Romancing Olive

Description
Spinster librarian, Olive Wilkins, is shocked to learn of her brother’s violent death at a saloon gaming table. Compelled to rescue and raise his children, Olive travels to Ohio, intending to return to her Philadelphia home with her niece and nephew. Little does she know that the children have come to love their caretaker, widower Jacob Butler. Will Olive return home without them or learn to love Jacob as wel

 I confess, I began reading "Romancing Olive" somewhat reluctantly. I generally tend to avoid both western historical novels (the story takes place in Ohio, which is west enough for me, in 1891,) as well as romances where the Heroine is significantly older than the Hero (Olive is in her mid-to-late 30s and Jacob is in his mid-to-late 20s,) and this book has both. I ended up reading this book anyway thanks to the urging of a good friend, and much to my surprise, I found myself unable to put it down after just a few short pages! "Romancing Olive" is really a wonderful story. Author Holly Bush has a gift for creating strong characters who are interesting and easy to relate to, despite differences of setting and situation. I found Jacob's personal struggle to come to grips with the passing of his wife and to accept his changing feelings toward Olive to be especially poignant, and although I was at first thrown by the age difference, Olive's gradual transformation from a settled spinster into a wonderful young-at-heart woman full of vigor was a delightful and interesting twist from that of most formulaic romances written about young ladies. Of the other characters in the story, I also found Mary, Olive's 10 year old niece, to be an especially compelling and strong character. Perhaps in the future Ms. Bush will decide to tell Mary's story -- I would certainly be interested in reading more about her and her story as she comes of age. Ms. Bush also shows her talent with words in her descriptive imagery. I was easily able to picture many of the places and scenes that were described, and the town of Spencer was charming. Despite a few small grammatical glitches toward the front of the story (including a couple of spots where a copy editor may have missed a comma splice, as well as one instance of a you're/your issue,) I would happily recommend "Romancing Olive" to anyone who enjoys a good romance or just an excellent story in general. I'm sure that I will be re-reading it when I find myself in need of either of these things, and I will eagerly anticipate Ms. Bush's future novels as well.