Fit to Be Tied

The Sisters of Bethlehem Springs

By: Robin Lee Hatcher

Narrated by: Kathy Garver

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

It’s 1916, and Idaho rancher Cleo Arlington knows everything about horses but nothing about men. So when charged with transforming English aristocrat Sherwood Statham from playboy into cowboy, she’s totally disconcerted. So is Statham, who’s never encountered a woman succeeding in a “man’s world”. Their bumpy trot into romance is frustrating, exhilarating, and ultimately heartwarming.

©1997 Bill Hybels & Lynne Hybels (P)2009 Zondervan

Fun Series

I really like the characters and story line but the author's "male" voices are hard on the ears. Would be nice to actually HAVE a male voice reading the parts.

perky

i loved the charicters of this book better than the others in the series so fun

I've read better

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I wouldn't recommend this book, the plot is OK but the narrator didn't differentiate among the characters and I often had trouble knowing who was talking. I don't wish to be preached to or receive religious instruction in my recreational reading so the religious messages were not welcome. If an author wants to push their religious beliefs then they should label a book honestly and clearly as christian fiction - so I know to stay away.

Lovely story

This, like the previous one "Vote of Confidence" was absolutely beautiful. I really look forward to the next one! The narrator was better in this one with accents, but still mixed up voices at times, but she has a lovely voice and brings the story thru as real. God bless you all

Middle of a great trilogy

This follow-up to A Vote of Confidence is not quite as good as the last, but actually made me love book one even more. I realized just how much I enjoyed the sister connection between Gwen and Cleo and missed it just a bit now that Gwen is married and expecting. Perhaps that was a bit of what Cleo was feeling too, the natural separation that happens when sisters grow up into their own lives and families. There are no huge surprises in Fit to Be Tied's plot line, but then again, who says there has to be? It is an easy, sweet read that transports you back in time to early 1900's, small-town, Western community life and throws in a romance into the bargain. I look forward to book three.

Sweet story

Would you try another book from Robin Lee Hatcher and/or Kathy Garver?

Yes.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I thought Cleo's personality and tom boy behavior was the most interesting. I thought Sherwood's change seemed a little quick.

What about Kathy Garver’s performance did you like?

I loved the way the narrator used different accents and tonality for different characters. After a few chapters, I was easily able to recognize each character by the tone of her voice.

Was Fit to Be Tied worth the listening time?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

While very entertaining, I felt the story line became very predictable by the middle of the book. But, I was glad I finished through to the end. It was a sweet romance, worth the time.

Not bad, but liked the first one better

I started "Fit to Be Tied" almost as soon as I finished "A Vote of Confidence," but I found I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did the first book in the series. It's a cute story, but the character development made it feel a little implausible to me.

While I liked Cleo, I had a harder time identifying with her than I did with Gwen. I think it was what seemed to me to be her conflicting character traits. On one hand, she's a tomboy most at home wrangling horses and herding cattle who can't stand being in a dress. At the same time, however, she really wants to find a husband and have children. While I don't believe that it's impossible for those two desires to exist in the same person, I didn't feel that Robin Lee Hatcher did a great job of reconciling the two.

I think the thing that keeps Robin Lee Hatcher from being one of my favorite authors is the way that she glosses over what seem to me to be major parts of the story. This was especially true in Sherwood's case. Without giving too much away, supposedly he underwent a major transformation in the book, but we never really saw that happen. We just saw him one way, and then suddenly he was different. I felt the same way about the relationship between Cleo and Sherwood. Because of that, I still have a hard time really picturing them as a couple.

One advantage that "Fit to Be Tied" had over "A Vote of Confidence," however, was the narration. I think Kathy Garver had an easier time distinguishing between the male and female voices in this book without going too overboard. Some of the characters still had the creepy, vocal fry type voice from the first book, but at least she didn't have to do that with Sherwood, since she could set him apart with an English accent.

Overall, I thought "Fit to Be Tied" was a pleasant read to continue the series, but only because I was already acquainted with the characters and the town. If this had been the first book in the trilogy, I'm not sure that I would have continued with the rest of them.

Loved, Loved, Loved

I am sitting here with a smile and a Hugh sigh at the end of this delightful story!! I also wish I was younger and raised on a farm in the early 1900 and was a horse wrangler like the heroine!

This author just gets better and better if that is possible and the narrator did a fabulous job! Cannot wait to start the next book in this series!!

Unfit to be Read

An insipid story. Not nearly what it was stated to be. Really laid on the religious bent toward the end. I did not care for this at all.