The Lost Husband

Katherine Center's The Lost Husband features Libby, a broke single mom, widowed for one year and living with her volatile mother in Houston.  When Libby relieves an invitation from her estranged, zany aunt to move in with her kids and work on her goat farm in a tiny Texas town, Libby jumps at the chance. The city-girl-adapts-to-farm-life story has its appeal, and this one features handsome farmers, a former celebrity turned quasi-psychic, square dancing, and goats with names like Lady Bird Johnson, Toni Morrison, and Helen of Troy.

Libby and her family adjust to life on the farm and I found the story very charming.  I kept reading because I was waiting for a twist, and there was one, but not the one I was expecting, which I liked.  Libby grows in small bursts and connects in meaningful ways to her family as well as to other characters. I found it charming and enjoyable.

This is the second book that I've read recently where a single woman goes to rural Texas to find herself.  The first was Liza Palmer's Nowhere But Home. I wonder if finding yourself in small Texas town is going to become a fiction sub-genre, like a few years ago when there were a zillion books with wife in the title.