Honey and the Hired Hand by Joan Johnston

Synopsis: Wanted: Ranch hand to mend fences--and broken hearts. . . — When her first husband, a Texas Ranger, was killed on the job, Honey Farrell swore she'd never risk her heart again. She no longer has time for men, anyway--not with a ranch to run, a dwindling bang account and two teenaged boys to raise. So when cowboy Jesse Whitelaw turns up on her doorstep looking for work, he seems like the answer to her prayers.

But Honey doesn't know that Jesse's actually a Ranger himself, going undercover to break up a cattle-rustling ring--and as she and Jesse get closer, the secrets he's keeping could destroy them both.

My Thoughts (which will result in spoilers just an FYI): So, why does a book that is really not much more than 250 pages (large font by the way) take me almost 80 days to read? Is it because I have ADD? Did I misplace the book while rescuing kittens from trees? Or maybe it just isn't that good of a book. I'm no literary genius but I'm going to go with the latter.

I found that the entire book's series of events were completely off putting and ridiculous. Here as some low lights.

1)Honey and Jesse meet for the first time at a party outside in the darkness. She doesn't see him because of the dark until she almost runs into him. Somehow she isn't frightened by his presence even though he isn't wearing party clothes because he must be a party guest since there was a party going on but he looked more like a down on his luck drifter. When she steps away from him after almost running into him he grabs her wrist. She threatens to scream but they both know she won't. After all there is nothing to be alarmed about a woman coming across a shabbily dressed stranger, after dark, all alone, who grabs her....COME ON!!!!

2)Jesse admits that he had been peeping through the windows staring at her all night. Hello Stalker!

3)"Honey turned to the stranger to excuse herself and gasped....... "You're Indian!" she exclaimed." Um OK....I thought this was a contemporary romance. Well, it was written in 1992 as a Silhouette Desire....those are contemporary right?

4)Honey's friend Angel is terrified of Jesse because he is Indian. Are you sure this is contemporary?

5)Angel can't explain fully why she is terrified of Indians because her time traveling from 1864 to the present would seem far fetched. Time Travel? Really? REALLY?!?!?! Why not? It can't be any more far fetched than people in 1992 being startled by someone of American Indian descent.

6)After only a few days Honey is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend who asked her to marry him and Jesse is thinking of settling down and having babies with Honey.

And it goes on to chapter 2 (ok maybe chapter 3)but thankfully I've already forgotten most of it. Oh and I was also annoyed with the cover. Pretty cover but it really makes no sense that the barn is sitting in the middle of a field of wildflowers.