Judith’s review of Lucy’s Revenge (Divine Creek Ranch #15) by Heather Rainier

Lucy Carter is striving to succeed as a self-employed licensed massage therapist and to bolster her flagging self-confidence. The ménage of her fantasies, featuring her best friends, seems to be on the back burner.

Single dad Patrick Owen has been refined in the fires of betrayal. Now he knows exactly what he wants—Lucy Carter—and he’s ready to claim her along his best friend.

Beekeeper Beck O’Malley’s heart has been shattered, and he withdraws from the world until Lucy heals his heart. He’s held the spirited woman at arm’s length, until he can no longer fight his attraction to her. Unfortunately, Beck and Lucy clash nearly as often as they kiss, and his possessiveness sets her on edge even as she falls deeper in love with him.

When Lucy is drawn into a life-threatening crisis, all of their differences and struggles are brought into perspective. But by then will it be too late?

This is the 15th story that features the intrepid lovers of Divine, TX and highlights the romantic relationship between Lucy Carter, sister to reknown tatoo artist Seth Carter, Beck O’Malley, whose long-term relationship with Chloe Rhodes is over, and Patrick Owen, ex-husband to the vigilante female who was bent on destroying the boutique Discretions and whose mania caused her to open fire on citizens in the town’s department store in front of her toddler son.  Now all three of these individuals find that their personal journeys have brought them to a common place but as in all of life’s realities, “the road to true love seldom runs smooth.”

These three people are wounded warriors from the “love wars.”  Lucy has been castigated and demeaned until she no longer sees the true beauty she possesses in her physical self or her inner spirit.  She has yearned for a relationship with Patrick and Beck, knowing full well that a menage is not uncommon in Divine but has been the subject of much narrow-minded judgmentalism in the past.  Yet she knows where her heart is leading her even though Beck, one of the men to whom she is attracted, seemingly has rejected her because of her plus size.   His “. . . you’re more woman than I can handle”remark  has pretty much crushed any hopes she might have had.  Patrick, Beck’s best friend and a different sort of man altogether, keeps encouraging her not to lose heart, not to allow Beck’s evident emotional turmoil discourage her hopes for the future.  And perhaps Patrick saw that down deep Lucy was the kind of woman who saw the best in people.  It was only herself she found hard to love.

If ever there was a patient man it was Patrick Owen.  He had gone far beyond anyone’s expectation in trying to be a good husband to his former wife in spite of her narrow-minded views that drove her to extremist activism.  He loves his son, Patrick Junior, even though he knows that the boy isn’t his biological son.  Lucy couldn’t have fallen in love with a better man–one that patiently worked to help Beck through his dark days and who never failed to encourage Lucy to grow beyond her insecurities.

Beck was a man whose spirit longed to be loved and accepted, who so hoped that Chloe was the woman who would complete his life and guard his heart.  Yet when she chose to refuse his marriage proposal and then left Divine soon after, his heart was crushed.  As if that weren’t enough, Chloe’s phone call on Valentine’s Day that she was engaged to two other men in Lusty, TX was just about the end for him.  Somehow Lucy’s insistence on remaining in his life, as a friend if nothing else, began to penetrate Beck’s deep sense of loss and it was her persistent friendship that eventually turned to attraction and then to love.  If ever there was evidence of the healing power of loving friendship, it was apparent in the way Lucy helped Beck regain his willingness to look toward the future with hope.

This is a story about a woman who slowly but surely came into her own, whose heart opened fully and freely to two very different men and to a little boy who came to love her dearly.    Patrick Junior, or PJ as he came to be called, loved the idea of a new mommy who really loved him and of having two daddies.  Lucy was willing to go to the mat to protect him and to insist that the love they shared was just as legitimate as any other expression of an authentic love relationship.  It is a story about the coming together of three hurting and wounded people who were willing to ultimately be who they were and live in a committed relationship for the sake of their love for one another as well as providing a sure and secure home for PJ.  It was wonderful to see each of them gaining new strength as they were supported and grounded in each other.

As always, Ms Rainier has that way to telling a story that constantly affirms the notion that genuine and authentic love is expressed in many ways and lived out in many configurations.  Her story telling abilities continue to grow and expand, and as the citizens of Divine, TX come alive in her stories we readers are the benefactors.  She has now ventured out into the Land of Lusty . . . Lusty, TX, that is, and the characters who enter as private detectives and the partial story of Chloe Rhodes’ connection to Divine is a part of the Lusty, TX series by Morgan Ashbury writing as Cara Covington.  (Those tales are super good, too.)  Those of us who have continued to be delighted with the Divine Creek Ranch Series are always waiting for the next story with bated breath and are never disappointed by the rich and multi-layered plots and story lines that Ms Rainier creates.  Perhaps my own personal joy in this as in all the other novels in this series is that I see a gifted writer using her gifts and blossoming in the doing.  Now that she is partnering with Ms Ashbury there are even greater benefits for us readers.  (I just finished the latest Lusty, TX story and was delighted to see some of the Divine folks there.)

All in all, this is just one fine piece of writing and is the kind of novel I love to read to the extent that I am always worried that it will end too soon.  I know that Heather keeps on expanding her word count, but hey! that’s perfectly alright with readers like me.  I especially appreciate her giving these three characters their own story, people who might have gotten “lost in the crowd” but whose relationship with one another has been and will continue to be the source of their greatest joy and in many ways their salvation.

I hope you Divine, TX fans will definitely read this latest book and if you are just joining in the Divine fan club, be sure to go back and start from the beginning.  Even some of us long-time fans have gone back and started over again.  I can say without any embarrassment that I have read all the books in this series at least twice.  Such good reading!  I happily give this novel a rating of 5 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place

This title is available from Siren Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.