Ned Buntline, the writer who is credited with popularizing the dime novel in the American Old West, would have loved Elaine Levine’s writing. Levine pens Western romances using old fashioned storytelling techniques. Her stories are often over the top with quirky individual characters and blood-thirsty events geared to the gut. Leah and the Bounty Hunter,…
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…
This is one of those books that’s incredibly difficult to grade because on one hand I liked it, but on the other there are problems that are extremely difficult to ignore. Often, the points that I enjoyed within the story were essentially the sources of the problems. Created as a killing machine during the Civil…
Finding a husband for a girl living on a remote ranch in the late 1800s was difficult when the only men she saw with any regularity were crusty ranch hands or those already married. For three sisters in their early 20s, there just weren’t enough possible beaus to go around. Thomas cleverly tackles this problem…
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…
Note to self: Step away from the Brava westerns. The Education of Madeline is the second one I’ve read in recent months, and it’s as disastrous as the first. I’m starting to get the impression that readers who want something more than a sexual checklist should look elsewhere for their entertainment. Madeline Brewster is a…
Second in Sarah McCarty’s Hell’s Eight historical western series about a group of Texas Rangers in the pre-Civil War era, Sam’s Creed achieves what Caine’s Reckoning managed to do. Once again using an erotic backdrop, she creates a mythic western hero, protective, dominant, and emotionally distant – but never cruel – who believes he is…
For the most part, Texas Princess is a very average story, with somewhat likable characters and a decent enough plot. The story wasn’t bad, but it didn’t grab me, and I had enough negative feelings about the writing style that it pushed the book into the minus category. Tobin McMurray is a very quiet man,…
Lovers of Western/Frontier romances sure have there work cut out for them. If you are like me and have a strong affection for this subgenre, you know the pickings are mighty slim. Thankfully, Kate Bridges seems to know a thing or two about a good historic romance not set in 19th century England. Even better,…