Pickett's Fence

by Linda Shertzer

An argument over a fence and property lines spells the beginning of love for Rachel, a pretty young widow struggling to care for her Kansas farm and her young son, and Tom Pickett, her stubborn neighbor. Original.

293 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1994

Reviews

[UnusualChild{beppy} · Rating 3 out of 5]

synopsis:
rachel is a widow barely making ends meet. she is really protective of her son, and doesn't appreciate her neighbour's bull being able to wander over onto her property willy-nilly. tom, her neighbour, eventually agrees to put up a fence, and when he does so, he puts it up so that the creek that divides their property is on his side of the fence. rachel takes it down and rebuilds it so that tom's cattle can't get water, and the battle is on. along the way, someone starts taking out the other neighbours and forcing them to sell out, so rachel and tom band together to overcome someone who is after their land.

what i liked: that rachel was competent. even though she was barely making it, she wasn't in debt and was capable of doing things for herself. i liked that she was also a crack shot, and i liked the relationship that she built with tom. i liked tom and how he appreciated rachel...when he wasn't being annoyed with her.

what i didn't like: how much rachel coddled her son.

[Cbec · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but the ending was so abrupt I found myself searching for an epilogue. There were so many loose ends that, even though the book was over, I feared for the characters with one "bad" character still unresolved. I would have given this book a 4 out of 5 rating had the ending not been like a chapter ending....leaving you wondering what happened to everyone else in the book.