The Promise of Forgiveness by Marin Thomas

• Title:  The Promise of Forgiveness
• Author:  Marin Thomas
• Genre:  Women’s Fiction
• Pages:  352
• Pub. Date:  March 1, 2016 – NAL
• Source:  Publisher; NetGalley

Synopsis:  When it comes to family, Ruby Baxter hasn’t had much luck. The important men in her early life abandoned her, and any time a decent boyfriend came along, she ran away. But now Ruby is thirty-one and convinced she is failing her teenage daughter. Mia is the one good thing in her life, and Ruby hopes a move to Kansas will fix what’s broken between them.
 
But the road to redemption takes a detour. Hank McArthur, the biological father Ruby never knew existed, would like her to claim her inheritance: a dusty oil ranch just outside of Unforgiven, Oklahoma. 
 
As far as first impressions go, the gruff, emotionally distant rancher isn’t what Ruby has hoped for in a father. Yet Hank seems to have a gift for rehabilitating abused horses—and for reaching Mia. And if Ruby wants to entertain the possibility of a relationship with Joe Dawson, the ranch foreman, she must find a way to open her heart to the very first man who left her behind. (publisher)

My take:  Ruby Baxter is at the point in life where she’s going to be the one to cut out before anyone else will leave her again. So when she received a letter from her birth father asking her to see him she decided to give him two minutes and then would move on with her life. What she didn’t expect was that her fourteen year old daughter would want to get to know her grandfather.

With their visit extended indefinitely Ruby is forced to consider a relationship with the man who gave her away just days after her birth. More than a couple of characters have to learn to forgive in order to move forward – and sometimes that means to forgive themselves first. Marin Thomas made me care about her characters and cheer them on their journey of understanding, acceptance and forgiveness.

The novel is filled with colorful secondary characters (the sheriff, the bar owner, and the proprietor of the general store – to name a few) who added a good deal to the plot. There was also a mystery to solve – who was sabotaging the ranch and why?

The Promise of Forgiveness is the author’s first women’s fiction novel after publishing more than two dozen romance novels. I enjoyed it and recommend it to fans of Marin Thomas and women’s fiction.

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