Outlaw
Hearts by Rosanne Bittner
Why
this one: I LOVE THIS BOOK
Genre:
Western
Steam Level:
pert ‘near perfect
Outline:
At twenty, Miranda Hayes had known more than her share of heartache and loss.
Widowed by the war, orphaned by a vicious band of rebel raiders, she was a
woman alone in a harsh, unyielding frontier. Then she clashed with the
notorious gunslinger Jake Harkner, a hard-hearted loner with a price on his
head, and found within herself a deep well of courage...and feelings of desire
she'd never known.
Hunted by lawmen and desperadoes alike, haunted by his brutal past, Jake had spent a lifetime on the dusty trail--and on the run. Until he met a vibrant, honey-haired beauty who was determined to change his violent ways, who loved him enough to risk her life to be his woman...an outlaw's woman.
From the vast plains of the Midwest across the Oregon Trail to the sun-drenched valleys of southern California, from the blazing Nevada desert to the boomtowns of Colorado, Miranda and Jake struggled to endure amid the perils of a lawless wilderness. In a world of heart-stopping danger and burning desire, could their hard-won love survive the shadows that stalked their happiness?
Hunted by lawmen and desperadoes alike, haunted by his brutal past, Jake had spent a lifetime on the dusty trail--and on the run. Until he met a vibrant, honey-haired beauty who was determined to change his violent ways, who loved him enough to risk her life to be his woman...an outlaw's woman.
From the vast plains of the Midwest across the Oregon Trail to the sun-drenched valleys of southern California, from the blazing Nevada desert to the boomtowns of Colorado, Miranda and Jake struggled to endure amid the perils of a lawless wilderness. In a world of heart-stopping danger and burning desire, could their hard-won love survive the shadows that stalked their happiness?
My
Thoughts: Take
this review I did last year:
I read this book years ago when
it first came out and it blew me away at first reading. I’ve reread it a number
of times since then and I've loved it more every time.
Jake Hackner is an outlaw. Pure and simple he’s a bad guy. He’s in town loading
up on supplies when Miranda Hayes accidentally shoots him. He manages to get
away and heads out of town. He finally holes up at a farm to recover a bit.
Little does he know the farm he ended up belongs to Miranda. She is a young
widow whose husband died in the Civil War. After raiders kill her father and
take most of their belongings she decides to head out west to look for her
younger brother. She finds Jake and nurses him back to health. And during this time she sees something good beneath the outlaw exterior. She asks him to take her out west since he is headed the same way, but he refuses.
Later he has a change of heart and decides to look for her to help her. He finds her at station after she’s been left behind by the wagon train she was with. She’d been bitten by a snake and the nasty scoundrels were taking advantage of her illness. Jake saves her and thus begins a truly amazing love story between an outlaw wanting to go straight and an incredibly strong woman. They are desperately in love with each other but time and time again Jake’s outlaw past comes back to try and destroy them.
This is one of those epic type books. It’s a long book coming in at 501 pages with teeny tiny print. It spans over 20 years. Bad things happen to good people and it isn’t always easy to read. Each time I read it, I have to take breaks due to its richness and length. It’s like a truly rich feast that is best eaten slowly in order to savour it.
Jake is one heck of a hero. He’s not all good. He definitely has shades of gray to him. But what saves him is his almost worship of ‘Randy’. He knows he’s no good for her; staying with her can bring her great heartache.
But Randy sees past his outlaw ways into his hidden heart and realizes he is a victim of his early circumstances. She sees the lost little boy inside and that inside he really has a good person wanting to come out. She refuses to let him give up no matter what fate throws at them.
This really is a heart in your throat, breathtaking book. I have a list of about 10 books that seem to stand out above all others. Outlaw Hearts has always been one of them and I know it always will be. So I'm spreading the word early on this one, you don't find much better than this book
She
has another book coming out next month with Jake and Randy, apparently one
she’s been wanting to write for years now.
I already have it preordered and I can hardly wait until it appears on
my kindle.
Grade:
5 out of 5
Will I
read it again: A Resounding YES. Again
and again and again. I can’t get enough
of it.
Night
Whispers by Leslie Kelly
Why
This One: I really enjoyed Bringing Down
Sam and Reforming Jake and I really enjoyed them and went searching for some of
her back list
Genre:
Contemporary
Steam
Level: simmers for a while then breaks out into a full boil
Outline:
Thanks to her sexy radio talk show, Night Whispers DJ Kelsey Logan has become
infamous! Suddenly, men all over Baltimore are desperate to discover the true
identity of Lady Love, the sultry siren who keeps them up all night. But the
only man Kelsey is desperate to have is sexy, stuffy Mitch Wymore.
Mitch is having a hard time believing that his bratty childhood nemesis has grown into the temptress the whole city's lusting after. A woman he's lusting after. He might have been able to keep his libido under control if Kelsey hadn’t made it clear she wanted to seduce him.
