Red Rock by Kimberley Patterson

Author: Kimberley Patterson

Publisher: Kimberley Martinez

Published: October 20^th 2011

Pages: 314

Summary: (From Goodreads) Red Rock follows the journey of the Hunter family, and their daughter Rachel, a teenager struggling to take care of her ill mother. Her illness forces the family to sell everything and move to a new town where they can get help for her. Along the way, they stumble into fortune and decide to keep it a secret. But with every secret, comes a consequence and Rachel will soon find out that not everything or everyone is what they seem. Upon arrival in the new town, she meets several people who befriend her and the plan seems to be working, until one night when someone throws a rock through their window threatening to take back what is theirs. Lies, deceit and betrayal plague Rachel and the entire family as they struggle to keep their secret and find out who is behind the devious plan.

In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this book. I was extremely intrigued by the plot summary but I haven’t really read any Westerns so I thought that if there was ever a place to start, this book would be the one to do it with! And, I was quite happily surprised when I was right in thinking this. This is a book that keeps you captured from beginning to end and even leaves you hanging and simply wanting to read more. It was such a pleasantry to be able to finish the book and while all ends are tied off, it still leaves you wishing that you could continue on with the story and so, when I finished it and felt a little at a loss, I knew that this book was a good one.

While it was a good book with a decent storyline that captivated me and kept me going, it still felt there was something missing to the book. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was but it didn’t stir in me the same feelings that some other books have but then, not every book can, can it? This could always be down to the fact that I am simply unfamiliar with the Western genre and so felt a little out of place a few times when things were being described that I couldn’t quite picture in my mind. However, despite this, it is still a book that I would recommend to others because even without this prior knowledge of the wild west, it is easy to carry on reading. The setting of the story, in other words, is not central to understanding and enjoying this novel.

The characters within this book are all so interesting and different. The main protagonist, Rachel Hunter is extremely easy to sympathise with and while, at times, you want to point her in the direction of the true man she desires, you know that as a young seventeen year old, she will always fall for the wrong person before she can ever fall for the right one. James Thompson is admiring and one of those guys that you can easily fall for and makes you envious that you don’t have a guy like him in your own life. Or at least, I felt that way! He’s well-rounded and someone you simply crave for yourself. The ‘villain’ in this novel is so well-written and interesting and you can really follow his motivations. It is also so nice to be able to understand and know why people are acting in such a horrible way instead of just for a reason that ‘they are’.

The genre of this book wasn’t just a ‘Western’ however as it was definitely a romance novel as well. Right from the start the main character is ‘whisked’ off of her feet by a lovely gentlemen but having never dated before, she turns down his offer and feels that he is ‘trying to hard’. This relationship is one of the best things about the novel and it is one of the main reasons that you continue reading because you like to see what he will try next to try and make her fall for him. It also gets interesting when another guy is pulled into the mix. The romance in this novel is so completely heart-warming that it leaves you asking yourself whether there are any men in the world that would treat a lady this way. It is just that little something else that makes this book special.

This is a wonderful book that flows well and really pulls the reader in causing them to want to read on and on and to find out more about the adventurous lives of the characters. While it has moments that drag on as you know what is coming around the corner, it deals with them so imaginatively and creatively then sometimes it does seem to be worth the wait. This is a romantic YA fiction that does everything it sets out to do and is definitely worth a read.

Faye