Good Together

Part of the Montana Born Books and the second book of the Carrigans of the Circle C series, Good Together by C.J. Carmichael follows Mattie Carrigan Bishop, an empty nester with her twin girls in college and a soon-to-be-divorced woman upon discovering that her husband had fallen out of love with her.

Good Together is a poignant story that bring tears to your eyes as Mattie tries to make sense of what was happening while also being forced to pick up the pieces of her life because she can lost her home sooner than expected.

Even in her naiveté, Mattie proves to be a strong woman. She also finds a friend with her neighbor Nat Diamond who was also facing challenges unbeknownst to Mattie.

Heart wrenching and a tearjerker, Good Together by C.J. Carmichael relates how a woman can face adversity and win.

CJ Carmichael crafts a simple yet lovely story. Good Together is the first in a series and I, for one, can't wait to continue the experience. I say experience, because Ms. Carmichael has created a world and populated it with the kind of people I would love to have as friends or relatives. I so enjoyed my glimpse into life at the Circle C, I loved that the ranch is as much a character as the people. Of course there's a beautiful, sweet romance, and the lead couple is engaging and will have you emotionally involved in their happily ever after! Well Done.
*I received my copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Good Together by C J Carmichael is the first book I have read written by her. I found this book to be interesting even with it was heart wrenching. She has tackled a tough commonplace subject that could also serve as a warning to be prepared legally. Mattie was not and the separation, then divorce knocked her to her knees. She is losing so much more than a husband. My heart went out to her, causing me to want to keep reading to see how she gets back on her feet.

While the neighbor, Nat is everything her husband is not, I do not think this is so much a true romance. Women’s literature includes a romantic element in it would be a better description. It just reads more multilevel, with real painful events and very authentic drama . I’m wondering if the author knows anyone that this has happened to, that’s how real it feels.

If all of her writing is this complex and intense, I will be reading every book of hers. Not shallow writing at all, instead well worth my time.

This story has brought me to tears and I am only at 47% of it read. It reminds me how some fathers and mothers can be so callous in their actions. Here in this story he wants to get into the pants of the mother of his children, even ask to marry them, yet years will go by and something will trigger in their head that “Hey wow, somewhere I lost my youth. I am a father, provider, and/or husband. So, let me divorce, bail, shack up or disappear from the mother of my child, shaft her as I go, and neglect my children as I do it.” Is that that what they ask themselves?
Wow, does that make them a man? Well, that is what Mattie Carrigan is asking herself right now. You see she has been married 19 ½ years to her husband Wes, and she has just found out that he is planning on leaving her and selling all their horse from the horse ranch and selling the family ranch, where the breed and train Tennessee Walkers. Their ranch the Bishop Stables is a generational ranch which was supposed to be her twin college daughter’s inheritance. Portia and Wren were thrown for a loop too because their dad was supposed to be home at Thanksgiving and when he didn’t show that sent up many red flags. So, that left Mattie to tell the girls their fathers plans which sadden them since their dad had always told them that it would one day be theirs and to be proud of that and all that it meant.
Mattie doesn’t even know that he has already tried to sell it to her friend and neighbor Nat Diamond. Which we’ll have to see how that will play out since she is starting to trust him and find him attractive. He doesn’t know about Wes latest stunt so we will have to see how it will all play out. Because Wes has broken all 3 of the most important women in his lives hearts.
“Asking a wife to be responsible for her husband’s happiness was asking too much.” For a lot of factors strain a relationship and for most wives it is out of their control. But it seems to always be that the guy needs to feel needed and after so long the wife’s not new, the kids are off to college, and they all are going through some mid-life crisis that sends them into a tail spin. For Wes, Mattie knew it was Dex Cooper’s death on the rodeo circuit but in what way?
One of her sisters put it this way about her husband Wes, “Wes is one of those cowboys whose eye light up when he’s in the company of a beautiful woman. I wanted my sister to be with a man whose eye lit up only for her.” That in the end is what every woman wants. This was a very good story. I give it 5 stars. Provided by Net Galley.
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4.5 Stars! Filled with emotional highs and lows, with the occasional horse or puppy thrown in, this is an emotional tale of loss, disillusionment and finding love in unexpected places. A well-told tale with a truly sympathetic main character. You may need the tissues for this one.

review will post on 10/20

Hott Synopsis:

amazon Goodreads Mattie Carrigan and her husband Wes Bishop have been good together for almost twenty years. Yet, when their daughters take off for college, Wes sees it as a good time to take off as well. He’s still got a life to live and Mattie and his inherited ranch aren’t in it!
Mattie is shocked when Wes says he’s leaving. Seriously? Wes doesn’t make snap decision and he’s ripping her world out from under her without even a conversation!

Being alone for the first time in her life, Mattie realizes that she doesn’t want to be alone – she wants more.

Hott Review:

Magnificent! Kudos to C.J. Carmichael!!

Good Together is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Yes, it’s categorized as a romance, but it’s not just a romance. Actually, it’s a story about Mattie. Mattie shocked, heart-broken, coming to terms with her life, living.

I can’t wait for the rest of the series!!

More…

Author: C.J. Carmichael Source: Tule Publishing Group via Netgalley Grade: A+
Steam:
Setting: Montana Series: Carrigans of the Circle C, 2

Author Bio:

Rita Award nominated author C.J. Carmichael has published more than 30 books with Harlequin. Right now she’s loving cowboys and Montana–those are the themes of the books she’s writing for Harlequin American.
CJ likes to write stories about romance and intrigue with a strong sense of community and family. If you enjoy her Harlequin books, you might want to check out her self-published titles. The Gift is a short novella Christmas story and A Buried Tale is a puzzler of a mystery that will keep you guessing and shock you with the surprise ending.

You’ll find both on Amazon, kobo and her website.

Websites & Links: author's website twitter https://www.facebook.com/authorcjcarmichael info from cjcarmichael.com & goodreads.com

This is the second book in the Carrigans of the Circle C series but can be easily read as a stand alone novel. These stories don't have a definitive end to them but their stories continue on in a minor role in the next book in the series.

Good Together is a story about a second chance love...though this is nothing like what you would have expected.

Wes and Mattie have been happily married for 19yrs, with twin daughters who just went off to their first year of college. Then one day, Mattie's life fell apart when Wes left her. Good Together is the story of Mattie's life as she struggles to understand what made Wes leave, and the hope that she holds on to that he'll return to her. This is a wonderful story about a second chance love, but one that you wont quite expect since you will spend most of the book reading about the time between when Wes walks out the door and the tie that she gets her final Happily Ever After.

One this that I loved about this book was how unexpected and out of the box the building block of this story are. Mattie is a middle age woman who has children off at college when her husband decides to leave her. Most second chance romance books might have a bit of the break up story, but this story chronicles the struggles that Mattie faces the fill of her marriage. The writing in this book was decent and I enjoyed the fact that this book was told from the POV of several of the characters.

The one thing that ended up rubbing me the wrong way was how much Mattie talked down about her father. By the fourth time I got the fact that he wasn't a loving or approving guy. But geez, at some point I felt like the author was kicking a dead horse.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion*

Saw the blurb on this one and grabbed it. I was curious to read the story of a middle-aged woman who thought her life with husband, children, and ranch was perfect until her husband just walks away from her telling her that he doesn’t love her anymore and he doesn’t want to work the ranch. She has to pick up and start over and there is a handsome, good man on the next ranch over who has been in love with her for a long time.

For some reason, I had the wrong end of the stick when I got this story because I was expecting a strong romance, but instead got something different. I had to adjust not just my expectations, but adjust for the very different mood of the story. Basically, it was the difference between reading Contemporary Romance and Women’s Fiction.

This is book two in a series about four sisters, but it can easily be read out of order or as a standalone. There are scenes with the sister from the previous story, but the plot is independent.

Mattiie Bishop is at a new bend in the road of life. She has just sent her twin girls off to college and her husband is set to leave the rodeo life to work quietly on the ranch with her, even take off for some much needed time together. This would be good because lately she has felt a distance open up between them and she is sure it has to do with Wes processing the death of a younger friend in a rodeo accident.

