Vivie Steel didn’t mean to offer Kane a job, but through a coffee shop conversation about killer roosters, somehow that’s what happened. Now, she has to juggle the responsibilities of owning a ranch, finishing college, and having a crush on her new ranch hand, and it looks like something’s going to have to give.
A cattle ranch was the last place Kane Diaz ever expected to work, but with a week left in his apartment and no savings to speak of, he wasn’t going to turn down a job offer. Despite believing the Lord placed him at Steelgate, ranching doesn’t come easy for Kane, and his position grows even more complicated when he catches feelings for his boss.
Can Vivie and Kane find a way to be together or will their responsibilities push them apart?
The first in a series of Christian, contemporary romances set on a cattle ranch in North Georgia. These books are New Adult age range, but are clean (no language, no smut, only very sweet kisses) so they can be enjoyed by upper high school ages as well. They will be connected, but can be read as stand-alones.
Vivie Steel didn’t mean to offer Kane a job, but through a coffee shop conversation about killer roosters, somehow that’s what happened. Now, she has to juggle the responsibilities of owning a ranch, finishing college, and having a crush on her new ranch hand, and it looks like something’s going to have to give.
A cattle ranch was the last place Kane Diaz ever expected to work, but with a week left in his apartment and no savings to speak of, he wasn’t going to turn down a job offer. Despite believing the Lord placed him at Steelgate, ranching doesn’t come easy for Kane, and his position grows even more complicated when he catches feelings for his boss.
Can Vivie and Kane find a way to be together or will their responsibilities push them apart?
The first in a series of Christian, contemporary romances set on a cattle ranch in North Georgia. These books are New Adult age range, but are clean (no language, no smut, only very sweet kisses) so they can be enjoyed by upper high school ages as well. They will be connected, but can be read as stand-alones.
“Roosters are arguably the most dangerous animals on a ranch.”
Kane choked on his coffee as the woman at the next table declared her fear of roosters. He closed his eyes as he coughed, hoping the woman would assume he’d simply swallowed air instead of realizing that he’d been laughing at what she said.
He’d been trying not to listen to her, even though the brunette had caught his eye in her bright yellow T-shirt and cowboy boots, but when she’d started detailing how she and her brother had hotwired an old truck at the junkyard to get an injured calf back to their farm, he had a hard time tuning her out. It wasn’t the kind of story he usually heard at a coffee shop in Green Arbor, Georgia.
Finally getting his cough under control, Kane glanced up to make sure no one was watching him too closely and met the bright blue eyes of the woman who’d instigated his coughing fit.
“Glad I could amuse you,” she chirped. Her grin was warm and friendly, not the judgmental glare he’d been expecting if she realized he was eavesdropping.
Kane hesitated before asking, “Wouldn’t an angry bull be worse than a chicken?” He sounded more incredulous than anything, but he wasn’t sure what to say, and she was still looking at him like she expected some sort of response.
She laughed brightly and shook her head. “I’ve had plenty of bulls and hardly ever seen them angry. But roosters? I can’t seem to get from one Sunday to the next without making our rooster mad.”
“So, it’s the frequency of danger, not the magnitude?”
“I think it’s that way with most things.” She shrugged and turned back to her friend, continuing their conversation a little more quietly though still loud enough that he could have kept listening, their voices not quite melding into the general chatter of the coffee shop.
Kane kept his eyes on his computer screen and tried to look focused as the women started packing up a few minutes later. As they passed his table, the brunette’s friend, a taller woman with choppy, dark curls, dropped a card next to his coffee.
“I’m Ally, that’s Vivie. If you ever want a closer look at farm life, she does tours and occasional overnights at Steelgate Ranch. They’re pretty cheap, relatively speaking. And I can almost guarantee you’ll see at least one angry rooster.” Her bright smile drew his own lips upward even as his heart sank.
He’d love to see the ranch—it wasn’t something he’d ever thought about doing—but listening to Vivie’s stories definitely made it sound fun. Even if the tours were cheap, though, he couldn’t swing it. The only reason he’d bought a coffee was so the staff didn’t think he was freeloading their Wi-Fi to apply for jobs, which he was, and even then, he’d gotten a basic black coffee that he could barely drink just because it was cheap.
“I’m Kane,” he said, trying to keep his smile light, “and I’ll—I’ll see if I can come by sometime.”
Ally nodded and Vivie offered a tiny wave as she turned and headed out of the coffee shop.
