Melissa B. (mblisa) reviewed Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek (Return to Dry Creek, Bk 1) (Love Inspired, No 667) on + 60 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Wade Stone and his family have a past history in Dry Creek, and after leaving to follow a Rodeo Career, he's not sure how his friends will react when he returns to his Hometown.
He cared for Amy Mitchell many years ago, and she is still in his thoughts.
Wade even remembers her favorite gum that she liked..
This story has a mystery element to it, and as the families surrounding the mystery try to work together to put the past behind them, you learn the secret of what happened many years ago.
I also enjoyed the spirit of the Community as they prepared for the Annual Christmas Pageant.
The men worked on painting the elves on the sleigh for Christmas Gift Giving so the children in the Community could have a brighter Christmas, while Wade looked forward to driving the sleigh.
I gave this book 5 stars, its a wonderful Christmas story!
He cared for Amy Mitchell many years ago, and she is still in his thoughts.
Wade even remembers her favorite gum that she liked..
This story has a mystery element to it, and as the families surrounding the mystery try to work together to put the past behind them, you learn the secret of what happened many years ago.
I also enjoyed the spirit of the Community as they prepared for the Annual Christmas Pageant.
The men worked on painting the elves on the sleigh for Christmas Gift Giving so the children in the Community could have a brighter Christmas, while Wade looked forward to driving the sleigh.
I gave this book 5 stars, its a wonderful Christmas story!
Alice B. reviewed Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek (Return to Dry Creek, Bk 1) (Love Inspired, No 667) on + 3558 more book reviews
Wade Stone stopped his pickup at the edge of Dry Creek, Montana, and peered through the icy windshield. The December sky was dark, as much from the storm clouds as from the slowness of the dawn. He turned his headlights off and could still clearly see the small town. A few weathered buildings with chipped paint and sagging porches lined each side of what passed for a street. Most people would travel through Dry Creek and forget all about it by the time they reached the state line. But not Wade.
Even though he had been gone for nine years, one look at this town reminded him of how much he missed it. He was weary of living out of motels and following the rodeo circuit. At twenty-six years old, he had yet to find a place that measured up to Dry Creek, and he was ready to settle down.
He glanced over at his mother, sitting so still in the passenger side of the seat. It didn't matter how he felt; he and his family were not welcome here. They couldn't expect to come back and pretend the past was wiped clean just because his mother had served her jail time. In a place like this, people took murder seriously. They wouldn't soon forget that she'd killed her husband.
By now, his mother must realize her desire to come back wasn't going to work. He should have said something earlier, but her request that he drive her to the cafe had caught him off guard. He'd only returned to the family ranch last night, and he hadn't thought through some of these things. But now that he had, he'd just turn his pickup around and leave before anyone knew they had even been here.
He was all set to do that when, out of the grayness of the dawn, a sudden flurry of hail came quick and hard. The tiny hailstones hit his windshield in a fast rhythm and, just when he became worried they'd actually do some damage, the storm stopped. Everything seemed strangely peaceful for a moment, and then a shaft of light came streaming right through the dark clouds.
Wade heard an indrawn breath and looked over at his mother again.
"That's God's message to me light in the darkness," she said, turning to him with relief shining on her face. "I was right to come back. It's a sign from Him."
Wade held his tongue. He didn't begrudge his mother the faith she'd found in prison. After all, he knew people did what they had to do to survive in those kinds of places. He'd done some foolish things himself after her trial ended and he left the family ranch. He was seventeen and thought himself a man, but he bought his first packet of spearmint chewing gum just because the smell reminded him of that kiss he'd stolen from Amy Mitchell down the street from here. Sweet, golden-haired Amy. He'd never forget her.
Just having the gum had given him comfort in those early days when he had been sleeping in his pickup and trying to find his place in the rodeo world. The smell made him dream of a better life, even if he knew he'd never live it. He supposed it was like that for his mother and her newfound faith.
"It's winter. There's nothing unusual about this kind of day," Wade finally pointed out, trying to keep his voice soft. He understood her hope. He still had a packet of that gum in his shirt pocket.
