Blue skies Book

Wow....what a beautiful story. Hank is a 32 year old rancher who trolls a country western bar every weekend looking for the next one-night stand. He feeds women lines, uses them and then and disappears the next morning. His pick-up one drunken night is Carly, a 28 year old virgin who had a recent operation leading to temporary sightedness. Major consequences of his callous, deceitful approach result. I really enjoyed his growth, but major slut shaming during the book (virgins don't deserve such treatment but all other women are just "run of the mill" barfly types that have been "rode hard and put up wet" so are beneath him. After he sleeps with them, of course. And his dad "tossed a number of skirts" before meeting a "good" girl.). But then hero really does see how wrong he was and actually realizes that treating any woman that way was just wrong and diminished him.

Very believable transformation and beautiful story about love (as action, not just words), honor, sacrifice, redemption and commitment. It's about those things in the way The Notebook ultimately is. And so beautifully written. How could it have been so heartfelt, poetic and heartwarming without being treacly? It just was....that's the author's talent.

Loved the secondary characters, Carly's friend Bess, her dad (in the most poignant scene in the book) and Luke's family. I kept hearing his mom as the voice of Marion Cunningham from Happy Days!