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Showing posts with label Morgan Wyatt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morgan Wyatt. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2013

Book Review: Captured by a Cowboy by Jean Barrett


Captured By A Cowboy

by Jean Barrett
Review by Morgan Wyatt

ABOUT THE BOOK:


Standing beside a shallow grave, Annie Johnson vows revenge on the stepfather who murdered her mother. Those plans are spoiled with the appearance of rugged cowboy Brady Malone, who is determined to haul Annie back to her grandfather's ranch, where the dying old man wants to reunite with his granddaughter. But Annie hates her cruel grandfather almost as much as she hates her stepfather.

Brady holds the evidence of the swindles Annie used to finance her search for her mother's killer. He won't hesitate to see her jailed if she doesn't accompany him to Wyoming. But he doesn't count on the discovery of her nemesis and her desire for retribution.

And neither Brady or Annie counts on their attraction to each other. 

Will Annie chose revenge or love? Either choice means a sacrifice--one that is bound to cost her dearly.

BOOK REVIEW:


Captured by a Cowboy by Jean Barrett is a rugged western with a heart of gold. Get ready to saddle up and hit the trails with a determined shyster Annie Johnson, and the equally stubborn cowboy Brady. Annie blazes a larcenous trail that is easy for Brady to follow. He recognizes his target despite the fact she’s dressed as a good sister. When it comes to Annie Johnson, nothing is as it seems.

Annie Johnson knows her stepfather is responsible for her mother’s death, and she swears on her mother’s grave to make him pay. Her stepfather slides through towns quickly, which exhausts her meager supply of money. To fund her pursuit she turns to the cons her stepfather taught her, and a few she came up with on her own. She almost has her stepfather when a handsome cowboy gets in her way.

Brady has one mission that is to find his employer’s granddaughter and bring her home. He finds her in a mining town dressed as a sister and shaking miners down for the widows and orphans fund. While he definitely doesn’t approve of Annie’s activities, Brady finds himself drawn to the conniving spitfire. Even threatening her with jail fails to persuade her to accompany him.

Annie knows Brady doesn’t think much of her. It doesn’t matter because she doesn’t think much of his employer, her grandfather. If it hadn’t been for her grandfather her mother would be alive instead of buried in a shallow grave. After her father died, her grandfather made sure she and her mother felt unwelcome to stay at the family ranch. If her mother hadn’t left town, they wouldn’t had fell in with her stepfather. Why would she want to see such a man, even if Brady hogtied her and carried her there?

Annie and Brady definitely strike sparks off one another. Grandfather as a dying man who has many regrets, and little time to reconcile things is well done. The western setting comes alive in this tale. I could almost hear the train whistle. Brady is a classic cowboy tough, fair, and reasonably taciturn. Think young John Wayne. Annie for all her deviousness is more like Lucy managing to cause one disaster after another.

Captured by a Cowboy is a sweet western with some sensual undertones. If you like western romances, then you’re sure to like this one.

Book Review: Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees by Susannah Woods


Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees

By Susannah Woods
Review by Morgan Wyatt

ABOUT THE BOOK:


London, 1895. Delaney Stirling does not feel like celebrating Christmas this year. Since her fiance died, she hasn't felt like doing much at all. When her father insists they go to London to visit her aunt, she reluctantly agrees.

Cade Garrow loves Christmas, especially Christmas in London. The ice skating, the caroling, the decorating; he enjoys it all.

Melting Delaney's frozen heart will be one Christmas activity Cade never counted on. It just could be the best Christmas present of all.


BOOK REVIEW:



I feel obligated to like a free historical romance that centers on Christmas and love. What would there be not to like? Sadly, plenty including a mopey heroine named Delaney who spends the majority of the book feeling sorry for herself because her soldier fiancé died. Everyone has to bend over backwards to cheer the poor dear up.

He's been dead over a year, and she still is going through the motions of living. Early on, we are told her dead fiancé Roger was no prize to prepare for the bigger prize Cade, who is waiting in the wings.

Now Cade is a likable hero. He's friendly, upbeat, wealthy and kind to his younger sister. All the ladies have their hat set for him. He falls for the brooding heroine who wants nothing to do with him, and even refuses to talk to him, she goes on to call him by the wrong name, ignores his flirtations and forces herself through the motions of living. I was at 60% finished with the book when I decided to stop reading.

If there is no chemistry by this point, there is never going to be any. I wanted to yell at Cade to run fast, get away while he could.

The story is also riddled with inconsistencies. A big deal is made of how poor the family is and how they saved for years so she could have a season. Yet Delaney rolls through town spending money like a drunken sailor. Where did the money come from? Young ladies do not normally possess great sums of money. Her family certainly had none.

I figure in my lifetime I've read over 5000 romances, so I may have a sharper eye for detail and higher expectations. The writing itself was acceptable, but the story could benefit from some research and energy.

At that time, a woman expected her betrothed who served as a soldier to possibly die. It happened all the time. People died from disease, explosions, fires, etc. Delaney was not the ony gel to lose a man by misadventure, but she certainly acts as if she were.

Delaney gave off an air of self-absorption, which would not be in line with her prospects. The fact she told Roger not to go to South Africa to fight and expected him to obey shows lack of sensibility of the times. He would be a man without honor, unable to hold his head up. No woman would ask that of her beloved even thought that is what she wished. It is more of a case of putting modern values on a regency heroine. They don't wear well. (IMHO)