Oct 2019 reread
It's been a few years since I last visited Wildest Dreams, and what started as a "read a few favorite scenes to get over a Rosanne Bittner hangover from reading Ride the High Lonesome" idea quickly changed to where I was lost in the story and had to keep going till the end. I had forgotten so much to where in some ways it felt like a new to me read, but at the same time, I felt the comfort of a long-lost friend.
Luke and Lettie's story remains high on my favorite shelf. There's just something about reading a couple's story where they fall in love and start building a family together from early on in the book and we get to experience their life together -- raising their family, surviving the tragedies, rejoicing in the triumphs, dreaming, pursuing, changing, growing.... living. There's such beauty in watching the bond deepen between Luke and Lettie through the decades and how that flows down to their children.
This family saga delivers what feels like a several book series into one volume - we get plenty of details and focused attention on events, but are also able to move forward through time smoothly and not feeling like anything was left out.
Wildest Dreams is an epic story that will sweep you away and consume your thoughts.
~~~
2013 review
I'm loving that Rosanne Bittner is starting to put her older novels out in kindle format - and I hope she continues because she writes some of the best historical romance novels I've found! I only read a couple of her books way back when and it wasn't until this year that I rediscovered her and was thrilled to read Wildest Dreams!
One reviewer mentioned that this wasn't much of a romance novel - and I'd have to disagree. Yes, it isn't the typical story where most of the book is dedicated to the falling in love part and ends at the wedding with an epilogue glimpse into the future. You do get to experience the falling-in-love part, however, this book spends most of the time focusing on their lives from the wedding on - and the romance and how their love grows through the years. Trust me, the romance is there and honestly, I enjoy experiencing books where the story continues way past the wedding. That's where true love is forged in steel and where romance blooms to it's fullest. Luke and Lettie are two of my favorite RB characters and this book will always remain on my keeper shelf! How they work together to build their family and cattle-empire and what they face to make those dreams come true will keep you enthralled from the first sentence to the last page!
