Stinsons: Connie Ha

by Frances Casey Kerns

Book Overview

A RESTLESS KIND OF LOVE Rinie rose from the shackles of an orphan's poverty to find yet another kind of despair in the home of the parents who grudgingly adopted her. But even as the pain welled up... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446906492
• ISBN13: 9780446906494
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Stinsons

With the backdrop of canyons and mountains in the semi-desert area of Colorado, The Stinson family comes to life. The time period is in approximately the early 1940's. 18 year-old Rinie travels from Denver from the home of her adoptive parents, to the Stinson ranch with her new husband Carl Stinson. Raised in an orphanage until the age of 12, then taken in by Minnie and her husband, she never feels love and acceptance from them that she so desperately desires. Carl Stinson has loved Rinie (and vice versa) since she was 12, who was taken in by his maternal aunt. He waits until she's old enough to marry, then comes for her and takes her out of there. Thus a girl from the city starts a whole new life with experiences unlike anything she has ever been accustomed to. Along with Carl, she lives in the family ranch house with A.J., the irrascible, cantankerous, but loving in his own way, father-in-law, oldest brother Travis and his wife Ellie and their children, and brothers Troy and Doyle. Not having any life experience outside of her prim and proper as well as sheltered existence, Rinie has a fairly idealistic fantasy of what life and love should be. Throughout the course of the book she comes to realize that whatever faults they all might have, they love and accept her; that's all she ever wanted and she wouldn't trade them for anything. She also comes to see the beauty of this rough country and to see what it is that Carl loves so about it...why it is such a part of him. Colorful language peppered with a few choice words here and there are what I would imagine the grammar, pronunciations and word usage as well as the lingo of the time and place would be. Much of the conversation is very humorous as well as just how the family interacts with one another. In my opinion, Kerns is a superb writer who takes Western Romance novel to a high level, not just a typical romance novel with a stereotypical plot and format. If you're a fan of westerns and/or romance, you will like this book. Kerns interjects characters who are real to life, identifiable but not stereotypical. Characters are vivid, but not overdone. Also vivid are descriptions of surrounding, thoughts, feeling, conversations. You will feel like you're reading about real people, not characters that the author came up with and then begin to fill in the details.