According to the Orphan Train official Website, the trains ran in the United States between 1854 and 1929, placing “an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children.” Felicia Brennan Kristoffersen, the heroine of Hatcher’s novel, is the middle of three Chicago siblings who were relocated on an orphan train. The story begins years later after…
If you read historical romance in order to learn history in a more congenial setting than a classroom, then Jenkins’ new book is for you. If you’re curious about marginalized groups in the settlement of the American West, then Jenkins’ book is for you. If you like feisty heroines clashing and falling in love with…
Sometimes I’m just in the market for a good, solid comfort read. Even if the story has its rough points, there are some days when I just want to read a good happy ending that I can believe in. The Outlaw Bride delivers such a read, and I’m so glad I found it. The book…
Living in the 1850s, whether in a city such as Boston, in a small community, or on a farm wasn’t a very pleasant proposition by today’s standards. Even worse was traveling in a covered wagon across the prairie with your worldly possessions, unsure of what you’d encounter or if you were prepared to endure the…
Emma Lang gives a new meaning to low key in this meandering Western while exploring some less traveled plot paths. I’d never thought much about pacing in a romance novel, but Restless Heart demonstrates how important the peaks and valleys of a story can be when they are scanty at best. Angeline Hunter, the third…
I’ve often said I’d read anything that Carla Kelly writes – including a laundry list if it was the only thing available. Her new books are auto buys for me, and I’ve worked at picking up copies of her older Regency romances. Now Kelly begins a new path as a romance author, switching continents, time…
It’s been a long time since I read a western and I forgot just how much I enjoy them. I find I can easily get lost in the Old West milieu with its dusty streets and threat of lawlessness. Plus, I swoon over rugged cowboys. Dade Logan is one such rugged cowboy. He and his…
Redeeming a rogue can be very difficult if an author paints the guy as despicable and doesn’t give a good enough back story to make his errant behavior seem reasonable. Such a rogue is Cloud Ryder, the love interest in this novel. Cloud is like sailors who have a girl in every port; instead, he…
There are days when a short romance is the only book that gets a chance to be read, and that’s when I am glad that I can find books like Sunrise Over Texas. If, like in this case, the novel also proves a gripping read that I end up finishing in one sitting, all the…
When I first received Open Country, I was filled with equal amounts of anticipation and trepidation. The genre – a Western, by golly! – and the author’s sophomore status account for the former; the synopsis, the latter. Happily, I can tell you my final pronouncement is firmly wedged on the positive side. The story proceeds…
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