The Heirs of Southbridge

Clayton and his brother Travis were young boys when their mother died. Their grandfather, owner of the plantation Southbridge, where Clayton and Travis were born and lived for the first bit of their lives had never liked their father because he was a northerner. So when their mother died, grandfather wanted Clayton's dad, Gavin, to leave and to leave both Clayton and Travis with him. Gavin, of course, refuses to leave the boys, and instead he and the boys end up fleeing when grandfather goes into one of his drunken rages and tries to kill their mother's favorite horse. The three know they are being followed, so they travel mostly at night and try to stay hidden during the day, but that's not really a great life for young boys. As soon as he feels he's far enough away, Gavin tries to make a normal life for his two boys by going on cattle drives. He's saving every penny to buy their very own ranch, but unfortunately he dies before he's able to buy his own place and Clayton and Travis are left alone. Clayton wants to go back east and go to school, but Travis loves to be with horses and wants nothing to do with that, so the two brothers part ways. Clayton decides to go to Southbridge and see how his childhood home is holding up, but he doesn't know that his grandfather has died and his half-brother and his family are now living there. He's given the shock of his life when kneeling at his mother's grave, a gun is held on him by a girl. A girl named Lucy. What he doesn't realize is that Lucy will change the goals and direction of his life. 


I enjoyed this book. It's not one that I'm probably going to go out of my way to read again, but the story was interesting. I thought that the characters were well developed and that the plot wasn't predictable. 

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