"Corral Nocturne" by Elisabeth Grace Foley

I've discovered a problem with reading books with the Kindle app on my phone:  I forget to review them.  I read this back in February, having enjoyed Elisabeth Grace Foley's previous western stories.  And then I forgot to review it.  Sigh.

It's a retelling of the Cinderella story, set in the west, and it's not very long -- more of a long short story than a novella, I think, but that's a good length for this story.  In it, Ellie Strickland lives on a ranch with her widowed mother and her older brother, Ed.  Ed is ornery and apt to run folks off their property, so Ellie has grown up with few friends and zero prospects for marrying and moving away from her domineering brother and weary mother.

Enter Cole Newcomb, back home after attending college back East.  He takes pity on Ellie when he meets her, and decides to introduce her to folks in the area by escorting her to picnics and so on.  Ellie starts to make friends, and she's thrilled as can be with Cole invites her to attend the big 4th of July shindig in town with him.  She makes a dress with her mother's help, and so on.  There's no fairy godmother here, just a sweet prince of a suitor and a helpful mother.

Of course, things at the 4th of July shindig don't go as planned, and Ellie winds up walking home, until... well, let's just say by the end of that evening, I was utterly besotted with Cole Newcomb myself.  And not just because I kept seeing Armie Hammer playing him.

If you like clean, well-told western stories with a gentle romance, read this!  I've moved on to Foley's latest release, the short story collection Wanderlust Creek and Other Stories, which I'm also reading on my phone -- I'll try to remember to review it right away when I finish it :-D

Particularly Good Bits:

"No man in his right mind would want Ed for a brother," she said aloud to herself, and then added as an afterthought, "and I wouldn't want to marry the other kind."

"Don't worry about that.  I'll fix Ed," said Mrs. Strickland, the determination in her voice making it sound as if she intended to do it with a hammer.

The stars themselves were bits of shattered dreams, fallen around her like glittering shards of glass in the hollow blackness of her world.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  No violence, no cussing, nothing more than a chaste kiss.