I guess you can categorize this as a sort of Western novel. This is my first book by her and it was a pretty good one.

Shey moves back to her childhood farm/ranch in a small and I mean small town (67 residents) in TX. She originally went home for her brother Cody's funeral and then came back after her husband moved out stating he was gay and moved in with his boyfriend back in New York. She definitely didn't want to stay so here she is with her 3 boys, Hank, a sophomore in high school, Bo, the troublesome one (13), and Cooper, the youngest at 8 who's the sweetest of them all and laid back. It's not easy bringing up three boys on her own. Brick, her oldest brother, runs the farm and lives with his wife there in the complex. Blue lives in Dallas, with his wife and kids and he is in property real estate development.

Shey was a model in her time, even a Sports Illustrated model (she's now 39), and moved out of it since she's 39 and feels like she's washed up but gets a job here and there, and now all of a sudden she's getting calls. She runs into Dane, who is a rodeo rider, who's on disability from an injury and moved back which she definitely didn't expect. She was in love with him and they had a short lived relationship in high school until her parents found out and shipped her off to a boarding school in CA. Dane got married but now he's divorced and back. Dane, Brick and Blue used to be the best of friends, especially Brick, since they met in kindergarten and once were best friends. Something happened with their friendship, and she has a feeling that it has to do with Cody's death and his drug dependency/depression. Dane has a beef with Blue since Blue wants to develop on the huge piece of land next to his house which obviously he's against.

A lot happens in this book with the boys, Shey, Dane but as always there's a surprise element, and what I sort of expected but not all of it.

They were all teenagers by the end of the book it seems but it doesn't make sense since it was only in the space of a year since they moved to Texas but I may be wrong? Not sure. ( )

Shey Darcy is in the middle of a divorce and heads back home to Texas with her three sons. She runs into Dane Kelly who she's been in love with pretty much her whole life and sparks fly. Sparks she's not quite sure what to do with as she's trying to get her life back on track. This was an easy and quick read. I read it in one sitting! ( )

she's gone country by jane porter, wow packed book about a lot of things going
on. a mom recently divorced from her husband who is now a gay man. kids go to new
york at thanksgiving to be with him. one stays behind. 2 come back and one is
enthralled with bull riding=he starts lessons. another is being bullied at school
and she finds out. a housebreak on thanksgiving and she's calling a lifelong friend
who comes to her rescue. she is a model to boot and takes off to exotic places a few
times during the timeframe, always has her mom nearby to watch the kids. she does it all
and then some. nobody can kick her down. a lot of things from the past come back to be
dealt with so she and others can move on. really liked the book but not a lot of dialogue,
i felt. i rate this a 5 of 5 and will now look for more books by this author. ( )

She’s Gone Country by Jane Porter is so relaxing and enjoyable to read it was like putting on a pair of old, soft jeans and your favorite t-shirt. This book is sort of mommy lit but foretells an empty nest coming and a bit of a middle age crisis.

Shey Lynne Darcy’s husband just left her for a man. They had been married for around 16 years. She has been living in New York City but decides to go back home. She took her three sons, Bo, Hank and Cooper to the ranch where she grew up in Parkfield, Texas. Even though, she could stay and support herself and the boys with her income as well known fashion model but she feels that she isn’t herself any more.

She has a lot to deal with including the fact that her son, Bo, seems to be following in her brother Cody’s footsteps. Cody may have been manic depressive but died before he could steer away from substance dependence. Now Bo seems to be depressed a lot lately. Her son, Hank, doesn’t like the schools in Texas and would rather stay with her estranged husband so he could go to one of the best schools in the East. Lastly, Cooper, the youngest feel that he is a looser at everything including fistfights; he loves the ranch and wants to be a cowboy.

On top of this, her old boyfriend, Dane Kelley, a rodeo champ is still in the area. Her parents sent her away to boarding school when she was young so she would be away from him. Shey wants to feel more comfortable in her life. She wants to be herself, to be happier than she has been and she had been missing the ranch for so long.

This page turning story gets you interested from the first page and you don’t want to read the last page because that will be all there is. This story has humor, wit, romance, emotional turmoil and some peaceful times.

I highly recommend this book to women who have or have had teen aged sons and/or a broken marriage. ( )

It didn’t take long in reading this book for me to get major Hope Floats flashbacks. I kept thinking, “haven’t I seen this somewhere before?” Woman’s marriage fails, she moves offspring from the bustling city back to the rural home of her childhood, meets man from past and falls in love…and then all is well in the world.

She’s Gone Country was a quick, light read—and even went a little deeper and darker at times, bringing up topics of homosexuality, bi-polar depression and bullying/cyber-bullying, but no issue was covered in much detail to really say that this book has a lot of meat—and was good enough that I perhaps wouldn’t mind reading more of Jane Porter.

I enjoyed reading this book, but by the end I couldn’t shake the feeling that Shey’s life only seemed to get better once Dane was finally a part of it. Which perpetuates the whole “a woman needs a man” cliché that I hate. I would liked to see Shey become once again the strong confident woman she was before her failed marriage … but on her own, sans the man.

Overall, not scary good but not horrible either. Rating: 3/5

http://www.read-all-over.net/fiction/chic-lit/shes-gone-country-by-jane-porter/ ( )