Mitch is having a hard time believing that his bratty childhood nemesis has grown into the temptress the whole city's lusting after. A woman he's lusting after. He might have been able to keep his libido under control if Kelsey hadn’t made it clear she wanted to seduce him.
My
Thoughts: Leslie Kelly is a good
writer. I just finished a reread of
Outlaw Hearts and loved it all over again.
Sometimes when you finish reading a very good book there is almost a
restlessness that comes over while you search for the next book. But Night Whispers had a very soothing effect
on me and was a perfect book to read after.
I like
the trope of this story, heroine has had life-long crush on hero but she was
just the pesky little sister of his bed bud.
Mitch had mostly lived with Kelsey’s family growing up due to his own
lousy home life, but he always felt like he was standing on the outside looking
in. so when Kelsey comes back into his
life and things are combustible between them, he’s very reluctant to start
anything, not wanting to upset the family who raised him. But things burn hot between him and
Kelsey. He was kind of wild as a young
man but he’s gotten a bit stuffy over the years and Kelsey unstuffs him. She drives him crazy with some of the things
she does, she’s kind of a wild and crazy heroine, and he particularly hates her
job, though he does admit she’s very good at being a late night, very seductive
DJ.
He
finds himself living on the wild side again and he finds he’s enjoying it and
falling more and more for Kelsey all the time.
While
I didn’t enjoy this quite to the level I did Bringing Down Sam and Reforming
Jake, still, it was a very good treat when one was needed.
Grade:
4 out of 5
Will I
read it again: Probably not – but NOT
and I repeat NOT because I didn’t enjoy it.
But I’m trying to be realistic.
I’m buying books at a very scary pace and I already have so many to read
the first time as well and a number that I reread frequently. If I was much younger, my answer would
probably be different though – heh, heh, heh.
Alex
by Irish Winters
Why
this one: No real reason, it’s just
where my finger stopped when trying to pick the next book to read
Genre:
Romantic Suspense
Steam
Level: I’d say warm – not boiling but nice and warm
Outline:
He’s trying to forget . . .
Alex Stewart, ex-Marine and tough as nails boss, ditches the success of his fledgling business and flees to his cabin in the deep woods. He’s had enough. Four years after the deaths of his wife and daughter, he’s stuck in the anger stage of grief. He wants to be left alone. Life used to make sense. It just doesn’t bring him joy. Nothing does.
She’s trying to remember . . .
Left to die in those same deep woods, Kelsey is the last thing Alex expects to find at his cabin. She’s everything he’s running away from. Responsibility. Memories. Having to care about someone else beside himself. To make matters worse, she can’t remember anything except her first name. Neither can she explain the marks on her body, nor why two darling baby boys haunt her dreams.
But Alex can . . .
Alex Stewart, ex-Marine and tough as nails boss, ditches the success of his fledgling business and flees to his cabin in the deep woods. He’s had enough. Four years after the deaths of his wife and daughter, he’s stuck in the anger stage of grief. He wants to be left alone. Life used to make sense. It just doesn’t bring him joy. Nothing does.
She’s trying to remember . . .
Left to die in those same deep woods, Kelsey is the last thing Alex expects to find at his cabin. She’s everything he’s running away from. Responsibility. Memories. Having to care about someone else beside himself. To make matters worse, she can’t remember anything except her first name. Neither can she explain the marks on her body, nor why two darling baby boys haunt her dreams.
But Alex can . . .
My
Thoughts: I struggled with how to rate this book. I liked the characters, I liked the story but
there several plot points left untouched after being introduced and one was a
GLARING plot point that was never addressed and since it was MAJOR to the
story, the lack of follow-up was very jarring.
And sadly, this was too big a mistake and I can’t ignore that fact and
it brings down the grade of this book.
The
book opens with Kelsey running through woods and finally collapsing against a wall. It then switches to Alex, the founder of a
group of former army snipers who help out in the world trouble spots. His own life exploded a few years previously
when his wife and young daughter were killed and he hasn’t really recovered
since. He’s full of anger and
frustration and decides he needs to get away from it all and visit his very
rustic cabin in the woods with his two inherited war dogs. He comes across Kelsey and can tell right off
the bat that she is in very bad shape.
She’s been badly beaten, has scrapes all over her and is in a very
weakened condition. On top of that, when
she regains conscious , she has no memory of who she is or what happened to
her. He’s resentful at first, having to
take care of her, almost blaming her for the state she’s in, but he very
quickly gets past it and sees that she is someone very special. He falls deeply for her and is determined to
help her in whatever it is she needs. As
he is a very angry individual, his almost blaming her goes along with his
nature at the time so he reaction didn’t bother me at all and then he is so
sweet and protective of her that I really liked him once he took off his
grouchy uniform.
Kelsey
is a good heroine. She has gone through
some horrendous things that most of can’t even imagine dealing with and a large
part of the book is spent with her grieving and finally and slowly being able
to move on with her life with the help and support of Alex who has been through
that difficult and painful journey himself.
