A Gentle Rain

Kara Whittenbrook is a woman of many accomplishments, although she wouldn't say so. An heiress, semi-vegan, and holder of multiple degrees, she's always felt just a little different from her globe-trotting activist parents. When her parents die in a fiery plane crash, Kara finds that she was adopted as a newborn. Her birth parents are Mac Tolbert and Lily Akens. When Kara learns the pair live on a ranch in Florida, she reinvents herself as Karen Johnson and sets off to learn more about them, little dreaming what fate has in store.

Ben Thocco is a Florida Cracker, and darn proud of the fact. Part Seminole, owner of a struggling cattle ranch, Ben has a checkered past and a big heart. His ranch is home not only to Coon Racking Cracker show more horses, but also to a varied cast of special people, including his brother Joey, who has Downs Syndrome and a heart condition. Ben doesn't have time in his life for romance. But Lilly, Mac, a horse named Estrela, and a young woman named Karen just may make him change his mind.

There's a LOT going on in this story. Lots of characters, numerous subplots, and the ending is pretty much a foregone conclusion (it's happy, of course). In spite of the fact that a few of the subplots get lost along the way, and a few of the named characters aren't really fleshed out, I found myself liking this story a lot. Smith's books usually have a little more nail-biting suspense to them. In contrast, this one is more gentle, hopeful, and endearing. I really enjoyed it. show less

A recently orphaned heiress, daughter of the environmentalist black sheep of the family, discovers she was adopted and goes looking for her birth parents. On the advice of an avuncular family lawyer, she goes in disguise to Ben Tocco’s ranch, where her parents are among the mentally handicapped ranch hands Ben employs, giving them dignity and a sense of purpose. Sexual tension and plenty of heartwarming moments ensue as Kara/Karen takes over the ranch kitchen, bonds with her daisy-loving birth parents, and helps tame an abused horse adopted by the ranch hands and by Ben’s beloved younger brother, Joey, who has Down Syndrome. Even as she finds a place for herself on the ranch, she must come to terms with the immense fortune she has show more inherited.

A Gentle Rain is a well-written and literate love story with entertaining touches like aging ex-“mermaids” (underwater performers), bikini-clad barrel racers, and Ben’s past as a Mexican wrestler/telenovela star called El Diablo American. The cast of characters is disorienting at times—I lost track of some of the ranch hands and Lulu and Miriam seemed like they could have been one character—and there’s a touch too much simplicity in the portrayal of the mentally handicapped characters, all of whom seem to have some sort of special horse-whisperer type talent. Still, they are rounded characters whose right to a full, productive life is defended. And while Kara’s idealism looks a bit naïve, it is pitted against Ben’s pragmatism without either worldview having to be “wrong.” It’s a coming-of-age story for a thirty-two-year-old woman who is finally seeking to define herself. show less

Let me preface this by saying that I typically do not like books with horses in them. Not one tiny little bit. However, in this book, the setting of a ranch and a peripheral character of Estrela (the horse) were perfect. I enjoyed the main characters, the style of switching narrative between the 2 protagonists and all of the secondary characters. This book had a tone that was both earthy and sweet. It had elements that I found a little bit of a stretch (El Diable, the poker party, fantastically wealthy woman orphaned) in contrast to the very "realness" of a ranch filled with special characters, but it's a work of fiction, so I decided to roll with it and highly enjoyed the read.

I am so thankful that I got this book through the Early Reviewers program as I'm pretty sure that I would never have picked it up otherwise. And boy, I really would have missed out on something special.

The characters in Gentle Rain are so interesting and very well crafted. Kara Whittenbrook is an heiress to a fortune built by her environmentalist parents. She discovers after her parents are killed that she was really adopted. This realization sends her on a mission to find her birth parents who she learns are mentally retarded. They are living and working on the northern Florida ranch of Ben Thocco. Ben is an equally fascinating character. He is part Seminole, takes care of his younger brother who has Downs Syndrome, and is a former show more luchadore and telenovela start. He and Kara meet in the most amazing way and it's pretty much love at first sight (even though they both fight it). Ben brings Kara back to his ranch where she meets her parents along with the other differently-abled ranch hands. Kara struggles with the decision to reveal her identity to her birth parents while she stays at the ranch where she earns the love and admiration of this eclectic family. The plot is engaging and a variety of "villains" keeps the story moving along. The third major character in the novel is Florida. The author paints a nuanced and seductive picture of a little known part of Florida that is wild and beautiful, populated with the exotic and the mundane. This is the old kitschy Florida predating Disney World.

I really enjoy books where the author completely immerses the reader in a culture and a place and is so well done that you feel as if you've been there. Deborah Smith accomplishes all of that and more in Gentle Rain. I highly recommend this book. show less

For the most part, this was an enjoyable romantic story. There were just a couple of things that were a minorly irritiating. The story was told from the perspective of Ben and Kara and flipflopped back and forth between the two. The story was always narrated in first person. I'd get engrossed in the story and lose track of whose side of the story we were getting. Some of the sections were small and was easy enough to figure out, the larger parts however, I'd have to stop and think or go back to the start of the section. It was irritating at times and broke up the flow of the story. There was alot of activity in the entire novel and there were some details that seemed a bit far fetched, the poker game, the barrel racing, the raindrops on show more the plane's window when they were probably flying at 30k feet (with the outside temperature they would have been icicles, not rain drops). These few things put aside, it was an entertaining read. show less

After the death of her parents, Kara Whittenbrook was shocked to discover that she and been adopted. This information in hand, she started out to Florida because she had to know more about them, even though she had been told they were mentally handicapped, and she needed to know why she had been given up for adoption. The Thocco Ranch was home to several ranch hands with mental handicaps such as Down Syndrome or Autism, but somehow Ben Thocco saw that each of his employees has their own special talent either with the animals or with each other. With the help of a man-biting mare (Estrela) and the whole crew, Kara finally finds her biological parents, and herself.

I don’t know what I was expecting from the book, but this was not it (and show more I mean that in a good way). Predictable nearly from beging to end, that being said….. Surprisingly heartwarming, refreshing, tender, compassionate, gratifying, energizing, ect. Loads of characters, all of them are created so wonderfully, their interaction is at times laugh out loud funny, but always wonderfully written. If this were a movie, it would be considered a total chick flick or a real tear jerker (happy and sad tears). This is a new author for me and you can bet I will be searching out her other books. show less

This was a wonderful romance story. i was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. The characters were great. The hero and heroine were very believable and the secondary characters were awesome and a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend this to any romance reader. PS, the bedroom door was closed so you could also let teenagers read it as well.