The glow dimmed on his mother's face. By now, covered by more gray clouds, the light was gone from the sky, too.
"You think I'm wrong? To come back here?" she asked.
"No, I just mean;" He scrambled to find words to explain his unease and then couldn't bring himself to speak them. He might not share her faith, but his mother had suffered enough. "It doesn't need to mean anything. That's all."
Strands of white hair ran through his mother's formerly all-black mane, and her nose had the slight hook inherited from her Cherokee grandfather. Wade didn't need to look any closer to see she was fragile. She might be only forty-five years old, but unless she smiled, she could pass for sixty. He wondered if she'd gotten her full hour of exercise each day when she'd been away.
She searched his eyes for a moment. "Is that why your brothers aren't here?"
"Did you send them letters, too?"
She nodded and then looked out the window. Her face softened as though she was dreaming. "You might think I'm foolish to be here, but once our ranch is back in shape, there will be room for all of you boys to come home and make a life for yourself."
After nine years of standing empty, the ranch house was in shambles. Wade had looked around with a flashlight last night when he'd arrived. At least one of the windows had been broken, and an animal of some kind had gotten inside. Dishes sat in pieces on the kitchen floor and chewed-up paper had been blown into the corners of the living room. He hadn't been able to see the fields in the dark, but he imagined they weren't any better. He hadn't come back because he felt he could change anything on the old place. He only wanted to do what he could to spare his mother any more pain and humiliation. He owed her that much.
"Don't worry about my brothers and me. We have lives." He didn't see the need to go into details. He wasn't sure that his mother knew about Jake's recent string of gambling losses in Las Vegas. And none of them had heard from Tyler in a couple of years, so Wade assumed his youngest brother was having a hard time, too. There hadn't been a place in Montana, so both of his brothers had gone to live in some kind of state institution for juveniles in North Dakota when their mother went to prison. Wade had been old enough to be given a choice about going with them, and he had refused. His emotions had been so raw back then that he wanted to put everything behind him, including his family.
He hadn't been able to, though. He'd thought of his brothers more than he had wanted, even if he hadn't known what to say to either of them when he'd called. He wondered if his brothers blamed him for not sticking with them, but he'd never asked. He felt bad enough about it on his own.
"The barn is tight against the weather. We can all stay there if needed until the house is ready," his mother continued, as if it was a plan she'd worked out in her mind some time ago and he guessed she probably had. She had been sleeping in the tack room off the barn for the few days she'd been back, and he figured that was mostly because the roof was good and there was an electrical outlet. She could plug in a lamp to read that Bible she carried everywhere with her.
Wade had unrolled his sleeping bag in one of the old stalls last night. He didn't need a light to read anything ;religious or not;but he had lain there until midnight, watching the moonlight shine through the frost on the side window and wishing he could wipe away the past with a big, black book like his mother seemed to be doing.
He finally dozed off and managed to sleep for several hours before a spasm in his leg woke him. It was almost dawn and bitter cold, even inside the barn. When he stood, the cramp went away, but his leg was stiffer than usual. The rodeo doctor had said Wade would limp for a long time after his last fall, and it seemed that he was right.
"We'll talk about all of this later," Wade said now, keeping his voice gentle. His mother had her own wounds from the past, and he didn't want her to worry about any of his. "Let me take you home so you can rest."
"It won't get any easier." His mother pressed her lips into a severe line as her fingers gripped the edge of the metal bowl she held in her lap. "Besides, I've come to buy eggs. The cafe will surely sell me some."
He noticed with a start that she still had her gold wedding band on her finger.
"I told you I don't need breakfast." He wondered if her knuckles were swollen, and that's why she hadn't taken the ring off. The round band had been cheap thirty years ago, and it had worn so thin since then that a wire cutter could slice through it like it was butter.
Just then, his mother's chin lifted, and he saw a glimpse of the woman she used to be. "It's your first morning back, and I intend to make you a sausage-and-egg scramble, like I did when you were a boy. We need to start living a normal life sometime."
He studied his mother for a long minute before suddenly realizing she probably hadn't even tried to remove that ring. She was stuck in the past. She didn't understand how things had changed.
"Come to Idaho with me," Wade urged suddenly. He'd competed in a rodeo there a couple of years ago, and he liked the state. It wasn't Dry Creek, but it had open spaces, and it would do fine. "I'll build us a nice, big house. One of those with a wraparound deck and maybe a sunroom just for you. Whatever you want. You like the sun."
She shook her head and smiled slightly. "Have I told you how proud I am of you? But you need to save your rodeo winnings for your own future. I have a home that suits me fine."
Wade knew better than to press her. No one in his family talked about their emotions with any ease, especially not with each other. "At least let me pay someone to help get the house in shape. I'll have my hands full with fixing the barn and corrals before I need to leave."
He'd started driving to Montana the day after he got her letter, but he didn't plan on staying so long that he missed the National Finals Rodeo next month. If he stopped riding for too long, he'd never get back on a horse again. That tumble he'd taken eight months ago had almost killed him. Since then, the other riders had decided he'd lost his nerve, and they had started circling his championshipâthe one he won every yearâlike buzzards in the dead of winter.
"I want to do the house myself," his mother said, dragging Wade's mind back to the conversation. "I need to get things ready for Christmas.
Even though he had been gone for nine years, one look at this town reminded him of how much he missed it. He was weary of living out of motels and following the rodeo circuit. At twenty-six years old, he had yet to find a place that measured up to Dry Creek, and he was ready to settle down.
He glanced over at his mother, sitting so still in the passenger side of the seat. It didn't matter how he felt; he and his family were not welcome here. They couldn't expect to come back and pretend the past was wiped clean just because his mother had served her jail time. In a place like this, people took murder seriously. They wouldn't soon forget that she'd killed her husband.
By now, his mother must realize her desire to come back wasn't going to work. He should have said something earlier, but her request that he drive her to the cafe had caught him off guard. He'd only returned to the family ranch last night, and he hadn't thought through some of these things. But now that he had, he'd just turn his pickup around and leave before anyone knew they had even been here.
He was all set to do that when, out of the grayness of the dawn, a sudden flurry of hail came quick and hard. The tiny hailstones hit his windshield in a fast rhythm and, just when he became worried they'd actually do some damage, the storm stopped. Everything seemed strangely peaceful for a moment, and then a shaft of light came streaming right through the dark clouds.
Wade heard an indrawn breath and looked over at his mother again.
"That's God's message to me light in the darkness," she said, turning to him with relief shining on her face. "I was right to come back. It's a sign from Him."
Wade held his tongue. He didn't begrudge his mother the faith she'd found in prison. After all, he knew people did what they had to do to survive in those kinds of places. He'd done some foolish things himself after her trial ended and he left the family ranch. He was seventeen and thought himself a man, but he bought his first packet of spearmint chewing gum just because the smell reminded him of that kiss he'd stolen from Amy Mitchell down the street from here. Sweet, golden-haired Amy. He'd never forget her.
Just having the gum had given him comfort in those early days when he had been sleeping in his pickup and trying to find his place in the rodeo world. The smell made him dream of a better life, even if he knew he'd never live it. He supposed it was like that for his mother and her newfound faith.
"It's winter. There's nothing unusual about this kind of day," Wade finally pointed out, trying to keep his voice soft. He understood her hope. He still had a packet of that gum in his shirt pocket.
The glow dimmed on his mother's face. By now, covered by more gray clouds, the light was gone from the sky, too.
"You think I'm wrong? To come back here?" she asked.
"No, I just mean;" He scrambled to find words to explain his unease and then couldn't bring himself to speak them. He might not share her faith, but his mother had suffered enough. "It doesn't need to mean anything. That's all."
Strands of white hair ran through his mother's formerly all-black mane, and her nose had the slight hook inherited from her Cherokee grandfather. Wade didn't need to look any closer to see she was fragile. She might be only forty-five years old, but unless she smiled, she could pass for sixty. He wondered if she'd gotten her full hour of exercise each day when she'd been away.
She searched his eyes for a moment. "Is that why your brothers aren't here?"
"Did you send them letters, too?"
