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Jenna's Cowboy--a Christian Romance


Reading this book really made me ponder what "Christian Romance" means. One of the types of fiction my daughter's first grade reading book talks about is "realistic fiction". What makes a romance different than realistic fiction?


A romance centers around the story of a romantic love between two or more characters. It seems as if romance--and attaining the love of the character's life will fulfill the lives of the main characters. That love is greater than anything else.

Books that are romance novels are often not realistic fiction, but I think a lot of authors attempt for them to be realistic.

I read Jenna's Cowboy hoping for more of a realistic fiction book that happens to be a romance--rather than the other way around. Jenna's Cowboy is more of a romance. I'll be honest. When I first read it, I didn't think it was a book that I'd really recommend. But, then last week I read a book that I'd really not recommend and it put some things in perspective.

So here are my thoughts...

The Story: Very predictable, but isn't that we all want in a romance? It is a bit slow progessing, though.

The plot centers around Jenna and a ranch hand that used to work for her dad that returns to town and comes back to work for her dad. What does the future hold for them?

The Writing: Competent. Not bad, not great. I don't mean that badly, but it wasn't one of those books that I "just couldn't put down".

Strengths: Discussion of PTSD, Compassionate support of family and friends. My husband is a veteran and I appreciated the author's discussion of PTSD and the portrayal. I'm not exactly sure that it would play out the way she wrote about its progress, but the author details her research about it for the book.

The Romance: Believable, but when someone who they've barely started dating calls his girlfriend "Honey" --the believability suffers. They were too familiar too fast for never having dated.

In Conclusion: Good TV movie like reading.

Please note that I was given a complimentary copy of this book by Revell Books.

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