Hello, and welcome back! I've nearly made my way through all of the January books here on my desk and am very much looking forward to diving into the February releases that are sitting here as well, some of them trying very hard to get my attention. Okay, maybe they're not trying, but I do want to get to them very much.

This time out, I have Catherine Anderson's Morning Light (Signet). Loni MacEwen has had visions all her life, a family trait. But one time when she tried to help a young girl and her family with her visions, things went very badly. So she's tried very hard since then to keep her head down and her name out of the public eye. But now she's seen a little boy lost in the woods, and she has to tell his father, who happens to be the very same cowboy she's had visions of her entire life. Rancher Clint Harrigan thinks she's full of it--he doesn't even have a son--until the news breaks about a former girlfriend and her husband and their son being lost. Then he has to track Loni down and ask for her help to find the son he never knew he had--and still isn't sure is really his. Loni's a city girl, however, so, aside from his insults at their first meeting, heading into the wilderness isn't at the top of her list of things to do. Clint has his work cut out for him, both in keeping her safe and finding his young son before he's gravely injured. I have always enjoyed Ms. Anderson's stories, for her vivid and believable characters, and Loni and Clint aren't any different, both with past hurts that have shaped their lives and which will shape their futures if they let them. But this book, even more than her last one, veers into the 'inspirational' territory, which makes me a lot less happy with it. I have no complaints if an author wants to go that route, as it seems lately that Ms. Anderson is doing. But the marketing departments in the publishing offices need to make sure readers are aware of that change in direction, just as if an author moves away from romance and into women's fiction or mystery. I enjoyed the first part of the story quite well, but in the last third or so, when Loni and Clint got deeper into the religious issues of their lives, the story lost this reader. Regrettably, I didn't love this one, but I doubt I'll give up on the author quite yet.

Until next time, happy reading!