About the Book

Book: Earning the Mountain Man’s Trust

Author: Misty M. Beller

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: April 9, 2024

In the wild mountains of the Montana Territory, the Coulter ranch is a place of family, second chances…and a hidden fortune.

Naomi Wyatt has finally given up on the man who once promised to love her for the rest of his life—then disappeared with no way to contact him. She’s now a single mother with a beautiful baby girl to provide for, a daughter whose red hair reminds her daily of the man she gave her heart to. She has to move on though, so when Jonah Coulter asks for her hand in marriage, she knows she would be hard-pressed to find a better husband for herself and father for her sweet daughter. He’s a Coulter, after all, and he’s proven to be a good friend during her darkest hours.

But when her first love rides onto the ranch property saying he’d been searching for her for months, her heart is shredded once again. Before she has time to catch her breath though, a new threat appears on the horizon. This time she has far more at stake than her heart, and only a Divine hand can turn this disaster for their good.

From a USA Today bestselling author comes a mountain family saga filled with a second chance romance, love triangles, hidden treasure, and love that heals wounded hearts.

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About the Author

Misty M. Beller is a USA Today bestselling author of romantic mountain stories, set on the 1800s frontier and woven with the truth of God’s love.

Raised on a farm and surrounded by family, Misty developed her love for horses, history, and adventure. These days, her husband and children provide fresh adventure every day, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

Misty’s passion is to create inspiring Christian fiction infused with the grandeur of the mountains, writing historical romance that displays God’s abundant love through the twists and turns in the lives of her characters.

Sharing her stories with readers is a dream come true for Misty. She writes from her country home in South Carolina and escapes to the mountains any chance she gets.

More from Misty

Storytelling vs. Historical Authenticity?

I’ve been a fan of historical fiction for as long as I can remember, all the way back to the Mandie books by Lois Gladys Leppard and the Sadie Rose books by Hilda Stahl. Does anyone remember those series?

When I started thinking about my first novel, there was no doubt it would be a Christian Historical Romance set in the west. By my second book in, I had narrowed my focus to frontier life in the Rockies. My happy place!

It can be challenging to write about a time I haven’t experienced and cultures that don’t exist in the same form anymore. I love reading first-hand accounts to help me bring a particular time period to life. I often visit historic forts and talk with those who have studied the time period and setting in greater depth.

Three years ago, My family and I set out on a 28-day epic road trip to tour many of the state and national parks across the country. We spent about half of our time in Wyoming and Montana, exploring Yellowstone and Glacier, and tour historic and ghost towns. We spent more than one night tent camping in primitive camping!

These experiences definitely make it easy for me to slip into that world as I write. The characters come alive in my mind, and I see the story like a movie in my head. Writing Earning the Mountain Man’s Trust was especially fun to write, as we return to the Coulter Ranch. I fell in love with not just Naomi and Eric, but also sweet little Mary Ellen, their one-year-old daughter who Eric meets for the first time in this book.

I pray the story comes to life for readers as much as it has for me! J

Blessings!

Misty

My Review:

I was excited to delve into Misty Beller’s Earning the Mountain Man’s Trust, Book 4 in her Brothers of Sapphire Ranch Series. I previously read the other books and had become fond of main characters Naomi Wyatt and who I thought would be her love interest, Jonah Coulter. It’s not a spoiler alert to tell you Jonah isn’t the other primary point-of-view character (it’s obvious once you read the back cover blurb). Instead, we meet Eric LaGrange.

Naomi was introduced in Book 1, Healing the Mountain Man’s Heart, when she arrived at the Coulter ranch with her twin sister Dinah. There was a lot of mystery surrounding Naomi—she was pregnant and unmarried for one thing and was being escorted by Dinah to the Coulter ranch in response to an ad for a wife for Jericho Coulter. But that story wasn’t hers—it was Dinah’s and Jericho’s.

I thoroughly enjoyed the other books in this series, and from the title of this one, I made assumptions. The “mountain man” in the other books referred to one of the Coulter brothers, so this title threw me off. In fact, it doesn’t fit the book at all. Which mountain man is it referring to? Eric LaGrange is the farthest thing from a mountain man. In fact, he’s a wealthy, citified man who Naomi has been pining for since Book 1.

Although I am a Misty Beller fan, I didn’t feel this book was as well written as the others. The misleading title aside, it felt as if there were a few scenes thrown in for filler that didn’t connect to anything. The internal struggle for both Naomi and Eric was repetitive and bogged down the story. But if you’ve read the other books in the series, you’ll want to read this one, as well, just to finish off the series with a nice, tidy bow.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher for reviewing purposes, but the opinions in this review are my own.