Wrangler in Petticoats (Sophie's Daughters #2) - Mary Connealy

This is the second book in this series.  The first one is called Doctor in Petticoats.  The third is called Sharpshooter in Petticoats.

Sally is on her way to help out her sister, Mandy.  On the way, their party is ambushed and almost everyone killed.  A buckle saves Sally from a gut shot, but not a fall off a cliff. When she hits the bottom, she's unconscious but alive.

Logan saw Sally fall and is happy she isn't dead.  He figures out what happened on top of that cliff and knows he has to move her, even though her injuries are serious.  On their way back to his cabin, they see that the men that ambushed Sally had done it before. That first part of the story is pretty gruesome.

Logan is a painter, and an obsessed one at that.  Sally doesn't understand that, she thinks any man who doesn't hunt and take care of himself to be a no-account weakling. And although she is grateful Logan has helped her, she wants nothing more than to be out of there.  She knows her friends will be looking for her, but she also realizes that the ones that attacked her are out there as well and out for revenge.

At first, Sally may not understand Logan, but she comes to admire that he follows his heart.  Because, after all, she does the same.  She wears chaps, rides and shoots better than almost anyone and she's proud of it.  Others try to get her to be a little more womanly, but not Logan.  He seems to accept her as she is.  The problem is he's consumed by his art and knows he would only make her unhappy.

Add in to this, we're reading about Mandy.  We read about her in the first book, and her story continues here.  It's three years later and her life's a mess.  She lives for her children, but her husband is as useless as he came across in the first book.  Her story is the continuous thread through these three books.

This was a cute story, watching how these two unlikely people come to care so much about each other.  As to reading these out of order, I'm going to have to say that if you plan on reading Sharpshooter in Petticoats (#3), then I would read the other two first. You get to follow Mandy's development in these first two.  The characters from the first book are mentioned in this book, but never seen, so that one's okay on its own.  This one continues to make you care about Mandy and Tom, so I think you'll get more satisfaction out of reading her whole story if you read all three.  Good Book!