Recent 5 star ReReads

Love in the Light by Laura Kaye

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having just finished a reread of the first book, of course I had to reread this one again. I said I knew I would reread it, I just didn't know it would take this long to get back to. And yep, loved it just as much this time around

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I just reread the first book in this series, Hearts in Darkness before reading this one. I needed to revisit with Caden and Makenna. I thought this book was SO wonderfully written. In the vast majority of books, we get the HEA and then it fades to black. But in Love in The Light, it continues on and we get to see that things don’t always end so perfectly. The description of this book is pretty spot on so no need to go over it too much. Caden and Makenna are still deeply in love and are rarely apart since they met in the darkness in Love in the Dark. But it’s not a happily.

You see, Caden is really struggling to comprehend things are going so well. He has a very tragic story, my heart just broke for him, and he can’t believe that Makenna could really care about him. He has very little self-worth and he is inadvertently sabotaging the relationship with his doubts. Makenna is still crazy about him and she knows she always will. She is slightly aware of his insecurities but not all of them. She doesn’t know how deep it runs. He has told her about his past but not how much he was damaged by it. Things come to a head when they go to visit her family at Thanksgiving and one of her brothers has brought an ex-boyfriend of hers, an ex-boyfriend who wants Makenna back and Caden hears this declaration and it feeds right in to his own lack of confidence. And if that weren’t enough he overhears a conversation between the ex and the brother who happen to be best friends agreeing that Makenna is too good for this scarred, tattooed, face piercing guy and Caden can’t handle it anymore. Even though her father and other two brothers really seem to like him and see how happy Makenna is with him, it’s not enough.

He ends the relationship and then falls apart. Makenna is devastated but holds hope they will get back together. She KNOWS they are meant to be together and Caden is just struggling with his devils at the moment. But then thing happen and she just can’t wait any longer.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. Caden suffers from acute anxiety and severe depression. As this is something I struggle with myself, I could really relate to him. Everyone around him may be telling himself what a great guy he is, but he can’t buy it. His inner voice is constantly telling him he’s not good enough, she’d be better with someone else, he doesn’t deserve to experience love – all those kinds of things. He knows he’s spiraling downward but he can’t stop the free fall. That’s exactly what depression does, how it lies to us. I know from experience and I just wanted to hold Caden through it. No matter how much we tell ourselves to ‘get over it’ it’s not that simple.

And Makenna. Oh what a great character she is. She is patient and compassionate and wildly in love with Caden. She “sees” who he is. She is honest. She tells him about the conversation she had with the ex, even though she doesn’t know Caden overheard the conversation. I know this is going to be a book that stays with me for a long time and one I will read over and over again.

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The Tender Texan by Jodi Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Being a looonnnggg time romance reader, there have been books I’ve read that have stayed with me over the years and I remember them as if I just read them yesterday. Then there are books where I don’t remember the details, but I clearly remember the love I felt for the book. Such is the case with The Tender Texan. This is one I’ve been wanting to get as an ebook for a number of years now. My thousands of books are all packed up in over 35 boxes in one of the rooms and very inaccessible. Plus I so much prefer ebooks. I’m having to use somewhat larger fonts now. The cost of The Tender Texan has always been too high to justify getting it. I have a number of books like this that I check every few months and low and behold – the price came down!! So of course I picked it up lickity split

Anna Meyers is part of a group of settlers all the way from Germany planning on settling in Texas with the promise of free land. While on the journey, her husband died and because of this, she doesn’t get the land they were promised. She needs a husband. She bravely walks into a camp of cowboys and ask if any of them are willing to marry her for $100. Of course she’s laughed at until one steps forward. Lets just say that Anna struck gold when Chance Wyatt volunteers. He needs the money for personal reasons and agrees to marry Anna and take care of her and help her build her home and get things going. At the end of one year he will leave and she will have her land.

Chance is simply the very best kind of hero. He’s slightly younger than Anna but that doesn’t matter. He is fully competent in everything he does and he is smitten with Anna right from the very beginning. Over the course of the story he does everything he says he would do and so much more besides. There was one stipulation that Anna put on the marriage and that is no kind of physical touching whatsoever and as Chance falls deeper and deeper for Anna, he finds that harder and harder. And although the reader might get a little annoyed with her – I mean this guy is pure gold – she has her reasons. She was brutally attacked by her husband a couple of times and left pregnant after the second time. What’s worse is he was carrying on with her nightmare of a mother and she has no sense of self worth. She’s learned to be cold because she had to in order to survive. But she is gradually attracted to Chance in return and manages to send the poor guy some mixed messages.

There is a whole lot more in this book that I have mentioned and it all works together to make this such a wonderful book and yet another reason I love Westerns. I’ve read many a book by Jodi Thomas and this is my favourite one – still.

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Recent Reads

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?

 

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

 And add a Hell to the Yes!! – even if it is a review I did previously.   I don’t know how many times I’ve read this book now, but it just doesn’t get old and I fall in love with Jake and Randy all over again – not that I ever fell out of love with them.  The love and devotion and passion that exists between them is timeless.  They have to fight so hard to keep it going so that when they do overcome whatever has kept them apart, it’s even better, their coming together.  Randy is the goodness that Jake needs in his life to keep him on the right path when it would be so easy to go off it.  And Randy needs Jake because he needs her.  She sees the goodness in him where no one else does and because he had such an abusive past, she needs to keep reinforcing him that he is good.  He truly does treasure and cherish her, and she stands by him through good times and bad.

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.

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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.

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.

 

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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 . . .

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.

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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.

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.

 

And that's it for this latest batch

 

'til later

Recent Read

Defiant by Patricia Potter

Why this one:  I’m still into the Western

Steam Level: Warm

Genre: Western

My Thoughts: The length of time it took me to read this book should not affect the grade.  Even though it took several weeks, I still enjoyed it quite a bit.  The main problem was I have it on my KOBO app and that app keeps crashing on me, then I get frustrated and stick more with Kindle or Ibooks.

This is a reread of a book I first read years ago and it was so long ago I only vaguely remember it so bonus for me.  This is the story of Mary Jo Williamson, her son Jeff and Wade Foster.

Mary Jo is the widow of a Texas Ranger.  She was being courted by another Texas Ranger who was killed in action.  He left her a ranch in Colorado and she decided to try her hand at ranching.  But she’s been running into difficulties as no one wants to work for a woman.  She and Jeff are struggling along when Jeff comes across a stranger almost dead.  They bring him home, patch him up and though he comes across as rather a tough hombre, she asks if he would be willing to stay and help for a few months, long enough to hire some hands and get things up and running.

But Wade wants no part of it.  He has a tragic past and he doesn’t really care if he lives or dies and the last thing he wants to do is get tangled up with the young widow he has a very strong attachment to and her hero worshiping son.  His family were murdered by Jayhawkers years before and as a result he joined the Bushwhackers and in time was just as bad.  But he’d had enough after the infamous attack in Centralia and headed to the mountains to get away from all society.  He met and became friends with the Ute Indian tribe to the point of marrying a young woman and becoming a father.  But his wife and son are murdered and he spends the next couple of years tracking down the ones who murdered them and making sure they would never kill again.  He finally tracked down the last of them and before he shot and killed the last thug, Wade was shot himself.

This is the point he was at when he was found by Jeff.  He has little interest in even living now that he has finished his mission of revenge.  All he really wants is to go away somewhere.  But he has no means of leaving as his horse was shot and he is in such bad shape himself.  Eventually he has no choice to agree to Mary Jo’s offer.  He wants to stay aloof but he can’t.  The attraction between he and Mary Jo only grows and he’s very drawn to Jeff after losing his own son so tragically.

I sound like a broken record with so many books, I know, but dang I enjoyed this book.  Wade was the strong, silent, Clint Eastwood or hello, Scott Eastwood type. 

 He really isn’t a bad man, but a good man who was drawn into bad things and hated himself for it.  He’s the perfect Western hero and a good example of why I adore this genre.

Mary Jo is a good heroine.  She’s tough and strong and not afraid to go after what she wants – like Wade.

And Ms. Potter also writes them good and gritty.  Not quite as much as Rosanne Bittner, but very true to life I think.  I’ve got a number of her backlist now as ebooks and there are a few more I really hope come out as ebooks sooner rather than later *cough - Notorious and Renegade – cough*

 I’m still in a big Western phase though I have read a few contemporaries in between that I’ve enjoyed.  But I keep being drawn back to the strong, silent, working class with a bit of a bad boy, Western hero and I’m quite happy to live there for a while longer.

