Buffy Lange has spent her life learning about, caring for, and protecting buffalo. She's landed the job of her dreams, managing a huge buffalo ranch in South Dakota. With stars in her eyes, she imagines all of the Midwest given over to free-ranging buffalo. To her, buffalo embody beauty, majesty, and strength. To Wyatt Shaw, however, the buffalo are a constant threat. Wyatt's ranch adjoins the Buffalo Commons and he watches in trepidation as its owner expands and rides roughshod over the local ranchers.
Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys always with a strong suspense thread. She is a two time Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy and Inspirational Reader's Choice finalist. She is the bestselling author of 65 books and novellas. Her most recent three book series are: Braced for Love, A Man with a Past and Love on the Range for Bethany House Publishing. She’s also written four other series for Barbour Publishing and many novellas and several stand-alone books for multiple publishers. Mary will be a published author for ten years in 2017 with nearly a million books in print. She has a degree in broadcast communications with an emphasis in journalism and has worked at her local newspaper.
Another enjoyable read from Mary Connealy set in cowboy country. This one focuses on a young woman working on her doctorate about buffalos. Buffy is crazy about buffalos and wants to reestablish them as a herd in the country lands of South Dakota; but, no matter her wealth sponsor nor her neighboring cattle ranchers, things just didn't quite go the way Buffy hoped. Will she be able to develop this buffalo herd or will things fall through?
Enjoyable plot line and characters made this book an easy, interesting read.
Synopsis:"Will Buffy and Wyatt ever see eye-to-eye? Buffy Lange has spent her life learning about and caring for buffalo. She’s landed the job of her dreams, managing a huge buffalo ranch in South Dakota. With stars in her eyes, she imagines all of the Midwest given over to free-ranging buffalo. To her, buffalo embody beauty, majesty, and strength. To Wyatt Shaw, however, the buffalo are a constant threat— wild, untamable, and dangerous. Wyatt’s ranch adjoins the Buffalo Commons and he watches in trepidation as its owner expands and rides roughshod over the local ranchers. When disaster strikes, Wyatt’s worst fears are realized and Buffy can do nothing but clean up the mess. With one determined to rid the area of buffalo and the other determined to see them flourish, the dust seldom settles around these two. Will they ever be able to find a common ground?"
My Review: I am really on the fence about this book. On one hand it was a short, light and enjoyable read as long as you are simply reading it for the romance. On the other hand I had several issues with the represented 'enemies' of the story. The first enemy that seems to be presented is both the outsider and the buffalo, now I grew up near buffalo and they really aren't these vicious animals as presented in the book. The next enemy is a rich man who throws money around to fix problems. And finally it seems the last enemy presented in the story are people with mental health issues. It feels like there is a lot of stereotypical prejudices throughout the story. I know that things like this pop up in books to bring on the conflicts that move the storylines along but I find that I just can't get myself over the ones that take place in this story. With that said I still did enjoy the tenacity and strength of both Buffy & Wyatt as characters.
I love Mary Connealy! While this book is uber short - only 169 pages - its got a great storyline with characters you like and wish you were friends with. A plus for me also is that this was a Christian romance.
The underlying theme of the book is forgiveness. The story is not preachy and it moves along quickly and kept my interest. Read it in just a few hours.
"Buffy almost saw Wolf's Native American blood flowing cool and steady in his veins."
"His eyes were the bottomless black of his Sioux ancestors. His battered brown Stetson with the brightly breaded hatband was a part of him, just like the buffalo and the land."
I'm sorry, no. This book came out in 2008, which is about 10 years too late for this brand of "magical Indian connected to nature" nonsense.
Also the hero and the heroine meet and he's just...a complete tool to her, and the book argues that she needs to apologize and like...y'all both acted like children and assumed the worst.
So we have two annoying white doofuses and a nature-wizened indigenous man to guide them to being together. Life is truly too short.
Buffy Lange is one tough spit fire of lady. She loves working with Buffalo and wants to keep them safe in the herd. When trouble starts and her neighbor Wyatt Shaw comes out with his temper everything starts to change. Man I couldn't put this book down. Love the western stories and how this book caught my attention. I love this author's books how clean they are and also grabs your attention and keeps it.
Buffalo Gal is the first installment in Mary Connealy's Black Hils Blessing series, and it is a laugh a minute from the first words. Buffy & Wyatt set the story on fire with their constant head butting. Not to worry, they do get it worked out. Another great story, thanks to Connealy's expertise in unexpected humor. Now, on go book 2.
I’m usually a fan of Mary Connealy, but not this one. I didn’t like either of the main characters. Their relationship seemed toxic to me. I mainly kept hoping the main characters would stop acting like emotionally stunted teenagers. There were a few sweet, tender moments with the children that helped engage me in the story.
I can always count on Mary Connealy to write a story worth reading and this one was no exception. I am looking forward to reading her next book. The four stars was just because I have trouble relating to buffalo on a personal level. I admire them for their place in American history, though.
This story had a lot packed into it. There was definitely drama, but there was also love. The message that I take away from this story is; no matter how hard life gets or what you go through, God is with you. Just listen to Him.
I loved this story. It’s short but full of punch and heart. I loved the characters and their strength. I read only Christian fiction and I love this author.
Having just read several other Connealy books using the same trope (enemies to lovers), I didn't enjoy this one as much as some of the ones set further back in time. It's still a fun read.
Having taken this book for the "50-states" challenge, I did not expect much when I started reading. But this story is engaging with the buffalo ranch setting and interesting main characters. The main characters' conversation about what is right/wrong to do with buffalo made me pause and think too.
Romance, action, humor – this novel (or is it a novella?) had all of the wonderful elements that I've come to expect from Mary Connealy. I liked pretty much everything about this book, the characters, setting, plot, but... buffalo? I've always thought the creatures were rather scary. So big, and powerful, and ugly. I didn't so much mind that they were in there, but Buffy was seriously going overboard in her protection of them. I believe I chuckled a bit but no tears. I'd give the cover about 2.5 stars. It's all right. I've seen worse and I've seen better. The background, title, and author name look fine but I think the model standing there just looks kinda weird. I think she's supposed to be crossing her arms and jutting out her hip. But her stance just doesn't look right. And her hat doesn't look very authentic to me. This is the first Heartsong Presents book I've read and I really enjoyed it. I plan to read more.
While I love Connealy's humor, I found this story a bit overboard on the fanatical attraction Buffy Lange has to buffalo. Other than the explanation at the end of the book when she recalled a childhood memory there is no reason shown in any of the scenes for her to love the brutal destructive beasts. Would have more respect for Wyatt Shaw, Wolf, and Buffy had any of them stood up against Leonard rather than accepting hush money in various forms. Anna and Sally seemed too mature for their ages. Cody and Colt seemed too immature which an overdue butt whipping may have cured. For a short novel it seemed really long and could have done without the kid who caused the stampede. How could Jeanie, Buffy's sister, skip jail and go straight to probation? Sally should have taken away from her due to neglect long ago. It seemed all that was an afterthought for Book 3.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This little book can be read in one rainy Saturday.
The first couple of time Buffy the buffalo gal and Wyatt the Angus rancher meet voices are raised and sparks fly until he starts to miss her if he hasn't gotten the chance to yell at her. And there's plenty to yell about with buffalo roaming everyone's range.
I thought the ending rapped up sort of quickly, but Wyatt's a rugged, western, romantic hero in this little book.
Mary Connealy is an expert on rowdy kids, comedy, and cowboys. In Buffalo Gal, this author shows she's an expert on action, too. This book is highly recommended for anyone who needs a boost in her day, and for anyone curious about ranching life in the Plains.
I usually don't care for books in which the main characters are antagonistic with each other but I like Mary Connealy so decided to give this story a try. As usually, Connealy mixes in just enough humor to make it a pleasant read instead of depressing.
Likes book cos it doesn't drag, or get boring. There are different people in the mix all three the book, which keeps the reader, me hoping as well as hopping from paragraph to paragraph
I enjoyed this book very much especially the information about the Buffaloes and excitement in trying to control them. I like the romance in the book. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read.
Mary Minnesota's books are always a fun read. I mean Connealy but every time I type Connealy with Mary it auto spells Minnesota. Anyone else have that problem?