She nodded and then looked out the window. Her face softened as though she was dreaming. "You might think I'm foolish to be here, but once our ranch is back in shape, there will be room for all of you boys to come home and make a life for yourself."
After nine years of standing empty, the ranch house was in shambles. Wade had looked around with a flashlight last night when he'd arrived. At least one of the windows had been broken, and an animal of some kind had gotten inside. Dishes sat in pieces on the kitchen floor and chewed-up paper had been blown into the corners of the living room. He hadn't been able to see the fields in the dark, but he imagined they weren't any better. He hadn't come back because he felt he could change anything on the old place. He only wanted to do what he could to spare his mother any more pain and humiliation. He owed her that much.
"Don't worry about my brothers and me. We have lives." He didn't see the need to go into details. He wasn't sure that his mother knew about Jake's recent string of gambling losses in Las Vegas. And none of them had heard from Tyler in a couple of years, so Wade assumed his youngest brother was having a hard time, too. There hadn't been a place in Montana, so both of his brothers had gone to live in some kind of state institution for juveniles in North Dakota when their mother went to prison. Wade had been old enough to be given a choice about going with them, and he had refused. His emotions had been so raw back then that he wanted to put everything behind him, including his family.
He hadn't been able to, though. He'd thought of his brothers more than he had wanted, even if he hadn't known what to say to either of them when he'd called. He wondered if his brothers blamed him for not sticking with them, but he'd never asked. He felt bad enough about it on his own.
"The barn is tight against the weather. We can all stay there if needed until the house is ready," his mother continued, as if it was a plan she'd worked out in her mind some time ago and he guessed she probably had. She had been sleeping in the tack room off the barn for the few days she'd been back, and he figured that was mostly because the roof was good and there was an electrical outlet. She could plug in a lamp to read that Bible she carried everywhere with her.
Wade had unrolled his sleeping bag in one of the old stalls last night. He didn't need a light to read anything ;religious or not;but he had lain there until midnight, watching the moonlight shine through the frost on the side window and wishing he could wipe away the past with a big, black book like his mother seemed to be doing.
He finally dozed off and managed to sleep for several hours before a spasm in his leg woke him. It was almost dawn and bitter cold, even inside the barn. When he stood, the cramp went away, but his leg was stiffer than usual. The rodeo doctor had said Wade would limp for a long time after his last fall, and it seemed that he was right.
"We'll talk about all of this later," Wade said now, keeping his voice gentle. His mother had her own wounds from the past, and he didn't want her to worry about any of his. "Let me take you home so you can rest."
"It won't get any easier." His mother pressed her lips into a severe line as her fingers gripped the edge of the metal bowl she held in her lap. "Besides, I've come to buy eggs. The cafe will surely sell me some."
He noticed with a start that she still had her gold wedding band on her finger.
"I told you I don't need breakfast." He wondered if her knuckles were swollen, and that's why she hadn't taken the ring off. The round band had been cheap thirty years ago, and it had worn so thin since then that a wire cutter could slice through it like it was butter.
Just then, his mother's chin lifted, and he saw a glimpse of the woman she used to be. "It's your first morning back, and I intend to make you a sausage-and-egg scramble, like I did when you were a boy. We need to start living a normal life sometime."
He studied his mother for a long minute before suddenly realizing she probably hadn't even tried to remove that ring. She was stuck in the past. She didn't understand how things had changed.
"Come to Idaho with me," Wade urged suddenly. He'd competed in a rodeo there a couple of years ago, and he liked the state. It wasn't Dry Creek, but it had open spaces, and it would do fine. "I'll build us a nice, big house. One of those with a wraparound deck and maybe a sunroom just for you. Whatever you want. You like the sun."
She shook her head and smiled slightly. "Have I told you how proud I am of you? But you need to save your rodeo winnings for your own future. I have a home that suits me fine."
Wade knew better than to press her. No one in his family talked about their emotions with any ease, especially not with each other. "At least let me pay someone to help get the house in shape. I'll have my hands full with fixing the barn and corrals before I need to leave."
