About the Book

Book: Clara and the Cowboy

Author: Erica Vetsch

Genre: Christian Historical Fiction

Release Date: October 13, 2025

She’s the rancher’s daughter. He’s the reformed outlaw who became her father’s foreman. Love was never part of the plan.

Clara Bainbridge has loved Alec for years, long before she left for finishing school in Boston. And though she is convinced he loves her too, he seems determined to push her away now that she’s back. So when the handsome stranger who protects her during a stagecoach robbery reveals that he is her new neighbor, Clara begins to wonder if accepting his suit might be wiser than waiting for Alec.

Ranch foreman Alec McConnell has worked hard to overcome his criminal past and prove himself worthy of Colonel Bainbridge’s trust. When cattle start disappearing from the Cross B Ranch, Alec’s checkered past makes him the prime suspect. He must catch the real rustlers to clear his name, but his growing feelings for the Colonel’s daughter, Clara, threaten to undo everything he’s built. How can he protect her when his very presence in her life could destroy her reputation?

My Review:

Living in a small ranching community can have its difficulties. Such was the case for Alec McConnell. He has had a hard time living down his past when he made some mistakes and also trying to distance himself from his father’s behavior.

Clara Bainbridge has returned from Boston and hopes to return to the easy going friendship and growing feelings that she has for Alec. He seems like a different, very distant man than the person she remebers before she left home. How does she get through to him?

With cow rustlers and a man interested in pursuing a relationship with Clara, Alec has his hands full. I was happy to see things get resolved between the two of them, even if it took some intervention of Alec’s brothers. Readers will enjoy this story of romance and forgiveness in Money Creek, Idaho. I am looking forward to seeing what lies ahead for the McConnell family.

Things to enjoy:
western setting
danger
mystery
friends to more
faith thread

I received a gifted copy of the book from Celebrate Lit. All opinions in this review are my own; I was not required to write a positive review.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Best-selling, award-winning author of The Debutante’s Code, first in the Thorndike & Swann Regency Mystery Series, Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum.

More from Erica

Did you, like me, grow up watching westerns on tv? I watched often in reruns as the heyday of the TV Western was waning about the time I was born. But I watched Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, Bonanza, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, The Virginian, and more.

And so grew my love of the old west, of cowboys, cattle drives, frontier justices, and rolling tumbleweeds.

I also read westerns. Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Abel Shott (Yes, that was the pen name of the man who wrote the series called Solo Strand: The Silver Kid.) I was a firm believer in The Code of the West.

So, when it came time to write my own ‘cowboy book’ I took much inspiration from the screen and the page.

Clara and the Cowboy is the story of Alec and Clara, a cowboy and the ranch owner’s daughter. There’s cattle rustling, gunplay, good vs. evil, a damsel in distress…all the best parts of western classic lore. I had such fun writing it, influenced by those who had written the genre before me.

The setting was chosen (Southwest Idaho) because of a series of books I had read as a teen, written by Glenn Balch, about a ranching family near Nampa, ID. I’ve never been to that part of the US, but I felt as if I had because I read those books (many times!)

As I look back on the hours I spent watching classic westerns on tv and reading western fiction, I’m reminded of the impact they had on my life. How they taught that good and evil exist in the world, and that it takes bravery to stand up and do the right thing. I learned that honor and integrity do not come without cost, and that actions have consequences.

Who would have thought that watching a rerun of The Big Valley would instill a desire to embrace the cowboy culture through my own fiction?

I hope you enjoy reading Clara and the Cowboy, and that perhaps it takes you back to your own childhood of rooting for the man in the white hat to get the girl he loves before the credits roll.