Scatter My Ashes At Turtle Creek

An irresistible first novel, warm, funny and feel-good. It is the story of Seraphina Trinity Cody who, out of the blue, inherits Turtle Creek Ranch in Texas from the love of her life. From then on things start happening to her - some good, some bad and a lot of them hilarious!
When the story opens, Seraphina owns a furniture restoration shop in Wales. Her passion and gift with horses, ( she's descended from Welsh Drovers ), and a need for a long overdue holiday, prompt her to go to Texas for a two week vacation on a dude ranch. There she meets and falls in love with a Texan cowboy named Gabe. Her cosy but claustrophobic world in Wales is changed overnight by the accidental death of her cowboy lover. The new life they were planning together is snatched away, but to her joy, Gabe has left her the Turtle Creek ranch in his Will and she decides to move to Texas and start afresh. Passionate about horses and all things Western and still grieving for Gabe, Seraphina packs her bags, bids farewell to her parents, and arrives in San Antonio, where she heads into the sunset in a Hertz hire car. An old dog-eared copy of The Cowboy At Work sits on the passenger seat next to her: the inscription inside reads ' You never know when you might be needin' this. Love ya 'til I die. Gabe x '
Seraphina, together with her eccentric, widowed, new ranch neighbour, Eve Buchanan, or E.B. for short, gets to grips with the lifestyle she's inherited as well as all the livestock - five horses, a herd of long-horn cattle, a goat named Cricket and a pair of willful mules, Betsy and Leopold and a few others she collects along the way! She rises valiantly to the day-to-day challenge of running a modern-day ranch, haunted by her memories of Gabe, but also inspired by their great love for each other and the magical landscape. She survives fire and flood and accidentally shooting herself in the foot with a new shotgun. She makes friends with a scary bunch of retired CIA operatives and with their help, sees off a gold-obsessed saboteur.
The locals welcome their intrepid new neighbour and her courage wins her many new friends including fellow rancher, Jake. He finds himself coming to Seraphina's rescue several times and it's not long before he falls in love with her. Once more Seraphina's world is turned upside down when she finally allows herself to let go of Gabe and give herself a second chance at happiness. This glorious feel-good story, heart-wrenching and uplifting in all the right places, comes to a close with E.B. solving the great mystery of her life and everyone looking forward to Seraphina's and Jake's wedding the following spring.
A poignant - and strongly autobiographical - novel which transports us to a magical world!