Montana

March 2, 1998
Well-developed emotions and appealing characters help freshen this familiar contemporary of an embittered cowboy, a wary divorcee, a rebellious teenager, a ranch in trouble and--oh, yes--a hooker with a heart of gold. After learning that her beloved grandfather is ill, Molly Cogan decides to move to Montana and live with him, bringing her two boys, one of whom is undergoing a difficult adolescence. Once there, she tries to fight her feelings for ex-rodeo rider and ranch foreman, Sam Dakota, while mysterious acts of vandalism threaten to drive them from the homestead. A second love story, involving a prostitute and the town lawyer, becomes entwined with a contrived subplot about a militia group that, for reasons never fully made clear, desperately wants this particular ranch. Although the plot construction can seem a little forced, Macomber (This Matter of Marriage) is a skilled storyteller who turns it into an engaging, unabashedly sentimental love story. Author tour.