Irene Bennett Brown’s Tangled Times, the second novel in the “Nickel Hill Series,” is a fun and emotionally packed story that takes place in 1901 Kansas. I had the pleasure of reading an Advance Reading Copy.
Jocelyn and her husband Pete Pladson manage a cattle operation on the Nickel Hill Ranch. Their hard work is paying off, but rustlers plague their and neighboring ranchers’ herds, causing grave concern and ugly accusations. Each head of cattle is precious in building the herd, and the cattle thieves usually take the easy prey, calves, which are the future of the ranch.
Jocelyn longs to have children, yearns to hold her own baby. Two children appear separately in the Pladson’s lives, both looking for a stable home. Rommy’s father is unable to care for him; Nila’s mother has kicked the teenager out of the house. This isn’t how Jocelyn planned motherhood, but these children desperately need a home.
The author does an outstanding job of depicting ranch life, describing the territory, fashions of the day and attitudes of the times. This is a delightful and informative novel, a wonderful addition to the “Nickel Hill Series.”