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Montgomery-Kellogg #2
The Gift of a Child
At twenty-seven, Rose Kellogg knows it's unlikely that she'll ever marry. Her dreams of motherhood seem hopeless. Until she rescues Alf, a young boy abandoned in her father's barn in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. In Alf, Rose finally has hope again, and she's not alone….
Cattle rancher Seth Montgomery always felt awkward around people, but that's not the case with Rose and Alf. Seth instantly bonds with the shy boy and is eager to help Rose make her dream of a family come true. But when their future with Alf is threatened, will Seth and Rose find the courage to embrace the love they've found in each other?
Cattle rancher Seth Montgomery always felt awkward around people, but that's not the case with Rose and Alf. Seth instantly bonds with the shy boy and is eager to help Rose make her dream of a family come true. But when their future with Alf is threatened, will Seth and Rose find the courage to embrace the love they've found in each other?
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 2014
17 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Laura Abbot
35 books25 followersLaura Abbot was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Her very arrival on the planet is a romantic plot device. Her parents, married five years, had been unable to have children. Her dad was working two jobs and under a great deal of stress. A wise doctor suggested that they needed a prolonged vacation away from home where they would feel free to — er — do the deed. Often. Day or night. However, this was during the Depression and romantic getaways were hard to come by. To the rescue came a West Virginia cousin who owned a primitive cabin in the mountain wilds, which he put at their disposal. So they went. And voilà! Laura arrived nine months later.
Laura was blessed with an idyllic childhood. Make-believe was a favorite pastime; Laura was especially good as either a racehorse or a G.I. In those days, kids were free to roam the neighborhood, and they did — using vacant lots and open spaces as enchanted lands. Perhaps because her grandmother and another elderly friend lived in their household, expectations for Laura were pretty high. She was supposed to be a lady, a scholar, and an example to her two younger brothers. A born tomboy, the first was hard to achieve, but she did an adequate job in the other two categories.
Then in eighth grade, Laura discovered boys. At the time she felt reasonably certain that her mother was about the most old-fashioned, intrusive female she'd ever encountered. Looking back now from the vantage point of being the mother of daughters, she realizes her mother saved her from herself. Laura found college liberating, and still keeps in touch with several of the women who became her friends in those years. By attending summer schools and loading up on the hours she took each semester, she graduated at Kansas State University with a bachelor's degree in English in three years and went "out into the world," a pretty big deal after attending the same grade school and high school all her life!
Laura taught eighth- and ninth-grade English, and from the very first day, knew she'd found the thing she was supposed to be doing. She loved the school environment, the kids, and how the work fulfilled her. From that point on, Laura taught off and on for over 25 years.
After that first year of teaching, Laura married, and she and her husband subsequently had three children. Ten years into the marriage, they were divorced, but Laura is happy to say they've been able to remain amicable through the years. Single, with three children under 10! Talk about scary. Fortunately, Laura's prayers were answered, and she fell in love with her current husband, who never once has been anything but accepting of Laura and her three kids. His daughter and orphaned nephew brought their total to five children. Like most parents, they've had their ups and downs with them, but strong faith, consistent discipline, and a ton of love and forgiveness have made their family bonds very strong. And what joy it is now to have 13 grandchildren! Now Laura and her husband don't have to worry about school conferences, curfews, or questionable friends. All they have to do is love.
Laura Abott's writing career, which began in 1995, later than most, has been absolute icing on the cake! What fun it is to follow a long-held, somewhat secret desire — to write publishable fiction. Remember the scene in Little Women of Jo scribbling away in the attic? She was Laura's role model. And to think it's all come true. Sounds like a storybook ending, right? It is!
Laura was blessed with an idyllic childhood. Make-believe was a favorite pastime; Laura was especially good as either a racehorse or a G.I. In those days, kids were free to roam the neighborhood, and they did — using vacant lots and open spaces as enchanted lands. Perhaps because her grandmother and another elderly friend lived in their household, expectations for Laura were pretty high. She was supposed to be a lady, a scholar, and an example to her two younger brothers. A born tomboy, the first was hard to achieve, but she did an adequate job in the other two categories.
Then in eighth grade, Laura discovered boys. At the time she felt reasonably certain that her mother was about the most old-fashioned, intrusive female she'd ever encountered. Looking back now from the vantage point of being the mother of daughters, she realizes her mother saved her from herself. Laura found college liberating, and still keeps in touch with several of the women who became her friends in those years. By attending summer schools and loading up on the hours she took each semester, she graduated at Kansas State University with a bachelor's degree in English in three years and went "out into the world," a pretty big deal after attending the same grade school and high school all her life!
Laura taught eighth- and ninth-grade English, and from the very first day, knew she'd found the thing she was supposed to be doing. She loved the school environment, the kids, and how the work fulfilled her. From that point on, Laura taught off and on for over 25 years.
After that first year of teaching, Laura married, and she and her husband subsequently had three children. Ten years into the marriage, they were divorced, but Laura is happy to say they've been able to remain amicable through the years. Single, with three children under 10! Talk about scary. Fortunately, Laura's prayers were answered, and she fell in love with her current husband, who never once has been anything but accepting of Laura and her three kids. His daughter and orphaned nephew brought their total to five children. Like most parents, they've had their ups and downs with them, but strong faith, consistent discipline, and a ton of love and forgiveness have made their family bonds very strong. And what joy it is now to have 13 grandchildren! Now Laura and her husband don't have to worry about school conferences, curfews, or questionable friends. All they have to do is love.
Laura Abott's writing career, which began in 1995, later than most, has been absolute icing on the cake! What fun it is to follow a long-held, somewhat secret desire — to write publishable fiction. Remember the scene in Little Women of Jo scribbling away in the attic? She was Laura's role model. And to think it's all come true. Sounds like a storybook ending, right? It is!
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 15, 2020
(racism, hypocrasy, gossip, greed, off page violence and violence against women, prevarication, adultery. premonitions, feminism—as in the men are stupid and women can do anything type) This book is awful on so many levels. To start, the romance aspect is sort of a non-entity. We have a male (Seth) and female (Rose) character who have been falling in love for 5…10…15 years. We are just getting in at the end of it. They enjoy each others’ company. Seth’s youngest sister is getting married, so he starts to think about proposing to someone like Rose. Now, the trouble Seth and Rose have with getting married (because all romance novels must have that), is not mentioned until much later in the book. It seems as if it is an afterthought. Of the two, Rose’s reasons are the most frivolous: I mean they live in a small town, her sister is married to Seth’s brother, and they have known each other for years. What does she think? To make matters worse, we much later also learn that Seth (like most of the characters in this book) does not really have faith in God.
Then we get about 75 pages of Rose asking everyone how they think her aunt (who is coming to visit) will respond to the foundling (Alf—yeah, totally not the name you would expect for a kid with an American Indian mother) she has taken in and becoming upset as Rose assumes However, that does not stop the Churchian (as opposed to Christian) people from confronting the Aunt every time she says something that could be construed as un-Christian. I had more sympathy for the Aunt than any other character in the book, including the poor kid. The other characters even gossiped about the aunt and made fun of her behind her back—what kind of Christians are these? No loving teaching or reproof was going on.
The worst thing is that one line in the book implies that a child born with an American Indian mother was better than an aborigine. This was not a statement made, but a description in text reflecting on something and the person thinking about it was doing it in a pious way because they of course did not see themselves as racist as the Aunt. It bothered me. We are all God’s children. None should be seen as being “higher” or “lower” simply because of skin tone or origin.
This book was so poorly done there is even a point where Rose asks Seth what her aunt had warned him about. The problem is that there was no way that she would have even known Seth had been warned about anything based on the dialogue. Apparently, Rose is psychic, but Seth feels omens, too—he knows something bad has happened and heads into town without being told, just as Rose goes outside to greet riders approaching in the middle of the night.
I wish the book ended there, but I had to keep plodding through. As a Christian, Rose gets some very un-Christian thoughts. Alf becomes an object for her to possess instead of a child whom she truly loves. The fact she refers to him as “my Alf” reinforces this constantly.
