Shey Darcy is in the middle of a divorce and heads back home to Texas with her three sons. She runs into Dane Kelly who she's been in love with pretty much her whole life and sparks fly. Sparks she's not quite sure what to do with as she's trying to get her life back on track. This was an easy and quick read. I read it in one sitting! ( )

she's gone country by jane porter, wow packed book about a lot of things going
on. a mom recently divorced from her husband who is now a gay man. kids go to new
york at thanksgiving to be with him. one stays behind. 2 come back and one is
enthralled with bull riding=he starts lessons. another is being bullied at school
and she finds out. a housebreak on thanksgiving and she's calling a lifelong friend
who comes to her rescue. she is a model to boot and takes off to exotic places a few
times during the timeframe, always has her mom nearby to watch the kids. she does it all
and then some. nobody can kick her down. a lot of things from the past come back to be
dealt with so she and others can move on. really liked the book but not a lot of dialogue,
i felt. i rate this a 5 of 5 and will now look for more books by this author. ( )

She’s Gone Country by Jane Porter is so relaxing and enjoyable to read it was like putting on a pair of old, soft jeans and your favorite t-shirt. This book is sort of mommy lit but foretells an empty nest coming and a bit of a middle age crisis.

Shey Lynne Darcy’s husband just left her for a man. They had been married for around 16 years. She has been living in New York City but decides to go back home. She took her three sons, Bo, Hank and Cooper to the ranch where she grew up in Parkfield, Texas. Even though, she could stay and support herself and the boys with her income as well known fashion model but she feels that she isn’t herself any more.

She has a lot to deal with including the fact that her son, Bo, seems to be following in her brother Cody’s footsteps. Cody may have been manic depressive but died before he could steer away from substance dependence. Now Bo seems to be depressed a lot lately. Her son, Hank, doesn’t like the schools in Texas and would rather stay with her estranged husband so he could go to one of the best schools in the East. Lastly, Cooper, the youngest feel that he is a looser at everything including fistfights; he loves the ranch and wants to be a cowboy.

On top of this, her old boyfriend, Dane Kelley, a rodeo champ is still in the area. Her parents sent her away to boarding school when she was young so she would be away from him. Shey wants to feel more comfortable in her life. She wants to be herself, to be happier than she has been and she had been missing the ranch for so long.

This page turning story gets you interested from the first page and you don’t want to read the last page because that will be all there is. This story has humor, wit, romance, emotional turmoil and some peaceful times.

I highly recommend this book to women who have or have had teen aged sons and/or a broken marriage. ( )

It didn’t take long in reading this book for me to get major Hope Floats flashbacks. I kept thinking, “haven’t I seen this somewhere before?” Woman’s marriage fails, she moves offspring from the bustling city back to the rural home of her childhood, meets man from past and falls in love…and then all is well in the world.

She’s Gone Country was a quick, light read—and even went a little deeper and darker at times, bringing up topics of homosexuality, bi-polar depression and bullying/cyber-bullying, but no issue was covered in much detail to really say that this book has a lot of meat—and was good enough that I perhaps wouldn’t mind reading more of Jane Porter.

I enjoyed reading this book, but by the end I couldn’t shake the feeling that Shey’s life only seemed to get better once Dane was finally a part of it. Which perpetuates the whole “a woman needs a man” cliché that I hate. I would liked to see Shey become once again the strong confident woman she was before her failed marriage … but on her own, sans the man.

Overall, not scary good but not horrible either. Rating: 3/5

http://www.read-all-over.net/fiction/chic-lit/shes-gone-country-by-jane-porter/ ( )

Love Jane Porter, and love this book. I've been wanting to read this book since before it came out and enjoyed every minute of it while on vacation. Love how Porter spends time in the mom-lit realm and does a good job with it. I'll read Jane Porter any day of the week. Bravo! ( )