Montana Skies

Allowed to run wild on the family's Montana ranch, raven-haired, spirited Jennifer suddenly has a rival for her widowed father's affections when he adopts young Devlin McShane, a tough, vigorous Irish orphan from New York. Overnight it seems, her birthright is in jeopardyDevlin may well inherit the ranch that she loves. Even when she proves that she can brand cattle and mend barbed-wire fences, no one takes her seriously. She is then sent to an Eastern finishing school, where she meets Boston heiress Allison Armbruster and her handsome cousin Adrian. Rankled by rejection back home, Jennifer allows herself to be swept into marriage, only to discover that Adrian is smooth-talking, high-living, and unfaithful. At this point she realizes that Devlin is the man she loves. First-novelist McKee writes a fast-reading tale, with believable sympathetic characters and a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion. (March)