This book goes back and forth in history a bit starting from 1991 when in Montana a young woman, Alice Bodine who is hitchhiking back home for Thanksgiving after being away for a while is picked up by a psycho who wants to use her as his "wife" to conceive sons off her. He chains her up in the basement of his cabin and rapes her continuously until she gets pregnant with a child that is a girl whom he takes away from her and sells to someone because girls are of no interest to him. This breaks her heart. She gets pregnant again with another girl and it's taken away too. Then finally she's pregnant with a boy and gets to keep that child and raise him for a year until he is taken away to be raised by "Sir" the man who has taken her. She convinces him to let her have some time outside at night once a week.
Meanwhile back at the Bodine ranch life moved on and her sister Maureen married Sam and had three children, Chase, Bodine, and Rory. She and her mother and her grandmother started a resort for those wanting the cowboy experience and Bodine runs it with Rory as the PR guy. Chase works on the ranch. Bodine recently hired Jessica as the events coordinator. Someone from Bodine's past has come back to the Bodine Ranch: Callen Skinner an older wild boy she had a crush on who ran off to Hollywood to work on movies with horses but now wants to settle down in Montana with his horse that could be a show horse Sundown. Sparks fly between the two of them but they decide to wait until Abe who runs the horses at the resort comes back from a sudden need to take a vacation with his wife to Arizona before they try anything considering that Cal has decided to take over for him until he gets back instead of working on the ranch. Then they find out that Abe and his wife isn't coming back and the job is his if he wants it and things really begin to heat up between the two of them.
Meanwhile, one of the resort employees, Billy Jean was riding home from work and ran out of gas and came across the wrong guy and was murdered running away from him. Twenty minutes away in downtown Missoula a young woman is changing her tire when someone stops to help her and she is never seen again. Eventually, her remains are found in the woods by a nature photographer. She had been hit on the head by a lug wrench. The two cases seem connected somehow.
Then one night Sir leaves in a hurry and leaves the front door unlocked and Alice decides to walk out and wanders to the road where she passes out and is found by a couple passing by in their truck. She is immediately recognized by the sheriff who grew up with her and calls her family. Her sister and grandmother had always been angry with her for leaving, but her mother kept worrying over her and hoping that she'd come home. Now the family has to deal with guilty feelings for being angry at her when she was locked up all this time and went through hell and is having a difficult time coming back to them and is scared to death that Sir will come after her.
But not everyone is happy to have Cal back. Garrett Clintok has had it in for Cal since they were kids and now that there are two dead women he is sure that Cal is the one who did it even though the Sheriff has suspended him for harassing Cal and threatening him at work. Clintock is gunning for Cal quite literally it seems and both he and Sundown get shot while out riding. This experience of his leaving and coming back like he did and having someone come after him, just like Alice, helps him bond with Alice and helps her to heal. But someone is still going after young girls and they believe it is Sir but what if he has help from someone? And where is his place located at? Alice was rather confused when she left that night and is unable to help lead them back there.
Once more Roberts delivers a stellar book about a strong family that looks after each other and those in their employee. Bodine is a strong female character with a stubborn streak who runs the resort like a well-oiled machine and seems to have boundless energy. She also believes in being there for her employees and really getting to know them all. The two grandmothers are a hoot and fun to read about. And Cal is a guy who used to have a short fuse on his temper but has learned to control it while he was away and moved back to be closer to his sister and mother after the suicide of his gambling father. He wants to build his own ranch but not on the land he grew up on which is why he sells it to the Longbows. He and Cal fit together really well, as do Jess and Chase and Rory and Chelsea, a woman who works in the office with Jessica. Jessica and Bodine make good friends too. Overall this is just a great story about redemption and overcoming horrific circumstances and the deep bonds of family. I give it five out of five stars.
Quotes
It’s done. You come back at me again, come back at any who matter to me, I won’t just put you on the ground. I’ll put you in it. Believe it.-Nora Roberts (Come Sundown p 425)She didn’t need a lot of fuss, but if and when the man she now realized she’d been walking toward all her life told her he loved her, she’d at least like him to say so when he wasn’t bleeding.-Nora Roberts (Come Sundown p 432)
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Come-Sundown-Nora-Roberts-ebook/dp/B01M4GE64D/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SK1RLMA1D2MX&keywords=come+sundown+by+nora+roberts&qid=1557752617&s=gateway&sprefix=come+sund%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1
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