Nan Ryan’s latest, Chieftain, features a half-breed Comanche war chief and a free spirit. They meet and fall in love on a reservation (sort of) and run off to be together. While fast-paced, Ryan’s story suffers from a lack of romance, at the very least. Maggie Bankhead is searching for a purpose in life. She…
Phoebe Conn’s Wild Desire is a readable western romance with some nice romantic moments and a lovely heroine. However, several of the other characters – including, unfortunately, the hero – are apparently inhabitants of some alternate dimension. In this dimension, the laws of logic are mystifyingly different, and people do things for reasons that don’t…
Reading Christmas anthologies is always a nice way to prepare for the holidays. But while Frontier Christmas, featuring authors Ana Leigh, Carolyn Davidson and Kate Bridges, managed to set a pleasant tone with its homespun traditions of Christmases past, the stories themselves were pretty average.
The cover of Sunset Embrace (originally published in 1985) describes it as “a classic love story,” and really nothing describes it better. I adore this book for many reasons that I’ll get to later, but for now let me introduce the two main characters. Lydia Langston is a young woman on the run from the…
I always love to see historical romances set in times and places I don’t encounter as often those set in, for example, Regency England or the American West. Therefore, I was excited about reading a novel set among the Mounties in late 19th century Alberta. Sarah O’Neill travels all the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia…
Mimi Riser’s first book in 25 years, I Do, suffers from a variety of serious problems. Too much plot, too many voices, and a mish-mosh of sub-genres result in this mess of a novel, which features a marriage of convenience, switching places, a half-breed stuck between two worlds, a heroine who runs at every turn,…
I haven’t read all that many books by Jodi Thomas, but she seems to do a couple of things admirably. Her romances have a sweet, touching feel to them, and she conveys loneliness and longing very well. When a Texan Gambles ably illustrates both of these strengths. Sarah Andrews has always had a dearth of…
Midnight Silk is set in Texas during the Civil War, a pleasant change from historical England. It features a road romance between a planter’s daughter and the overseer’s son who has loved her for years. I wanted to enjoy it, but was unable to muster any enthusiasm for such a bland pair as the hero…
If you like westerns and all the action that goes with them then you will surely enjoy the reissue of Joan Johnston’s second book, Colter’s Wife, originally published in 1986. Set in Wyoming territory in 1875, Johnston tells the story of a half-breed woman desperately trying to survive in the male-dominated world of ranching. Just…
The Cowboy Who Came Calling might have worked for me had the hero and heroine spent more time talking rather than arguing and snipping at each other, then mentally wondering about the other’s thoughts and feelings. They both drove me absolutely nuts. Glory Marie Day has a large responsibility thrust on her shoulders. Her father…
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