I just started another older Western book by her, Diablo and I only vaguely remember it either.  I’m barely into it but it’s bringing back good feelings.

 Grade: 4 out of 5

 

Would I read it again?  I already have and I would again.

 

'til later

 

Recent Reads

Desperate Hearts by Rosanne Bittner

Why this one:  I answer this question further down

Genre: Western

Steam Level: Warm, but not too warm

My Thoughts:

My favourite book by this author and one of my top 10 all-time favourite reads and top 3 Western reads (if not the top) is coming out as an ebook in a few short weeks so I wanted to immerse myself in her world once again.  I’ve read quite a few of her books but I think this one is fairly new and I hadn’t read it before so it was a natural fit.

The book opens with a bang.  Elizabeth Wainright is escaping something bad.  She is fleeing west on a stage coach when it’s attacked by thieves.  All on board except for Elizabeth are killed but she is saved when lawman and vigilante Mitch Brady, who patrols the area as part of his job, rescues her, kills some of the outlaws and captures the others.  He’s taken with Elizabeth right from the beginning; with her beauty and her innocence and he knows she’s running away from something.  He takes her under his wing, seeing she gets help with her injuries, her lodging and her looking for a job.  He wants her to trust him with her secrets as he knows instinctively that she is innocent of whatever she is running from but she is so scared she won’t trust him, especially at first, with even her real age.

But slowly over time and as she begins to see what kind of man he really is, Elizabeth begins to trust Mitch and return his feelings, and finally tells him all, including her real name, Emma.  She’s running from her step father who is framing her for the recent death of her mother in order to claim a family heirloom because of his gambling habits.

While not as emotionally draining as some of her earlier stories, I still really enjoyed this book.  Ms. Bittner really does write great Westerns, she really seems to have a feel for the time and the setting.  Her books, including Desperate Hearts, are gritty and as the old west was a gritty time, so they should be.  I found the fact that Mitch was part of a vigilante group interesting.  The setting is Montana before it was a state and there was no official “law” in the territory.  And they enacted vigilante justice in the book.

Thankfully Mitch is an honest man, albeit a hard one.  He’s so gone for Elizabeth/Emma and so protective of her.  I love that kind of hero.  He is one heck of a yummy hero.  And I liked Emma also, though I did find her a bit slow to trust Mitch.  But then considering what she has gone through, it’s not really surprising.  She was raised in a privileged and wealthy home in New York and she was so out of her element in the old west it was almost a different planet.  Everything she knew was different.  She makes friends with a woman of ill repute.  She’s still in deep mourning over the death of her mother, a death she knows she is being accused of.  Her dealings with her step-father were horrifying.  So I didn’t wonder that she almost didn’t know which way to turn.

As I said, it’s not the best I’ve read by her, but I still enjoyed it quite a lot, look forward to seeing more of her older books being reissued and ebooks and I’m in countdown mode now for Outlaw Hearts

Grade: 4 out of 5

 

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Trust Me by Ella Sheridan

Why this one:  I loved the first book in the series and it was a given I'd try this one.

 

Genre: Romantic Suspense

 

Steam Level: Very, very hot!

My Thoughts:  The first book in this new series, Teach Me, was such a great find, that I was excited to read the next one, Trust Me.  I read it and now I’m trying to put my thoughts into words and sometimes it isn’t so easy is it?   This book gets the dreaded – “it was OK.”  I don’t know if it was because I had such high expectations after the first book, whether this one was too similar or what exactly, but I wasn’t nearly as impressed.

It was a good book, don’t get me wrong, but it suffered from “but quite as good as”.  I really liked Jack – but he was not quite as good as Con for me.  The heroine, Maddie, was not bad once we got to know her though she was kind of tough for me to like at first as she came across as rather cold and emotionless.  But she wasn’t quite as good as Jess from the first book.  The stories were very similar (too similar) but the one in Trust Me wasn’t quite as good as Teach Me.

We first met Jack in Teach Me.  He is a very good friend and business partner of Con from book one.  This takes place a little while after the first and Con and Jess are happily married.  Jack is feeling somewhat left out and envious of his friend.  He’s at his local watering hole, in a real shitty mood when a ruckus breaks out and the newest bartender he hasn’t yet met gets involved.  This of course, is Maddie.  When she takes on the customer harassing one of the waitresses, Jack thinks this is hot, while at the same time wanting to take on the situation himself.  He and Con run a detective type agency and they specialize in women in distress. And it doesn’t take him long to figure out that Maddie is in distress though she comes across as tough as nails and not needing anyone.