So –
what are the problems? Well for one
thing Alex mentions that he’s been married twice. We know of his one wife but
nothing else is mentioned about the other one – what happened to her, why did
he marry her, was she the first or second wife?
I had all kind of questions running through my head and why start that
thread if one isn’t going to do anything with it and just leave it
hanging? But a much worse thread left
hanging is the fate of Kelsey’s abuser.
It’s never mentioned and this is such a huge oversight all things
considered that it really did spoil what could have been a great book. It’s a complete fail by the author and I’m
very shocked that it wasn’t fixed through editing.
So
because of this I don’t know if I can recommend this book. It should serve as a warning book to
authors. Alex had such great potential
to be a 4.5 or even 5 star book, but the author torpedoed that for me by
completely ignoring a vital piece of the story.
Grade:
3 out of 5
Will I
read this one again: Sadly no. Though I do want to try another book by her since it was absolutely not the writing itself, nor the characters that didn't work. It was a plot hole I couldn't get past.
Take a
Chance on Me by Susan Donovan
Why
this one: I’ve read this book a number
of times now and it never fails to cheer me up and make me laugh.
Genre:
Contemporary
Steam
Level: A nice rolling boil
Outline:
They've Got Nothing In Common...
For animal behaviorist Emma Jenkins, romance has been at the bottom of her daily "to do" list since making it through a messy divorce. But everything changes the day six-feet-of-gorgeous Thomas Tobin walks into her office with a quivering Chinese Crested named Hairy, a canine that looks more like an underfed rodent than a dog. Sure Thomas is sending her mixed signals-but that charming smile just sent Emma's dormant sex drive through the roof...
But Animal Attraction-
Thomas isn't looking for a fling. In fact, he wants nothing to do with women. He just wants to know if Hairy witnessed his owner's murder. But something tells him that asking Emma to help him with the case will spell nothing but trouble-trouble in the form of serious temptation.
And the Willingness To Take A Chance On Love
Thomas knows that relying on Emma's expertise-and her soft touch with a weird dog that has somehow become his-may be a crazy way to track a killer. Especially when Emma's down-home warmth makes him want to believe that anything is possible-even true love.
For animal behaviorist Emma Jenkins, romance has been at the bottom of her daily "to do" list since making it through a messy divorce. But everything changes the day six-feet-of-gorgeous Thomas Tobin walks into her office with a quivering Chinese Crested named Hairy, a canine that looks more like an underfed rodent than a dog. Sure Thomas is sending her mixed signals-but that charming smile just sent Emma's dormant sex drive through the roof...
But Animal Attraction-
Thomas isn't looking for a fling. In fact, he wants nothing to do with women. He just wants to know if Hairy witnessed his owner's murder. But something tells him that asking Emma to help him with the case will spell nothing but trouble-trouble in the form of serious temptation.
And the Willingness To Take A Chance On Love
Thomas knows that relying on Emma's expertise-and her soft touch with a weird dog that has somehow become his-may be a crazy way to track a killer. Especially when Emma's down-home warmth makes him want to believe that anything is possible-even true love.
My
Thoughts: This is one of those books
that every so often I get an urge to read again. As I said above it never fails to cheer me
up. The characters are all delightful,
each and every one of them, including and almost especially Hairy, the Very
Ugly Chinese Crested who is in some ways the real star of this book. I’m not even a dog person but he is such a
hoot. Sometimes we get his POV and it’s
hilarious.
Thomas
Tobin is a grouchy bear of a hero – one of my favourite kind. But he has a reason for his grumpiness. He’s a lawyer who masquerades as a hit man in
order to catch they bad guys who want to have people murdered. He doesn’t really see the best of mankind in
this role. In addition, he questions his
very masculinity when he and a former fiancé were told his ‘swimmers’ were in
pretty bad shape and he’s probably never be able to father a child. His former flame didn’t take the news so well
and really did a number on him.
He
meets animal behaviourist and heroine Emma Jenkins when he kind of inherits
this ugly, traumatized Chinese Crested dog Hairy when one of Thomas’ informants
is murdered and Hairy was his dog. Hairy
is very high maintenance and the advice that Emma offers Thomas to help poor
Hairy out is LOL hilarious and almost makes Thomas squirm in
embarrassment. Both Thomas and Emma are
wildly attracted to each other but both have issues. Emma’s ex has done as big/bad a number on her
as Thomas ex did on him and it’s cute watching them completely misread each other. But attraction and love eventually wins out.
If you
are looking for a book to make you smile, possibly laugh, with a wonderful
grump of a hero and warm, loving, smart heroine, this is the book for you. It would be under the “if you like” type of
Rachel Gibson, Julie James, Susan Andersen kind of book.
Grade:
5 out of 5
Will I
read this book again: Yep, already have a few times and I know I will again.
