Book Review: The Cowboy Tutor by Linda Ford

The Deal: Madge Morgan has been struggling to support her family ever since her father died. She does this mostly by taking in other people's laundry, but in the years following the big depression of 1929, few people have enough money to pay for such services and she's struggling to pay the mortgage.

She doesn't need distractions, but these come in the form of Justin, a young man Mrs. Morgan hires to be Madge's sister Louisa's tutor - and if all goes well, her suitor as well. Justin is well edqcated and Madge finds him charming, but she also thinks he belongs to her sister so the attraction she feels toward him makes her feel uncomfortable.

Plus, Justin isn't exactly who he pretends to be, his real name is Judd Kirk and he's a cowboy, brought to town to find a man who stole his mother's money. The job with the Morgans allows him to keep an eye on the house this man is said to be renting - a house Madge has access to - and being close to Madge doesn't hurt either.

My Thoughts: I wanted to like The Cowboy Tutor, I really did. It's set in Canada and I love all things Canada, but sadly the book came off as very generic and it could have been any town anywhere - in fact I only realized it was Canada when I went to check the year the story was set on (1932).

The writing was okay, but a little flat sometimes I just felt like I was reading and reading but getting nowhere. I liked Madge and Justin well enough but they weren't that memorable in the great scheme of things.

And I have to say that, other than the youngest sister, Sally, I didn't like any of the background characters. At some point Mrs. Morgan claims to be able to take care of her own family but this is the woman who took money out of the mortgage payment to put an unnecessary add in the paper. How does that make sense?

Over all, I don't see myself seeking this author again, though there is nothing overly wrong with tha story or writing, we just never clicked.