As the book continues on, we discover she has been horribly abused by her husband and she’s deep in hiding.   She knows he’s trying to find her and she’s terrified that he will.  At the same time, she is trying to find a young teenage girl who she figures has been taken by her ex and his cronies and she wants to find and rescue this girl.  By a strong coincidence, Jack is doing the same thing though they don’t realize it until much later in the book.  They finally join forces and try and catch the bad guy with the help of Con and another buddy who is being set up for his story next book.

This is too similar to the first one – poor but brave heroine who has suffered major abuse at the hands of an ex, rescued by a caring, wonderful hero.  While the villain in book #1 was chilling, villain in book #2 is almost cartoonish in his evilness.  Maybe I’m being too harsh, but this one just didn’t work like the first book I read by this author.

And I read the synopsis of the next book and the hero of that book has a twin brother and it seems they both share the love of the same woman and if it goes where I’m wondering if it might, I just won’t be going on that journey.  It’s a little bit too much for me if that is the set-up.

Grade: 3 out of  5

 

and more to come

'til later

Recent Read

Harper's Bride by Alexis Harrington

Genre: Western

Why this one:  I've been on such a role with this author

Steam Level: very warm, but not boiling

My Thoughts:

It’s kind of odd rereading a book years after reading it the first time.  Back in the 90’s when I originally read these books, this was my favourite book.  But now, so far anyway, this one has been replaced by Desperate Hearts, the Homeward Hearts.  That’s not to say that I’m not thoroughly enjoying this one – I am – it’s just not at the top now.

This book takes place somewhere towards the end of the Yukon Gold Rush.  Dylan Harper and Melissa Logan meet when Melissa’s good for nothing husband tries to trade her to store owner Dylan to pay off a debt owed to him by her husband.  Dylan is naturally horrified as such a suggestion, but it’s pointed out to him by his friend, a witness to the whole thing, that this useless excuse for a human being will only try the same thing again sometime, putting Melissa and her daughter Jenny, at possible greater risk than him.

So Dylan agrees to this ludicrous plan and takes on this drab and colourless young woman.  He agrees she can stay and cook and clean for him.  As he lives in a tiny apartment above his trading store, this doesn’t take up much time for her, and determined never to be helpless again, Melissa comes up with the idea of taking in washing to make some money so she can leave this sad and desolate locale.

Melissa slowly starts coming back to life as she is being treated with respect for the first time in her young life.  And Dylan does respect her.  He’s nursing deep pain himself.  He’s been rejected by his family all his life and the final cut was when his fiancé marries his brother.  He didn’t know where he was headed, he just knew he had to get away and ended up somehow in Dawson City, Yukon.  He had realized early that panning for gold was a no-win situation.  Most of the claims had been panned out already.  So instead he’d become a successful trader.

The author does an excellent job of showing the hopeless and desperateness of the effects of the gold rush.  Broken families, lonely people, squalor and loneliness are all well described.

Where it’s not so much the favourite as is was previously is a misunderstanding/big stupid error by Logan causing hurt to Melissa.  I wanted to smack him and tell him to grow up!  He was too hung up on past hurts which seemed to me anyway, leading to disrespectful treatment to Melissa who I loved to pieces.  He came across as kind of selfish and self-centered towards the end and wasn’t redeemed quite enough for me.  Melissa gave in a tad to easily.

But, despite these issues, I’m still loving Ms. Harringtons books and just ordered two more today.

Grade: 4 out of 5



'til later

Recent Read

Desperate Hearts by Alexis Harrington

Genre: Western

Why this one:  I can't seem to get enough of her at the moment

Steam Level: Very warm bordering on hot

My thoughts:  I really had forgotten how much I enjoy Alexis Harrington’s books.  I think I last read them back in the 90’s so reading them again is like visiting beloved friends I haven’t seen in years but have very fond memories of.  Because it was so long ago that I read them and I’ve read so many since then, the only thing I really remember is the feeling of comfort they give, not so much the story itself. 

