Now and Forever by Mary Connealy
Now and Forever
By Mary Connealy
What can I say? I love Mary and she is becoming a wonderful friend. Sometimes I wish I could write like her, finding the most humorous way to express a person’s thoughts. The book is mainly written from two points of view, Shannon Wilde and Matt Tucker. This is book two in the Wilde at Heart series. The first was Tried & True. You’ll enjoy that one, too. You don’t have to read that one to understand this story, but it does help.
Here’s an example of Matt Tucker’s thinking from page 31. This is pure Mary Connealy writing.
And he was pretty sure this woman was meant for him. That’s just the way the situation struck him.
Of course, he’d never run up against such a situation before, so he might not know what he was doing. He just knew he wanted her like he’d never wanted a woman before. He’d made an honest attempt to escape and instead was stuck with her in a black hole somewhere.
As if God himself had cast the deciding vote.
It’d be a sin to try to escape again.
With a wide grin in the darkness, Tucker decided it’d be pure wrong of him to go and commit a sin.
Shannon Wilde is one of three Wilde sisters homesteading in the west after the Civil War. All three sisters dress like men, because women couldn’t be property owners. Shannon has a very tender heart toward animals, and is sheepherder, or shepherd to a dozen sheep or so. Will she grow to love this mountain man who is so different from her, especially since it was a shotgun wedding?
Matt Tucker is a mountain man through-and-through. The fact that he got thrown over the edge of a cliff into a nasty river and spent days underground in caves with a broken leg with the one woman he was trying to escape civilization from, is beside the point. But since she saved him from a grizzly bear, maybe he actually ought to be grateful.
I also read between the lines and saw the setup for the third book that I felt might happen from something I read in the first book. Who will end up with whom? Three Wilde sisters, Kylie, Shannon, and Bailey were all soldiers in the Civil War and homesteading to help their father create a western empire. There was a homestead service exemption if you were a veteran. It helped to own the land quicker. Kylie’s story is in Tried & True. Shannon’s story is in Now & Forever.
My reviews don’t follow a strict format. I’ll tell you what I think and how I feel about what I’ve read. If you want to read a plot summary, the publishers provide that. When I read a book, it’s for two reasons:
- The plot summary intrigued me and I really want to read that book to find out what happened
- I am familiar with the author and like them enough to read most anything they write
I really like Mary’s stories, her books, but I love her as a writer. It’s hard for me to give five stars because it seems like that’s perfection, but 4.5 or 4.75 is where Mary always lands with me. There isn’t a book she’s written that I haven’t really, really liked. I usually re-read them a year or so later because I liked them so well, especially her Kincade Brides series (the first book of hers I ever read was Over the Edge. It pulled me in and made me purchase the other two.) Then that series caused me to buy the Trouble in Texas series because they were related. Those six books hooked me on Mary.
Her books are consistently excellent. You can count on being entertained, encouraged, and inspired. You’ll also learn something along the way.
I was given a copy of Now & Forever by the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I give it 4.75 stars.
Donna L.H. Smith 
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