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Love and Country    by Christina Adam Amazon.com order for
Love and Country
by Christina Adam
Order:  USA  Can
Little, Brown & Co., 2005 (2003)
Hardcover, Paperback

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* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

In Love and Country, Christina Adam gives us life, love, coming of age, and a variety of struggling relationships amongst tormented people trying to get by in rodeo country. Her story is set in a small ranching town in Idaho, where divorced Lenna Swanson has moved with her fourteen-year-old son Kenny.

Lenna works at the county courthouse. Kenny, a loner, attends high school, is attracted to Cynthia Dustin (a senior), and hero worships popular, charismatic rodeo star Roddy Moyers. Kenny wants to ride himself, but has promised his mother not to, until they can afford medical insurance. Cynthia longs to escape her home life (her father Earl seems to hate her) and to study music. Roddy spends time with Cynthia and then with Lenna, who reads more into their relationship than is there, and is hurt.

Events spiral out of control, and Cynthia and Kenny get into trouble that's not of their seeking. They gain insight into their fathers and their pasts, and finally there is acceptance and forgiveness. Though I occasionally wondered where it was going, I enjoyed Love and Country for its window into a different lifestyle and community.

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