So much for the self-sufficient people of yesteryear. The men are all idots who apparently have to have a woman of some sort in the household or they will not be able to do laundry or cook. One young woman, of course, is allowed to go on a trail ride with a bunch of cowboys, though, because we all know a single woman riding on the trail with a group of men for weeks on end would not have destroyed her reputation and sent her boyfriend running back to the city.
Yes, the story keep slogging on and on with even more awfulness. When it is discovered that
The ending shows the author did little research and probably has not read stories like Anne of Green Gables which was written in this era and shows that yes, single parents could and did adopt without much friction, but without ignoring history, we would not get the dramatic ending the author seeks. I mean, after boring and disgusting the reader for 200+ pages, you have to make it worth their while, I guess? If you enjoy boring, non-romance, Christian in name only books, this is the one for you. Otherwise, spend you money on one of the millions of other much better written ones.
Then we get about 75 pages of Rose asking everyone how they think her aunt (who is coming to visit) will respond to the foundling (Alf—yeah, totally not the name you would expect for a kid with an American Indian mother) she has taken in and becoming upset as Rose assumes However, that does not stop the Churchian (as opposed to Christian) people from confronting the Aunt every time she says something that could be construed as un-Christian. I had more sympathy for the Aunt than any other character in the book, including the poor kid. The other characters even gossiped about the aunt and made fun of her behind her back—what kind of Christians are these? No loving teaching or reproof was going on.
The worst thing is that one line in the book implies that a child born with an American Indian mother was better than an aborigine. This was not a statement made, but a description in text reflecting on something and the person thinking about it was doing it in a pious way because they of course did not see themselves as racist as the Aunt. It bothered me. We are all God’s children. None should be seen as being “higher” or “lower” simply because of skin tone or origin.
This book was so poorly done there is even a point where Rose asks Seth what her aunt had warned him about. The problem is that there was no way that she would have even known Seth had been warned about anything based on the dialogue. Apparently, Rose is psychic, but Seth feels omens, too—he knows something bad has happened and heads into town without being told, just as Rose goes outside to greet riders approaching in the middle of the night.
I wish the book ended there, but I had to keep plodding through. As a Christian, Rose gets some very un-Christian thoughts. Alf becomes an object for her to possess instead of a child whom she truly loves. The fact she refers to him as “my Alf” reinforces this constantly.
So much for the self-sufficient people of yesteryear. The men are all idots who apparently have to have a woman of some sort in the household or they will not be able to do laundry or cook. One young woman, of course, is allowed to go on a trail ride with a bunch of cowboys, though, because we all know a single woman riding on the trail with a group of men for weeks on end would not have destroyed her reputation and sent her boyfriend running back to the city.
Yes, the story keep slogging on and on with even more awfulness. When it is discovered that
The ending shows the author did little research and probably has not read stories like Anne of Green Gables which was written in this era and shows that yes, single parents could and did adopt without much friction, but without ignoring history, we would not get the dramatic ending the author seeks. I mean, after boring and disgusting the reader for 200+ pages, you have to make it worth their while, I guess? If you enjoy boring, non-romance, Christian in name only books, this is the one for you. Otherwise, spend you money on one of the millions of other much better written ones.
September 5, 2017
Rose Kellogg has always dreamed of being a mother. At 27, she's been passed over by suitors too often to expect marriage. When a young boy is abandoned in her father's barn, Rose believes God has heard her prayers and given her a child to love.
Seth Montgomery loves children. Uncommonly tall, he was taunted all through school with cries of "Goliath!" This happened so much that Seth has always felt awkward with women. His heart was also scarred when, as a young boy, he witnessed his mother's death as a result of child birth. How can he ever think of putting a woman he loves through that same pain? Instead, he locks his heart away, pursuing friendship with women like Rose. When little Alf comes to live with Rose and her father, Seth's immediate connection with the boy is a gift to his heart.
When Rose's guardianship of Alf is threatened by her unmarried status and Seth steps in to remedy the problem, can the two see that his intervention was God-led? As each works to overcome their own insecurities, can their already strong friendship turn to an enduring love story?
