While it wasn’t quite a five star read for me, I can think a few people in my life who I believe would really enjoy it so I still give it two thumbs up for recommend-ability.

When was the last time you tried an author you hadn’t read before?