The Creed Legacy
Grade : B+

The last of the Creed trio, this one featuring good-old-boy Brody, the rodeo champion, who collects winner's belts and women’s hearts, is the best of the bunch as far as this cowgirl’s concerned. At least he’s more approachable than his twin brother Connor or his cousin Steven, even though Brody seems at first glance like a schmuck.

Way back when, Brody and Carolyn Simmons had a thing going in Lonesome Bend, Colorado, and she thought he was going to propose. Instead, after a night of lovemaking, he up and left with only a sorry-gotta-go note propped on the kitchen table.

At the beginning of the book, Brody’s back in Lonesome Bend, having bought property and started building a house as well as working on the ranch he co-owns with his twin Connor, who was married at the end of the previous book (Creed’s Honor) and whose wife is now pregnant.

Carolyn, who owns a shop in Lonesome Bend with Connor’s wife and who lives above the shop, is ambivalent about Brody’s return. Loving him, despite his running out on her without explanation, hasn’t been healthy. Having him back in town, she knows, will play havoc with her life.

Rather than pine for an entire book, Carolyn pulls up her boot straps and decides to try online dating, hooking up with a widowed wilderness firefighter and his daughter. So far so good. If there’s one thing I love, it’s a woman who knows she needs to change and actually does something to do so.

Brody, realizing he loves Carolyn and deciding to woo her, is surprised to learn she isn’t waiting around for him. He too registers with the online dating site and posts a picture of his horse as his personal photo. Instantly their dance around each other gets a little more tense. Complicating their courtship is the return of Joleen, who’s had uncomplicated sex with Brody over the years. She’s now ready to complicate everything and is stunned when Brody absolutely refuses to propose.

Before Brody and Carolyn can get together, he must come clean to her about why he left so suddenly and what his life has been since he last saw her. Also, Joleen needs to go away quietly and quickly.

And that’s where my problems with the book come in. While Brody’s confessions to Carolyn ring true and he comes off as a hero for manning up in the past, the Joleen complication while built up to portend trouble just doesn’t materialize, even after she was the instigator of Carolyn’s heartache at the end of the previous book. It’s as if the Brody-Joleen connection and Brody’s good-time image honed in the previous books are now null and void. But readers of the series won’t be a forgiving and forgetting as I think Miller wants us to be.

All in all, while The Creed Legacy is the strongest of the books and it stands alone well, it is a little disappointing as a continuation of the overall trio.

Reviewed by Pat Henshaw
Grade : B+

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : August 31, 2011

Publication Date: 2011/06

Review Tags: cowboy

Recent Comments …

Pat Henshaw

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x