Desperate Hearts is the story of Jace Rankin.  He was the bounty hunter from Homeward Hearts who relentlessly pursued the hero from that book.  Now Jace has a new target to seek revenge on.  He finds and achieves it at the beginning of this story and is at a bit of loose ends a bit as the mission that has consumed him for a number of years is accomplished.  He contemplates heading for warmer climates when he rescues a young lad from being bullied.  Jace had been harassed all his life himself because of his small stature until he made a name for himself a real badass bounty hunter.  It seems the boy, Kyle Springer, had been searching for Jace for his badassness in helping Kyle get revenge and get his home back, the home that had been stolen from him.

Jace reluctantly agrees, though he senses something is off about Kyle.  Of course in true romance style, Kyle is really Kyla.  Jace is angry at first at being duped, but then reluctantly agrees to help Kyla reclaim her life.

It’s a simple outline but for me it was so richly done.  I loved Jace.  I love the fact that he was shorter than your average bear.  Once he got past his anger, he was so protective of Kyla.  As she slowly begins to trust Jace, her story of abuse comes out and he is so patient with her.  He’s truly the strong and silent type that makes for such a great Western hero.  He has his own rotten childhood and its warped the way he sees himself, not worthy of love.

As well, I thought Kyla makes for an excellent Western heroine.  She’d been brutalized and rather than give up and give in, she fights back.  She knows she can’t do it herself so she looks for the person who is most capable.  She is a bit slow to trust Jace, but with very good reason.  As with Jace, her life has been very short on love.

I liked that the author included a scene with Chloe and Travis from Homeward Hearts.  It looked like we may not get one for a while, but the author didn’t disappoint.

As much as I enjoyed the first book in this series, I think I liked this one a little bit more.  When I finished it, I was going to move on to a different author and a different genre.  But I’m just not done with Alexis Harrington books yet and since I have a few more, I’m revisiting a very dear comfort place.

One thing I feel I should point out though it bothered me not at all.  The formatting isn’t that great in transferring this to an electronic book.  Because of this there are some misspelled words, missing words etc.  As this didn’t affect the strength of the story at all and I was ‘in the zone’ while reading I didn’t notice that much.  But I know that for some readers this can be quite distracting and take them out of ‘the zone’.

 

Grade: 5 out of 5

 

 

 

'til later

Part II - Peggy L Henderson

These are the other two books of hers I've read - though there WILL be more.  I really do enjoy her writing


Ain't No Angel by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read a couple other Peggy Henderson books in the Yellowstone series and really enjoyed them so was more than willing to try another series she's written even though I still have to finish the Yellowstone one. And it was actually the second book in this series, Diamond in the Dust, that appealed to me. But the hero in that book is the villain in this book so I wanted to see how villainous he was.


This is another time travel western and like the other series, I think the author does a wonderful job. Laney Goodman has led a sad and lonely life in the present time. Raised in foster care, she's never had friends or family and she about to embark on a life of reluctant prostitution when her first "customer" offers her a position working with horses, a passion of hers, in Montana. With nothing left to loose, she agrees. The next morning she wakes up in strange clothes in a real honest to goodness stage coach. It takes her a while to figure out and then with the help of her mysterious benefactor, she's been sent back to the past.

Tyler Monroe runs a successful horse ranch but he is starting to have problems. One of them is a lost bet to we'd a mail order bride. Because his mother abandoned he and his father, he wants nothing to do with women and the last thing he wants is to marry one of them. But when he meets his mail order bride, Laney of course, he changes his mind and they marry.

They are both attracted to each other but both have issues.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I had no problem suspending belief and buying into the time travel aspect. I liked both Tyler and Laney a lot. Laney is drawn to Tyler and his old fashioned manners. She's never been treated so respectfully by a man and I REALLY liked Tyler. He is confused and dismayed by his growing feelings for Laney but at all times treats her with dignity even though he begins to suspect she may be a 'soiled dove'

I recommend this book happily to fans of western and time travel readers.