He'd started driving to Montana the day after he got her letter, but he didn't plan on staying so long that he missed the National Finals Rodeo next month. If he stopped riding for too long, he'd never get back on a horse again. That tumble he'd taken eight months ago had almost killed him. Since then, the other riders had decided he'd lost his nerve, and they had started circling his championshipâthe one he won every yearâlike buzzards in the dead of winter.
"I want to do the house myself," his mother said, dragging Wade's mind back to the conversation. "I need to get things ready for Christmas.
Judy D. -
Sleigh Bells for Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad
Return to Dry Creek Series
Dry Creek is one of my favorite places to visit, in Janet's books of course. The small Montana town is usually full of friendly people. Linda at the Cafe, Charlie and Edith Nelson, although most folks still think of Edith as Mrs. Hargrove and all the others we have met in the previous eighteen books. Sadly they are not so friendly when the Stone's return to town. Gracie Stone has just been released from nine years in prison after she confessed to murdering her husband, Buck Stone. She has asked her three sons to return as well. The younger two; Tyler & Jake did not return. Wade Stone had been with the rodeo. He left home after his mom's conviction at age seventeen and not looked back. He can't wait to leave town again. All their dirty laundry had been hung out in the courts during Ma's trial, about their abusive and drunken father.
Amy Mitchell is fed up. Shawn Garrett was at her home telling her Aunt Tilly how he knows Amy will marry him because Wade was injured and still did not come back to Dry Creek. She is furious that the two of them were talking about her and that Shawn may tell people how she was waiting for Wade. She had put her life and heart on hold for nine years for a man who has never looked back or returned for her. She has spent the last nine years taking care of her Grandfather and Aunt Tilly. And then, there they were; Grace & Wade. Amy agrees to work for Gracie to get her house back in order, as she tries to protect her heart from leaping back to Wade.
This book is so full of emotions. Gracie who is being strong and facing old friends and neighbors who believe her a murderer, but she has a faith she did not have before prison. Wade is looked down upon for being Gracie's son and other revelations that come up. Amy is torn between her family needing her and wanting to be with the Stone's. Meanwhile Wade begins to learn about this new faith that has changed his mother's life as well.
It looks like we may here more from the Stone family in future Dry Creek books....
Learn more about Janet's book on my blog at:
http://justjudysjumbles.blogspot.com/2011/08/dry-creek-series-by-janet-tronstad.html
Return to Dry Creek Series
Dry Creek is one of my favorite places to visit, in Janet's books of course. The small Montana town is usually full of friendly people. Linda at the Cafe, Charlie and Edith Nelson, although most folks still think of Edith as Mrs. Hargrove and all the others we have met in the previous eighteen books. Sadly they are not so friendly when the Stone's return to town. Gracie Stone has just been released from nine years in prison after she confessed to murdering her husband, Buck Stone. She has asked her three sons to return as well. The younger two; Tyler & Jake did not return. Wade Stone had been with the rodeo. He left home after his mom's conviction at age seventeen and not looked back. He can't wait to leave town again. All their dirty laundry had been hung out in the courts during Ma's trial, about their abusive and drunken father.
Amy Mitchell is fed up. Shawn Garrett was at her home telling her Aunt Tilly how he knows Amy will marry him because Wade was injured and still did not come back to Dry Creek. She is furious that the two of them were talking about her and that Shawn may tell people how she was waiting for Wade. She had put her life and heart on hold for nine years for a man who has never looked back or returned for her. She has spent the last nine years taking care of her Grandfather and Aunt Tilly. And then, there they were; Grace & Wade. Amy agrees to work for Gracie to get her house back in order, as she tries to protect her heart from leaping back to Wade.
This book is so full of emotions. Gracie who is being strong and facing old friends and neighbors who believe her a murderer, but she has a faith she did not have before prison. Wade is looked down upon for being Gracie's son and other revelations that come up. Amy is torn between her family needing her and wanting to be with the Stone's. Meanwhile Wade begins to learn about this new faith that has changed his mother's life as well.
It looks like we may here more from the Stone family in future Dry Creek books....
Learn more about Janet's book on my blog at:
http://justjudysjumbles.blogspot.com/2011/08/dry-creek-series-by-janet-tronstad.html
