Fences

by Laura Bontrager

Falling in love is easy. What comes next is not.Emma Fox, a sculptor from San Francisco, travels to Tennessee at the invitation of the grandfather she has never met. She doesn’t like him much, but as for his farm manager... Her emotions plunge Emma into a situation where the requirements of everyday life and what her heart tells her become harder to reconcile every day.

370 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 2012

About the author

Laura Bontrager is a writer and library assistant living in Tennessee. Her influences include Madeleine L'Engle, Mary Stewart, the poetry of Lucille Clifton, and--to every grammar teacher's horror--William Faulkner. She has a passionate love for San Francisco baseball that almost rivals her love of writing.

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a while ago and I fell in love with it from the beginning. The story is great and at some moments it really got me. It was easy for me to feel something for the character. I think it has a lot to do with the writing.
Laura did an amazing job. I really hope to read more official published stories from her in the future.

[Chandelle Brears · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously awful. The author has ignored many of the basic rules of grammar. Tons of dangling modifiers, misused em dashes (the author specifically draws the reader's attention to things like tennis shoes, and never brings it up again), and really awkward cadence in the sentences.
All of this could have been forgiven but...

There was no research done. It is set on an appaloosa horse ranch, but the author clearly does not understand the anatomy of horses, or how to work with them. Despite specifically making it an Appaloosa ranch, there are no horses with appaloosa markings.The characters are flat, boring and utterly unlikeable. I believe in having characters with flaws, but there are no redeeming features in any of them. There is no plot. The author may have had an idea (what happens after the marriage), but there was no passion in the romance beforehand (or after) no interesting conflict, and really no events. What I thought might have been the climax, just was forgotten part of the way through. It might sound like I am exaggerating, but the author really needs to go back and try again.

[Tuuli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. That's pretty much all I can say right now, five minutes after finishing the book.

The book is captivating, in a way that had me stay up until 2 a.m. just because I couldn't stop reading. The intense scenes had me reading faster, because I was eager to know what was going to happen. And, as often happens with books as good as this, I found myself slowing down towards the last pages. I just didn't want it to end.