Wishing for the Rancher’s Love

Name: Wishing for the Rancher’s Love
Rating: 4.6 (588 reviews)

by Jody Hedlund Book 5 in the High Country Ranch series.

First published 2024

Amazon

4.6(588)

As the only one of her siblings who hasn’t married, Clementine Oakley feels left behind. But she does her best to focus on her candy-making business, hoping to someday have a shop of her own instead of a lone counter in Worth’s General Store. Giving and outgoing, she makes friends with everyone in town—except for one person, the store owner’s son . . . Grady Worth. Grady isn’t quite sure why he can’t get along with Clementine, but every time they’re together, all they do is bicker. When his widowed dad proposes a contest to encourage Grady to find love, Clementine is the last person Grady considers as an option.

A stalker plot brings the dangers faced by an independent businesswoman into an otherwise close-knit town. Clementine and Grady’s pretend engagement gradually requires real trust, and the series closes by connecting romantic commitment with communal protection and the courage to confront violence openly.