Reverend Ian Kenyon knows the harsh sting of life and how a man can suffer a loss of faith. The death of his wife and newborn son shook him to his foundations, and he's been drifting ever since. Bryn Morgan has returned home from prison to the only family he has—an abusive father who abandoned him to the law when Bryn was unjustly accused of rape. Still poor, lost, and shunned, Bryn searches for work, any work that will allow him to survive.
Reluctantly moved by Bryn's plight, Ian hires the young man to work on his farm despite Bryn's prickly, defensive nature. Soon Ian fears his growing feelings of grace and compassion might be something else, something more... heated. Whatever the cause, he knows they are impossible to pursue, because Heaven only knows what would happen if a man of God began to have forbidden feelings for his hired man.
Review
Jan Irving returns to old fashioned romance with the new book, The Hired Man. This is a story that takes you away and makes you believe that dreaming is a worthwhile pastime. The book is an old fashioned western romance that grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go.
Ian Kenyon is a man who knows how man can lose faith. His wife and newborn son were dead and he is adrift. Things change when Bryn Morgan comes home from prison and to his family--an abusive father who left him high and dry when Bryn was accused of rape and now that Bryn is home he is like Ian--drifting and he is looking for work. Ian hires him and he soon discovers that he has feelings for the guy but he feels he cannot pursue them because of his religious dedication.
Bryn is young and good looking but had the misfortune of being born into the wrong family. He is a loner and when he was framed for raping a girl and sent to prison, he was regarded as a total outsider. Ian sees the boy as desperate and hires him. They two men need each other--Ian needs a family since he lost his and Bryn needs love. While in prison, Bryn discovered sex between men and when Ian wants a relationship with him he feels wonderful.
This is a captivating love story. The characters are wonderfully drawn and the detail makes the story come to life. Ian has been haunted by his dead wife and he suddenly has the chance to love life again with Bryn. This is a story of two men trying to find themselves and happiness at a time and a place--rural America in the late 1800s--and it is lovingly written.
