Lordy! I do believe Wren Bradley and I had a personality clash. Wren is the heroine of A Wanted Woman, who succeeded in being annoying all the way through this book. Every time I could almost stomach her, she’d say “Lordy” again, and we were back to square one.

Wren Bradley has always wanted to be an actress, but her family doesn’t take her seriously. Her father is a top-level official with the Pinkerton agency, and he wants her to settle down with a nice man like her perfect older sister Alexandra. When Wren was just sixteen, she professed her to love one of her father’s top operatives, Cord Caldwell. Although Cord let her down gently, she still feels humiliated when she runs into him five years later. Their paths cross when Wren sneaks out of the house to watch a local theatre troupe rehearse – and is seized by Lloyd Sackett, a train robber Cord is trying to capture. Cord rescues Wren and takes her home to her parents, and Wren’s father gives Cord a new assignment – to keep tabs on his daughter.

Wren sneaks out of Dallas and travels to Austin to audition for a traveling theatre company. Cord follows her easily, but he doesn’t take her back to her father. Instead they both stay at her aunt’s house. Cord continues inquiries about Sackett, although he is officially off that case, and Wren takes acting and singing lessons. During this time they are supposed to be falling in love with each other, but it’s neither exciting or romantic. In good time Wren auditions, they pursue Sackett, and profess their undying love. None of it is interesting.

I think I might have enjoyed parts of this plot if it had been written by another author about different characters. Wren’s interest in acting could have been interesting had it been more thoroughly explored, and I haven’t read many books with Pinkerton heroes. But every time I was even remotely interested in the story something would happen to pull me right out of it.

Wren was probably the biggest stumbling block. I hate to use a repetitive acronym, so let’s just say I wouldn’t want her handling any complicated machinery. Or even a heavy duty stapler. Her attempts at escape and deceit don’t endear her to the reader, and in two unbelievable scenes she throws herself in the thick of the action even though she has minimal experience with firearms. Her overuse of the annoying word “Lordy” was no help, and her obsession with chocolate was just plain weird. Heck, a lot of people like chocolate, but how many people do you know who moan in ecstasy – in public – when they taste it?

Cord (is it just me or do these people sound like soap opera characters?) is better than Wren, but he still spends the book moping about because he considers Wren unattainable, “like a fine china doll.” He has also been permanently scarred by his parents’ unhappy relationship. He heard them fighting as a boy, and naturally he has determined that he can’t marry because every couple in the world must be exactly like his parents. Don’t people like him ever notice the happy relationships of others around them?

The writing itself is awkward and at times difficult to get through. There are far too many metaphors and unfortunate word choices. I always find it distracting when I feel like I have to put on my “editor hat;” I spent half this book catching typos and mentally fixing poorly constructed sentences. Here are a couple of examples:

• She eased the hood of her cloak over her hair with a soundless whoosh. – How can a whoosh be soundless?
• Cord wiped a hand down his cheeks and tried to digest the load of crap he’d just landed himself in. – This mixed metaphor presents a particularly unpleasant mental picture, does it not?

There is one bright point in all this. After Wren is kidnapped by Sackett early in the story, she has scary flashbacks about her experience and imagines that she sees him around every corner. She even asks Cord to teach her to defend herself. Unlike many other parts of the book, this seemed very realistic to me, and it isn’t something you often see. Usually when a heroine is kidnapped by a bad guy the experience just seems to roll off her like water off a duck’s back.

Unfortunately, there was little else to admire in this book. Annoying characters and shoddy writing make this a difficult read. I’ve been hoping to read a really good western lately, but sadly, A Wanted Woman was not it.