Rating: 3.5🌈
The Men from Echo Creek is the latest release by N. R. Walker, a historical romance that takes place in the Snowy Mountain region of Australia in 1882.
Even with its historical timeline, there’s aspects of the book very reminiscent of my favorite movie, The Man from Snowy River. The location, the horses and expert riding on unbelievable terrain, brumbies, a romantic story, and adversity with a neighbor/rancher.
Here it is 19 year old Albie Bramwell whose father has just died, leaving Albie the owner of an extremely large alpine farm and having to run and manage it without his father’s help and direction.
It’s not going well until a stranger, Percy Collins, appears in town looking for a job. Percy finds a job, and in Albie someone who needs him and then finds that he’s stumbled into a place that’s home.
That’s the framework of the story. And it’s a good one. The characters are interesting, including the two other men who live on the farm with them. That’s Robert, a recovering alcoholic, and the farm manager, Des, a man with a leg injury that’s continuing to bother him.
Two women will come later. There’s also a town, Alpine Falls, and the Stricklands, the power family of the area.
While Walker lays down multiple storylines and potential dramatic scenarios, only some of the scenes here really have the power to connect with the reader and leap off the page. Much of this has to do with the land and the horses, all of which Walker has proven she has the ability to make vivid and compelling. When all four men are chasing the mob across the land, you are with them. It’s thrilling. Whenever Albie and Percy, or Des and Percy take the horses and head out , the descriptions of the mountains and scrub, the cold and mists are real .
Other scenes too bring home Albie’s youth and desperate situations in town. Those are some of the best moments of interactions for raw emotions.
But the romance between Albie and Percy? I don’t know why but I was never quite invested. Liked them both but their relationship never felt like it had any chemistry. Friends yes. But more? Not really. And we never really got to know Albie’s story or anything about his father . Not sure why there’s no foundation for much of any character here but the lack of one makes these characters seem less filled out.
And so much of the rest of the story feels flat or rushed. The women move in and they are just forgotten, except for a sentence or two here and there. Backgrounds for Des and Robert are never supplied even though they are major characters . And the whole element where Strickland went from the bad guy to , well, if not good, maybe grayish guy. Then he’s done with. After a big build up.
It’s too many dropped plot points for me. Just things that don’t fit or make sense with the story.
So it’s enjoyable but not my favorite NR Walker book. Need cowboys from this author? Read her Red Dirt Heart series. That’s a reread for me.
Great cover by Reese Dante
Buy link
Blurb
In the winter of 1882, a boy from the mountains has to prove himself a man.
~*~
When Albie Bramwell’s father died, he was left with two thousand hectares of mountain to farm, and little help to run it. Abandoned by all but two of his workers, the whole town of Alpine Falls called him too young to run the farm alone.
Young, yes. At just nineteen, he was determined to prove them wrong. Even if it killed him.
In search of a new life, Percy Collins found himself in a small mountain town where he ran into a man not much older than himself and scored a job at Echo Creek. A property full of misfits, or so the townsfolk had called it. But what Percy found was a home.
What Albie found was something he never thought possible. A man to love, and a man to share his dreams.
But times were tough, the winter harsh, and money scarce. Albie and Percy would need to do more than prove themselves worthy. They’d need to not only prove themselves better than anyone else. They’d need to prove it twice.
• Publisher: BlueHeart Press (May 17, 2024)
• Publication date: May 17, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 400 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 