Knowing this still doesn’t prepare her for the hits that come when Wes returns and tells her that he is selling out and leaving. He doesn’t want to ranch and never did. The biggest blow was to learn that he is leaving her because he doesn’t love her any more. Mattie is devastated and hits a really low point when her kind, understanding neighbor, Nate, helps her pick herself up and go on. Nate had his wife leave him, too, so she knows he understands.

The blows keep coming. Wes is silent to her refusing to give her a why or share his plans, but is quickly liquidating everything and pulling her very life out from under her. Mattie relies on Nate up to a point and as time goes on even learns to appreciate and accept her attraction to him, but Nate is reluctant to take her up on what she is offering. She can’t understand what holds him back, but assumes he only wants a friendship. In the meantime, she works through the loss and change to come out on the other side a stronger woman.

Alright, so this was definitely not what I was expecting and the change wasn’t welcome on some levels. I didn’t expect it to be light since its the story of a woman whose husband leaves her and leaves her in a cruel way because he’s dealing with his own demons. That said, I wasn’t expecting that 90% of the story would be about her emotional journey of healing and recovery and just a little bit romance with a rushed ending. In fact, several times during the story, I wondered if she was meant to get back with her husband or move on with Nate the way things didn’t develop with the romance and quite a ways along she was still hoping to heal her marriage. If I mistakenly picked up a fiction story, I would say this disappointment and confusion was on me, but since its a romance then not really.

Beyond the disappointment of wanting more romance in my romance book, I will say that this is a fantastic story. I can’t imagine going through what Mattie went through and getting up, dusting off, and moving on like she did. Granted, she had too, but still she didn’t rant to her daughters about their dad and she didn’t go running home to her family. She had her moments of pain and sorrow, but she recovered. A few times Nate got the narration and so the reader understood why he was holding back from Mattie even though he loved her dearly and had for years.

I think knowing Mattie and Nate were both such wonderful characters is exactly why I was disappointed by the lack of romance and then that rushed ending for them. Just to be clear, these two didn’t cheat. They did nothing wrong before Wes left. In fact, Mattie was a faithful and good wife and Nate never let his feelings cause him to do or say anything inappropriate. They were two tough yet tender people who loved ranching and the land. They might be middle-aged, but their passion was still burning bright and they felt it.

A strong piece to this book was all the lessons Mattie had to learn as a result of her marriage ending and how it opened her eyes to her relationships. Mattie is a product of her own upbringing. She put her mother on a pedestal and refused to believe that her dad might have had reasons for being emotionally distant and strict with his children. In the course of the story, she learns to reach out socially and have friends and other interests. She learns to value her family particularly her sisters as well as see her daughters as grown women. I loved watching her come through all she has to learn and be better for it.

I had an interesting reaction to Wes. I didn’t end up hating him. Get really angry at him, most definitely. I think my reaction was pity for him and disappointment. He was in crisis and nobody seems to realize this not even him. It felt like a soldier who engaged in combat and saw a buddy killed. The soldier returns from war different and even broken in some ways. This was Wes. He had the symptoms of PTSD and this was allowed to stew for a year when everyone went on with their lives and pretended that he would just get over it. Mattie knows he was affected, but she stays busy with the ranch. He distances himself emotionally and she stays busy with the ranch. He finally broke and it resulted in a mess for his wife and daughters. I got the feeling that if he ever recovered that he would definitely have regrets and that is why I pitied him.

In conclusion, this was a fantastic story if you pick it up and treat it like women’s fiction, but not so enjoyable if you are looking for Contemporary Romance. There is emotional depth, nice description, strong characters, and growth. I would definitely read more from this author.

Great book!!

After raising their twin girls and sending them off to college, Maddie is ready to spend the next part of her life being empty nesters with her husband Wes. Wes decides after watching his friend die at the rodeo, that he doesn't want to run the Ranch like he has been doing anymore. So he picks up and leaves his wife and kids for his friends' widow. Maddie, devastated that he has been selling off her home without a phone call to let her know what's going on, FINALLY tracks him down with the "other" woman to find out the whole truth, only to be betrayed. The only thing Wes didn't count on was the sexy next door neighbor to help save the day. He's been in love with Maddie for soo many years he stopped counting. When Wes realizes that no one can replace Maddie, will he come begging for her back? Or will Maddie have moved on? Read On!