Kane rolled his shoulders and glanced at the card on the table. Maybe in a few months he would be able to go, once he had sorted out a place to stay, found a new job, and had a little money built up in his checking account, which he was praying happened soon.
He had a week left in his apartment and a too-high credit card bill from trying to buy groceries, and he’d been looking for a job for far too long. Despite sending in a dozen applications, nowhere wanted him. He’d even applied at the coffee shop he was sitting in, but they’d said they just hired new staff and had forgotten to take the help wanted ad down.
It wasn’t like he was new to living paycheck to paycheck. His parents were missionaries, and they’d had to live that way from time to time, but God had always provided for them. Surely, he’d do the same for Kane now, right?
Sometimes it was easier to say it than believe it. Kane ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the wall behind him.
He’d had big plans before everything had crashed and burned. Plans for starting a missions sending agency that could work with his parents and other missionaries.
But that took time to get started, and he was finding it hard to focus on when he couldn’t pay his bills.
Kane glanced back down at the card after submitting yet another job application and wondered briefly what it would be like to work on a ranch. While he’d enjoyed being a fast-food cook for a while, being a ranch hand sounded much more interesting than any of the other jobs he’d had through high school and college, but maybe that was because he had no idea what actually happened on a ranch. Maybe he was delusional. Or maybe...
He wasn’t sure if it was desperation or heavenly direction, but Kane stuffed his computer into his backpack and nearly sprinted to the door, typing the address for the farm into his phone as he went. He screenshotted the directions so he could use them without Wi-Fi and hopped into his car.
It wasn’t likely that Vivie’s ranch would want to hire someone who’d never so much as been to a petting zoo in their entire life, but he prayed for a miracle and pulled out onto the road.
From the opening pages, it was clear that The Ranch Hand by Leigh Andrews was going to be an amusing and humorous read. What wasn't quite so apparent beforehand was the beautiful way Andrews is able to seamlessly weave a smattering of heavier themes and a powerful faith thread into her stories! The Ranch Hand by Leigh Andrews is a delightful read!
The story opens with the two main characters' accidental meeting in a local coffee shop. Kane Diaz and Vivienne Steel have a chance meeting that inevitably changes the course of both their lives. After following along in a series of entertaining happenstances, Kane finds himself at the Steelgate Ranch, and there he meets Vivie's brother, Thomas, and his friend and fellow ranch hand, Micheal. Both Kane and Vivie are at a cross-roads in their life, and when their unexpected meeting turns into a much needed friendship with the possibility of becoming something more, they realize that it's time to sit down and really think about what it is they want in life. Is there even a future for them at the ranch, and do their future paths include each other?
In The Ranch Hand, Andrews takes readers on a wonderful journey that explores these questions a bit, and includes some pretty sweet friendships and banter along the way! Leigh Andrews has given readers an amazing story. The characters face real problems, and seek out real solutions. While life doesn't always go our way, it does sometimes work out in unexpected ways just when we need it most.
This story is definitely a Christian story, with faith taking a more dominant role in the story, which will delight fans of the genre who seek a more faith-filled read. The author does a wonderful job presenting Biblical truths while still letting the story move at a natural pace. The faith aspects, and mentions of God and Holy Spirit, appear naturally as the characters seek wisdom and understanding in the difficulties they face throughout the story. The story also progresses in a way that leads readers alongside the characters, allowing them to see the problems creeping up as the story goes on, and giving them a front row seat to hear the character's thoughts as they speak about the issues, and giving them the opportunity to catch the subtle cues scattered throughout the story, combined they offer a clear sign that all isn't as it first appears on the ranch. When tensions rise, and tempers flair, choices must be made.
This was perhaps the strongest element of the story, aside from the faith aspect. The fact that the characters appear real. That they face challenges that many of us likely face, or have faced. Seeing them working together, both on the ranch and as a family, was part of what makes this story special. In The Ranch Hand by Leigh Andrews, we see that family can be messy, and that despite loving each other, sometimes we struggle to let go. The best of intentions can still by misplaced and even misguided at times. Life is about learning, growing, and having faith. Things that many of us struggle with. This story paints a brilliant picture of that struggle, and also gives a slight hint at what the next book in the series might look like.
Leigh Andrews has done a wonderful job with this first book in her new Love at Steelgate Ranch, and fans of the genre are going to want to be on the lookout! This series is a lovely addition to Christian Contemporary Fiction lineup. If half-ratings were available, I could easily award The Ranch Hand by Leigh Andrews 4.5 stars! I loved the story, and look forward to reading more of this series!