Breaking Down Her Walls

This clunky contemporary opens with footloose Julia Finch’s vintage car conking out in an equally vintage-looking small Colorado town. The Chicago girl is only planning on staying there a day or two at most. Unfortunately, her car has other plans—expensive ones. The local repair guy announces the price tag could run into the thousands. A little deus ex machina comes along in the person of a local ranch hand who hires her to work on the Bennett Ranch, where she soon falls hard for the ranch’s bristly owner, Elena Bennett. Twenty-something Julia’s personal history somewhat matches the older Elena’s with its succession of bad luck, bad choices, and disappointments. Thus the two find a mutual bond that they each fight. The narrative, written only from Julia’s point of view, omits the lovers’ back and forth that many romance readers enjoy. This lightweight fish-out-of-water tale is contrived right to the end, when a last-minute plot twist puts saccharine frosting on an underdone cake. (Mar.)