Diamond in the Dust by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars

My last review was for the second book in this series, though it was this book that really appealed to me. And while I think this book could be read as a stand-alone, I am glad I read Ain’t no Angel first as the hero in Diamond in the Dust, Gabe McFarlain, played a significant role in Angel as the bad guy. There is something delicious when an author can successfully change a villain into a hero and the author does a wonderful job with Gabe. At the end of the first book he is sent to the present time from 1872 – to say why would be a huge spoiler for the first book so I won’t say why, but he doesn’t go happily. In fact it’s very much against his will when he realized the mysterious Mr. Johnson has sent him to the future. One of the keys to writing a good time travel is make it seem believable - even if the reader knows it can't happen and in this case I had no problem buying into how it's done

He wakes up on the side of the road, badly beaten up (from the end of the first book ‘cause he’s the bad guy and deserved it). Morgan Bartlett, our heroine, sees him lying there and picks him up and brings him home. It doesn’t take Gabe long to realize he’s in the present time but when he shares this with Morgan, she doesn’t quite know what to think.
Gabe has a lot of issues. He would have to, being the bad guy from the second book of the series. He grew up in the old west the bastard son of a whore who didn’t give Gabe much in the way of love. He was treated badly by the town’s people and he was abandoned by the man who fathered him in favour of another son. To say he had a chip on his shoulder was putting it mildly. But Morgan sees something in him. Morgan is a trust fund baby who is determined to make a life for herself despite a controlling mother. She is also a single mother who chose not to stay with the father when he punched her.

Gabe develops strong feelings for Morgan yet he refuses to act on them. He comes from the past where men treat women with respect and he doesn’t think he is good enough for her. As he falls for her more and more, he feels worse and worse for what he did to Tyler Monroe the hero of the previous book. On top of that he hates feeling beholden to Morgan. Because he comes from the past, he doesn’t really know how things in the present work and he finds it difficult that he is not able to pay his own way. He also is old fashioned enough that he is almost horrified by today’s style of clothing. All these factors make for a very appealing hero. He really made the book for me.
I liked Morgan too though she wasn’t quite the standout for me. I found her a little too bit lenient with her mother’s interfering ways. And because she was quite wealthy, she didn’t really have to struggle too much financially, though when her mother cut off her trust fund, she needed to find something. But she’d never really had to work and didn’t have a career. But that's just a minor point.

I am so delighted I found Peggy L. Henderson. This is the fourth book of hers I've read and I just think she writes very good books. I plan to read everything she has. I'm delighted when I find an author I can really get on board with.

The Wonderful World of EAuthors

Because I read 99.5% ebooks these days and since the big publishers actually charge MORE for an ebook than they do for a print book and I REFUSE to pay MORE.  Here are just a few examples of why I’m not reading the big authors these days

Rogue Spy  - Joanna Bourne

$7.99 Mass Market paperback - $8.21 Kindle

Run to You -  Rachel Gibson

$4.68 Mass Market - $8.99 Kindle

Hard to Come by – Laura Kaye

$7.12 Mass Market - $7.99 Kindle

Mind Games by Carolyn Crane

$6.33 Mass Market - $9.12 Kindle

I could go on, but you get the picture. 

Update – in the interest of fairness, I just finished comparing prices for a lot more books and it seems prices are coming down for ebooks, though still not what I think they should.  Source Books and Harlequin are the two best New York publishers who also publish in eform.  Avon at the opposite end, often are charging $2 MORE for an ebook than a Mass Market book - at least here in Canada - yet another reason I loathe them.  In my mind, publishers should charge $2.00 LESS for an ebook as there is no cost for printing, shipping and any number of things that ebooks would cost less for.  Of course none of that should be put on the authors.  I believe they should get the same amount whether it be an ebook or a print book.

But to a great extent the damage has already been done.

Most of the authors I’ve been reading these days are either self published or their publishers are small epublishers.  As a result, I’m finding a lot of authors I’d never heard of before and many of them are VERY GOOD.  And the prices I’ve been paying are VERY reasonable.

 They recently did their Annual Poll at AAR and while I submitted books for quite a few of the categories, I knew the odds of any of the books/authors I picked would even make honorable mention.  But because I’ve been so impressed with so many of them, I want to highlight some of the gems I’ve found so that other ereaders can check them out too.

Today’s author is Peggy L. Henderson.  I’ve read 4 of her books so far and plan to keep reading more.  All the books I've read so far have been Western Time Travel though she does have some Westerns that don't involve the traveling of time too.  

Every book I’ve read has been at least a 4 out of 5.  Here are the reviews of the first two books I’ve read by this really good author.

  

Yellowstone Heart Song by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I recently came across this really nifty keen site called BookBub. It sends me daily ebook deals.

