Recent Read

Cash by Linda Devlin

Why This One: Well (my family groans when I start something with the word well – knowing a long story is coming and if Lisa or Nancy is reading this – know they are groaning – though they probably aren’t as they don’t read the “romancy” blog stuff) it’s a long story (see what I mean??)

You can tell by the cover this is a Western and I love Westerns. Last year I was doing some blog hopping and noticed on Wendy’s blog that there was a contest being held and the prize was not one, not two, not three – but SIX Westerns!! SIX fellow readers. So lickety split I headed over there and lo and behold I won!! It was a very happy day when they arrived in the mail.

Now for Part II of the long story. Not only do I love Western romance, I love an old fashioned Western on television. I grew up on them; Bonanaza, Rawhide, The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, these are just a few of them. I don’t remember how I came to discover this but there was a television series back in the late 90’s based on the movie The Magnificent Seven. Somehow that series went zoom – right over my head. But I recently ordered it on DVD. The series is about seven – well – they aren’t really cowboys – but let’s say seven Western guys who save a small town from some really bad dudes and then decide to stay in the town as they are all kind of rootless. I’ve watched some of the episodes and really enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. The only thing missing – and it’s a big missing for me *g* is a romance element.

I picked up this book the other day as they’ve been calling to me and their voices have been getting louder. Considering there are six in the series, that only makes sense. It was weird that I found it. I think the others must have elected Cash during the night to kick my ass into gear into reading this series. As I was looking at it, I kept thinking of The Magnificent Seven DVD’s I have. And then I read that this was the basis of this series. Yes!!

So anyway – that’s why this one

Steam Level: Oh my Yes. There is lots.

Blurb: A Face From His Past

To the folks in tiny Rock Creek, Texas, Daniel Cash was a ladies' man with a smile as quick as his draw. Yet the infamous gunslinger with the legendary charm harbored painful memories of the girl he'd left behind when the War Between the States demanded his duty. Cash believed Nadine Ellington was better off without the man he'd become, but when she rode into town, dragging his past with him, Cash was tempted to consider another future...with her by his side.

Nadine had long ago given up waiting for Cash to return--she was too busy raising the son he didn't know he had. And though she'd never forgiven Cash's betrayal, she needed him now--to prove to their reckless, headstrong child that the life of a gun-for-hire is no life at all. But seeing Cash again awakens feelings she'd thought long dead--and soon she's wondering if the boy she once loved still lingers beneath the hardened fa cade of the man she can't resist...

My Thoughts: Well Day-um there’s nothing better than a great Western and this is a great one!! I didn’t realize it at first and then it didn’t matter, but this one is actually the last book in the series. I’m going to have to go back and read them in order now and then read this one again ‘cause I think it will be even better having gotten to know Cash in the preceding books. But even without knowing anything about him, I loved this book.

At first glimpse, Cash comes across as a hard and bitter kind of hero. He’s a gunfighter by trade and likes to spend time with ‘fancy’ women. The story starts out with a bang when he is almost gunned down whilst enjoying some tart time. The story then moves to the town of Rock Creek where Cash calls home when he’s not doing his gun slinging business. His world is rocked though when the girl he used to love comes to town to ask him a favour – can he try and talk her son out of his desire to become a gunslinger too. When Cash wonders why he should do a favour for the woman who broke his heart many years ago, she informs him because JD, her son, is also his son.

Although Cash tries to be all hard and devoid of feelings, we the reader can see the inner Cash, a man who feels he’s ruined his life and can’t settle down with the woman he loves for fear of putting her and their son in danger. While seemingly uncaring on the outside, he’s really a marshmallow on the inside and bitterly regrets the life he’s lived.

He is the kind of hero that makes me love a good Western hero!!

And Nadine is an equally strong heroine. Forced to wed a man she doesn’t love when it’s discovered she is pregnant, she has lived a lonely life. She lays it all on the line to Cash. It doesn’t take long for the feelings she has always had for him to come roaring back to life.

She’s a doctor and it doesn’t take long before she begins to make a life for herself in this town that needs a doctor.

This is the kind of book that makes it clear why I love the Western genre so much. It’s everything I could ask for. I wasn’t very far into it when I went searching for the other five. I’ve found four of them so far and have plans this weekend not to rest until I find the (temporarily) misplaced sixth book. I was looking at Wendy’s Keeper list and I see that she has at least 3 of this series on it. I’m rubbing my hands in anticipation of reading the rest!!

Grade: 4.90 out of 5 (the only reason it didn’t get a 5 is because I think I’ve missed a lot of background on Cash and when I finish the other books and read this one again, I’m thinking the grade might go up .10.