Marin Thomas

Title: The Future She Left Behind
Author: Marin Thomas
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 352
Published: September 2017 – Berkley
Source: Publisher; NetGalley

Description: Cast aside by her cheating husband, Katelyn Chandler is ready to pack it all in and drive home to Little Springs, Texas. She wants a chance to regroup, reconnect with her mother, and get back to her art.

But Shirley Pratt—master manipulator, elitist snob, and Katelyn’s terror of a live-in monster-in-law—has other ideas. Shirley insists on joining Katelyn’s trip after her son tries to pack her off to a retirement community. Katelyn has no choice but to play peacekeeper between the ornery old woman and the proud matrons of Little Springs. Yet the small town seems to be changing Shirley. And as Katelyn weighs the wisdom of picking up where she left off with Jackson Mendoza, the town bad boy and her high school sweetheart, she must find a way to believe in the strength of her dreams. (publisher)

My take: Katelyn’s life is turned upside down when she is served divorce papers from her husband who has been away for business. When she thinks about it, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Her husband has traveled internationally for business during most of their marriage leaving her with the bulk of raising their twins during those years. Now the kids are heading off to college and her husband on to a life without Katelyn. She goes where anyone in her position would want to go – home to her mom. What she didn’t expect was to have her almost ex mother-in-law along for the ride. That added mild conflict and a good dose of comic relief to the novel.

The Future She Left Behind is about resetting your life, going home, and finding your passion for life again. What will happen when Katelyn returns to the place she couldn’t wait to leave decades earlier? I loved how Marin Thomas answered that question. She filled her novel with colorful and entertaining support characters that made me look forward to getting back to the story each time I had to put it down. It seemed each woman in the novel was like every woman – trying to live her best life while giving support to the people in her life and finding some happiness along the way. I enjoyed it all and recommend The Future She Left Behind to fans of the author and novels about strong, authentic women.

About the author: Marin Thomas writes Women’s Fiction for Berkley and western romances for Harlequin and Tule Publishing. To date she has contracted over 35 projects for Harlequin. Her first women’s fiction novel, The Promise of Forgiveness, released March 2016 and her second novel, The Future She Left Behind releases September 2017. Marin is also a member of the Tall Poppy Writers https://tallpoppies.org

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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.