I love stories like this one. The hero was strong, gentle and very capable of winning a woman's heart but his insecurities kept him from pursuing anything with ANY woman. He saw himself as too tall, too awkward and too everything to be appealing in any way. Plus, he knew that marriage meant babies eventually and after witnessing his mother's death he didn't want to be a part of killing the woman he loves. The heroine was the "plain" sister and had watched as the local men flocked around her younger sister, ignoring her to the point where she felt invisible. Watching Seth and Rose together, their mutual respect for one another is immediately apparent and it is a joy to read their story.
Seth Montgomery loves children. Uncommonly tall, he was taunted all through school with cries of "Goliath!" This happened so much that Seth has always felt awkward with women. His heart was also scarred when, as a young boy, he witnessed his mother's death as a result of child birth. How can he ever think of putting a woman he loves through that same pain? Instead, he locks his heart away, pursuing friendship with women like Rose. When little Alf comes to live with Rose and her father, Seth's immediate connection with the boy is a gift to his heart.
When Rose's guardianship of Alf is threatened by her unmarried status and Seth steps in to remedy the problem, can the two see that his intervention was God-led? As each works to overcome their own insecurities, can their already strong friendship turn to an enduring love story?
I love stories like this one. The hero was strong, gentle and very capable of winning a woman's heart but his insecurities kept him from pursuing anything with ANY woman. He saw himself as too tall, too awkward and too everything to be appealing in any way. Plus, he knew that marriage meant babies eventually and after witnessing his mother's death he didn't want to be a part of killing the woman he loves. The heroine was the "plain" sister and had watched as the local men flocked around her younger sister, ignoring her to the point where she felt invisible. Watching Seth and Rose together, their mutual respect for one another is immediately apparent and it is a joy to read their story.
July 23, 2021
Okay
I liked the plot, liked the characters, liked the faith content but in the romance building it was very much lacking. Still a cute read.
I liked the plot, liked the characters, liked the faith content but in the romance building it was very much lacking. Still a cute read.
July 11, 2022
Too much religion, not enough romance. Did people really talk about God as if he were around the corner?
August 2, 2023
This book was a little too “Little House on the Prairie” ish for my liking, but anyone who enjoys shows like that would enjoy this book.
April 26, 2016
Frankly, this storyline did not direct me the way I think it was meant to. Both Rose and Seth stressed emphasis so much on their "friendship" and how that meant so much to them that that's exactly what I thought of them as: friends. Throughout the story, they spoke to one another sweetly, and opened eachothers eyes to truths about God, but it was all very family oriented. There were no signs of butterfly stomachs or overwhelming emotions. Rose and Seth seemed to me, throughout the entire book, like close best friends. Because of this, the turn of events that led to their sudden "I love you" was not at all satisfactory.
September 25, 2014
I really enjoyed this story because the characters felt so real to me.
It was wonderful to journey with Rose and Seth and watch as they both finally let the walls around their hearts fall.
I was surprised that I ended up loving Lavinia and even felt sympathy for Bertha.
I look forward to more stories about the Kellogg-Montgomery family.
It was wonderful to journey with Rose and Seth and watch as they both finally let the walls around their hearts fall.
I was surprised that I ended up loving Lavinia and even felt sympathy for Bertha.
I look forward to more stories about the Kellogg-Montgomery family.
Read
January 12, 2016"This second story set in Cottonwood Falls, Kan., is an emotional journey by a heroine who struggles to understand God’s will for her life. The hero is a charmingly reluctant one, and there are a number of wonderfully interesting secondary characters" (RT Book Reviews, 4 1/2 stars).
December 9, 2014
Sweet story.
July 8, 2016
reread
Read
January 28, 2018Had a good plot but unfortunately I didn't see any love connection between the heroine and hero instead I feel they have more potential as best friend than lovers... Maybe I've just read too many HR with soo much passion and all but really I can't feel any Sparks on this.... And the heroine is clear about what she thinks about marriage...
I don't know what happened exactly to her since I only read until page 80 but I think she had been in love with a married man before which she has no knowledge about.... I wanted to read and know what happened or what will happen but I can't go on anymore T.T
I don't know what happened exactly to her since I only read until page 80 but I think she had been in love with a married man before which she has no knowledge about.... I wanted to read and know what happened or what will happen but I can't go on anymore T.T
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews