Thaddeus Rutledge liked life on his terms & was not a man to be crossed. When he wanted to advance in society, he married wealthy socialite Eugenia Wyse. When he wanted his businesses to prosper, he stopped at nothing to make it happen. When his wife began voicing her own opinions & refused to hand over their daughter's trust fund, he locked her in an asylum. When his daughter Elizabeth tried to convince Thaddeus to release her mother from the asylum, he caned her. Nothing would stop Thaddeus from having it all - until his wife escaped from the asylum & his daughter went missing. This was not in his plan...

Beth and Ginny were on the run & needed a place to disappear. Going West on the Oregon trail seemed to be the perfect solution & would allow them a chance to find a new home. However, the asylum escape did not go exactly as planned. They did not plan to bring another woman with them from the asylum on their hunt for freedom. They did not plan to find a man shot & critically wounded that needed their assistance with his secrets. They did not expect so many trials & tribulations & difficulty keeping their presence unknown & low-key. Beth did not expect to find happiness, or love....

This was a really great book with very interesting characters! I enjoyed reading it and cannot wait for the next book in the series! Thank you so much LibraryThing Early Reviewers for the ARC. ( )

I love a good wagon train story and pioneer story, and this is both. With some extra high society influence and villains as well. Ginny has been put into an asylum and her daughter and former employee plot to get her out and go west to hide. Wonderful full dimension characters you either love or hate. Very interesting. Looking forward to spending more time with them in the next book!

I received this book free from the author, publisher and NetGalley book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

#ChasingTheHorizon #NetGalley #BethanyHouse #BooksYouCanFeelGoodAbout #ChristianHistoricalFiction #FiveStarBooks #MaryConnealy ( )

After breaking her Mom out of the insane asylum, Beth, her mother, and a Kat join a caravan crossing the Oregon trail. Along the way they find a man shot, and nurse him back to health. Once they join a larger group, Beth quickly grows comfortable with
Jake, a wagon train scout. Back home, Beth’s father employs Pinkerton agents to scour the countryside for his wife and daughter.

This book wasn’t really what I was expecting. The book itself moved slowly and focused heavily on the romance between Beth and Jack. The big “chase across the country” didn’t really happen and the Pinkerton agents didn’t play much of a part until close to the end. I thought the characters themselves were stereotypical and in general lacking. Overall, not a book I would reread or recommend. Maybe it just wasn’t for me. ( )

3.5 Stars

When I am wanting a lighter, palate cleanser read after a book hangover, Mary Connealy is often a go-to author. Her lighter stories with some humor and lots of adventure hit the mark of what I’m in the mood for. Chasing the Horizon deals with the difficult issue of mental health and the way some people used insane asylums for their own gain.

I liked Beth and Ginny from the beginning. These are two strong women who are fighting darkness and trying to right wrongs together. Kat is a mystery, and I am looking forward to her story to find out what motivates the woman. Jake is the perfect hero (almost too perfect at times) for Beth.
The friendship Beth and Jake forge takes a sharp turn to more, so this romance reader missed out on all of the emotions leading to love. However, Jake and Beth’s love for each other is well built after the “more.”

Typical for Connealy is lots of history, a quick wrap up of an ending, and a story thread that readers get to follow through the entire series. And none of that was missing in Chasing the Horizon.

Disclosure statement: I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book and was not required to write a positive or negative review. All opinions are my own. ( )

I think I’ve decided that I really enjoy cowboy historicals, and I need to read more of them. There is just something about the grit and perseverance that is essential to mere survival that provides for some great growth and tension. I love it! (And also, cowboys in books are amazingly swoony.) And this book provides some of that.

Beth is remarkably resilient and resourceful. I love how she went to work to learn the skills she knew she would need to survive the wilds of the West, after having lived a privileged life among the wealthy elite of Chicago. She put in so much effort and time, and was incredibly dedicated. Helping her mother escape from her wrongful commitment to an insane asylum and hiding on a wagon train, Beth proved her determination and love for her family. She went to work, and didn’t give up getting her mother safely away from her ruthless, conniving father, Thaddeus Rutledge.

It’s easy to admire Jake, who didn’t allow his curiosity and suspicions to cloud his ability to see goodness in others. Naturally, his treatment of Beth and her entourage was sweet, and I loved watching him gradually grow in his esteem for Beth. Their romance was sweet, though it felt a tad sudden for me, without a lot hinting toward it. But, again, the dedication they showed to each other, especially on Jake’s side, was really sweet.

I adored Oscar and his brothers, who helped Beth plan and train and prepare, and saw them all to safety. And the valley they found to settle sounds amazing! I want to live there in real life.

The rest of the cast of side characters really rounded out the book, and I grew to love all of them. My heart really went out to Ginnie and Kat. It is disgusting that men could have their wives committed to insane asylums just because they didn’t want them around. And the treatment of the women in those places was deplorable. Both Ginnie and Kat have to deal with PTSD because of the conditions of their lives in the asylum, and my heart ached for them—and knowing that those were stories patterned after real women. Sebastian is extremely mysterious, and I’m still trying to decide how much I trust him. I’m looking forward to reading his story.

There are some sections from the perspective of Thaddeus Rutledge, Ginnie’s husband and Beth’s father. He is sinister and vicious. Thank heavens for the Pinkerton agents who could tell the truth from the lies.

This was an enjoyable read and I am looking forward to the second book in the series.

**Many thanks to the publisher, through @austenprose, for the copy. This honest review was voluntarily provided. ( )