Yellowstone Heart Song was in the first bunch of recommendations and talk about score, score, score!!! It was free, it’s mash-up of Time Travel and Western romance and it was very, very good.

Aimee Donovan, a trauma nurse, thought the old man she met in the hospital was pulling her leg when he told her he could send her back in time 200 years so she could do some backpacking in Yellowstone before it became such a tourist place. She humoured him and quickly through together a backpack with only the bare essentials.

Next thing she knows, much to her shock, is she has indeed been sent back to a place she knows but doesn’t know and realizes that time travel does indeed exist. Though she is an experience back packer, she does manage to get herself in a bit of a pickle and is surprised to be rescued by two men, one of whom is a mountain man named Daniel Osborne and is the son of the old man who sent her back and the one she was told to connect with. Daniel is less than pleased to run into this strange but beautiful young woman in the middle of nowhere. Zach, the time traveling father had told Aimee before he sent her back NOT to say anything to Daniel, so Aimee is hindered in what she can say to him as to who she is, how she got there and what her plans are.

I really, really enjoyed this story. I love time travel and I love westerns so this hybrid was right up my alley. And both Daniel and Aimee were wonderful characters. Daniel was in turn grouchy, resentful, gentle and thoughtful. He lived in his element. He had loved and been rejected cruelly in the past and did NOT want to have anything to do with another white woman. He fought his growing feelings for Aimee but it was a losing battle. And I loved Aimee as a heroine. She was a perfect kind of person to travel back in time when life was more primitive. She’s an experience back packer as mentioned and is very much at home in the wilderness. Though she knows quite a bit, she and Daniel bond as he shows her more survival lessons.

And of course Zach’s insistence that Aimee not tell Daniel anything about being sent from the future comes back to bit them.

The secondary characters are excellent. I love the teasing his “brother” Elk Runner. And Aimee has a best friend in the present that apparently has a story of her own further down the line.
The writing is very good and her descriptions of the area very clear. I’ve never wanted to visit Yellow Stone before – but now – maybe. I found this story very moving and touching in places and funny and sweet in others. As I said, this book is free at the moment but there isn’t a doubt in the world that I will be getting the rest in the series and any other book I can find by this author. I’m a happy little camper with this discovery.



Yellowstone Redemption by Peggy L. Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I knew after finishing the first book in this time traveling western series, Yellowstone Heart Song that I would be reading the rest of the book in this series, this one, Yellowstone Redemption, is the story of Sarah Osborne, daughter of Daniel and Aimee from the first book, and Chace Russell, a traveler from the future.

Chance is mysteriously sent back in time after passing out drunk the previous night. He almost dies of exposure and when he is drooped off at the cabin where Sarah and her family live by a small group of natives, Sarah nurses him back to health.

Once he realizes he really has traveled back in time, Chase is like a fish out of water. He has no real coping skills for living the kind of life he's been sent back to and must rely on Sarah while her parents are away on a rendezvous.

I loved Sarah. She was completely competent in the wild but unsure of herself in dealing with a young man she is attracted to. She has lived a somewhat isolated life, though she has many friends among the native tribes. But she doesn't know how to deal with her growing feelings for Chase.

Chase was a slightly more difficult character to warm up too. You just KNOW there is a good guy wanting to come out. And he has reasons for being the way he is, but he comes across as a bit of a jerk at the beginning. But as he learns and grows and adapts to the time he's been sent to, he grows on one.

Another thing I couldn't quite figure out is why the author had him come back in time from so far in the future. He comes from the year 2035 and I couldn't help feeling that's too far advanced. That's 20 years from now and considering how far we've come as a society in just the past 10 years, well I'd rather she have had him from a time closer to today's tine.

I did love visiting with Daniel and Aimee again. They appear iin the second part and are still hale and hearty and madly in love.

So while this one doesn't get quite as high a rating as the first one, still., I really did enjoy it and am quite pleased I bought the whole series in a bundle.

I think as a marketing idea, this is brilliant. Offer the first book free and hopefully get the reader invested in the rest of the books in the series as well as other books the author may have written. It worked out great in this case *grin*

I have two more (so far) by this author I will post


'til later

ETA

And oh, oh!!!  I forgot to mention that Yellowstone Heart Song - the book I gave highest marks to, is free at Amazon right now - so go!  Get it!  It's a good one :-)