Into the Fire

A stunning cover that conveys the elegant wealth of the Theodore "Tuck" Massey fortune built on betrayal. After a stark Prologue, Kellie Coates Gilbert presents the Massey family in all of its glitz, glory, and attitudes to open the story of A Woman of Fortune.

A Woman of Fortune is an interesting tale of greed, fraud, ignorance, wealth, privilege, snobbery, and the pressures to maintain a certain elegant lifestyle leading to terrible actions and betrayals. Capturing the sudden demise of a Texas cattle brokerage empire with shock and awe of the devastating kind, Kellie paints a quick jolt of judgment in a powerful and debilitating chain of events.

While it's a story of betrayal, it primarily focuses on the love between Claire and her cattle baron husband Tuck and how his crimes tear their family's lives apart and nearly destroy that love. Prior to the destruction of everything they'd gained, faith is merely an exercise in dutiful church attendance while redemption and forgiveness lurk unnoticed in their lives.

The problem for me was I didn't like the primary characters although I preferred Tuck over Claire in spite of his terrible choices. Their two older of three adult offspring, spoiled and "entitled", garnered no sympathy from me as the youngest stepped up in the crisis and grew up in the process. I loved their housekeeper Margarita and vacillated over Claire's best friend Jana Rae. When a male "friend" meets Claire, her shallow me-centered life becomes all about her "deserved" happiness.

Claire isn't a bad person and learns some painful things about herself and her family in the heartbreak of the downfall. Ultimately she makes the choices she needs to make and finds true fortune in her decision.  

Father, you know Kellie's heart and exactly what she needs. Please provide those things which fill her up with your inspiration to continue to do just what you have for her to do. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.