The Maiden's Court: Book Review: An Angel Called Gallagher by M.K. McClintock

An Angel Called Gallagher by M.K. McClintock
Book 4 in the Montana Gallagher series
E-book, 213 pages
Cambron Press
December 3, 2015
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Romance, Western

Source: Received from Author for Review as part of McClintock Readers

On a ranch known as Hawk’s Peak, a family celebrates love, joy, and peace at last . . . or so the Gallaghers thought.

Briarwood, Montana Territory—December 1883

Brenna is convinced she hears a woman singing to her son. Eliza and Ethan are unnerved by a sleepwalker, and Isabelle swears Hawk’s Peak is haunted.

Then an unlikely visitor stumbles into their lives.

Enjoy a heartwarming holiday adventure filled with tenderness, hope, and the promise of a better tomorrow for more than one deserving soul. Join us for a Gallagher Christmas at Hawk’s Peak and fall in love with the family all over again.

What could possibly go wrong at Christmas?

In this book in the Montana Gallagher series (Book 4) we experience the world through yet another woman who finds her way to Hawk’s Peak, this time a young teenage girl who certainly needs a dose of loving kindness that the gang at the ranch can offer. Catie has had to live a pretty rough life and when she encounters the Gallaghers she is stealing what essentials she need to simply survive day to day. Through the different experiences and personalities that the residents of Hawk’s Peak have, they are able to slowly melt the ice and find Catie’s heart and soul – that’s what the Gallagher’s do best!

Beyond this being Catie’s story where we learn about her life before arriving at Hawk’s Peak, it is a continuation of the stories of Ethan, Gabriel, and Eliza Gallagher and their spouse’s Brenna, Isabelle, and Ramsey (respectively). We learn more about Amanda Warren (introduced to us at the end of Gallagher’s Choice) and while this offers just a taste more about her, I’m sure she has her own book coming up soon. There is daily life on a ranch in the winter and the discussions of adding a horse breeding element to it. And Christmas is coming! The Gallagher’s offer their warmth to the town in an effort to bring everyone together to celebrate this holiday in the hard scrabble world of the American west.

Even though this is a Christmas entry into this series, it is not wholly focused on that event to the exclusion of the continued storytelling arc as a whole. It’s not something you should skip over if reading the series. There is a lot of character development here and we learn new things about them that build your understanding of the characters. With the ever growing cast, I find it amazing that the author seems to always be able to allocate roughly equivalent time to all of them (even though there is always one or two featured characters) and they all still maintain their own voices.

This is the first of McClintock’s Gallagher books that I have not listened to in audio format, so it was a different reading experience for me. While reading I could still hear their voices in my head – that’s how much the narration stuck with me from the previous books! Oh, and a random perk of this book, there is a recipe for a spiced apple and cranberry cake that will be featured in an upcoming Weekend Cooking segment here on the blog! I love when authors include little perks like that as the cake was mentioned in the book.

Buy the Book: Amazon

Also by MK McClintock:

Also in the Montana Gallagher series: