Stacey Kayne

When her brother tried to kill her, Maggie Grace fled to the Wyoming mountains at the age of 13. She's made a life for herself as a trapper and is known as Mad Mags in town. She finds Garret Daines, a local rancher, buried in a snowdrift and takes him home to heal. The two develop a relationship, very slow-burn, as Maggie is wary of males in general, especially after she finds her brother is now the mayor of the nearby town and still wants her dead.
There's a lot of drama, but the slow-burn show more romance is good. I liked how Garret gradually woos Maggie, and she finally succumbs to his charm. It's a good read and a bit different from the usual historical Westerns. show less

I just finished Stacey Kayne's "Wild" series and all three books were wonderful! I was really sad to see them come to an end but pushed aside my grieving :) to begin her other series starting with "Bride of Shadow Canyon". I couldn't believe how good this book was. I had high expectations and was sure I'd be in for a letdown after three other amazing books, but Stacey Kayne does not disappoint!
She does a fabulous job at really creating relationships between the reader and character. I loved show more everything about both Jed and Rachell in this story! The part I found especially refreshing was that the two main characters actually communicated with each other from very early on. Yippee! Seems like so many romance novels wait until the last pages for open dialogue between man and woman. I must admit, Jed had me pining for him from the first time I met him. A real man in every sense of the word. Now, if only I could find him in the real world....and what would my husband say? :) show less

Mountain Wild is the third and final book in Stacey Kayne’s Wild series. Our hero, Garret, appeared in the first two books as a teenager, and is the younger brother of Skylar (Mustang Wild). Now he’s grown up and running his own ranch, but all the ranchers in the area have been dealing with rustlers stealing their cattle. Garret was also briefly married to a beautiful Southern Belle who decided after only eight months together that ranch life wasn’t for her. One day, when his business show more partner doesn’t return, Garret goes looking for him and gets attacked and left for dead in the snow. He’s rescued by the notorious mountain woman known as Mad Mag. Rather than being the old woman everyone thinks she is, Maggie is a young woman around Garret’s own age, who ended up living an isolated life on the mountain after escaping her older brother’s abuse and attempted murder at the age of thirteen. Maggie fears anyone knowing where she lives, but at the same time, she can’t just leave Garret to die. She reluctantly takes him back to her cabin, where she nurses him back to health. An instant attraction takes root between them, and with there only being one small bed in her tiny abode and a snowstorm raging outside, one thing leads to another. Even though Garret would like more, he doesn’t want to pressure Maggie or rush into anything like he did with his first marriage, and since he needs to get back to his ranch, he reluctantly leaves her. Unable to take his elderly dog with him through the deep snow, he leaves Boots in her care until the spring thaw. At the same time, Maggie comes down the mountain to return Boots, Garret’s ranch is attacked by masked outlaws who beat him senseless. It soon becomes apparent that Maggie’s brother is behind it, but proving his involvement when he’s the mayor of the town will be nearly impossible and also incredibly dangerous when there’s a bounty out on Maggie’s head.

Maggie’s mother died in childbirth, but she was adored by her wealthy father, who always made sure she had the best of everything. However, when she was just thirteen, her father died, and her greedy brother, Nathan, was enraged that the will provided for Maggie’s future instead of it all going to him. He beat Maggie and would have killed her if Ira, a mountain man who witnessed it, hadn’t stepped in to save her. He took her into the mountains, where he taught her everything he knew about trapping, hunting, and survival. Ira died a while back, but Maggie has continued to live her isolated mountain existence. When she goes into town, she disguises herself in such a way that everyone calls her Mad Mag and thinks she’s an old woman. But in reality, she still maintains a modicum of the genteel life she once knew in private. When she finds Garret half-frozen and unconscious in the snow, she fears taking him to her humble home because there’s a bounty out on her head for assaulting Nathan months ago. But since Garret helped her escape that incident and his kin have been good to her in the past, she feels she owes him something. She takes him to her cabin and nurses him back to health. Maggie finds Garret very attractive and her body responds to him in ways she’s never experienced before, so sharing her small bed turns into a whole lot more. A part of her really likes him, but the part that fears repercussions wants him gone ASAP. When she volunteers to watch his dog, though, she knows she’ll have to see him again, and by the time that happens, she’s missing him terribly. Still her fears war with her desires, while her brother poses a serious danger to both of them. I really liked Maggie. She’s definitely a survivor. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of her clean cabin and its refined touches with her rugged mountain woman persona. She’s certainly carved out a unique life for herself, and I’m glad that she was able to allow Garret to become a part of it.

Garret has kind of had a rough go of it through the first two books. With him and his sister, Skylar, losing their parents, he had to grow up fast and become a cowhand, helping her, Chance, and Tucker drive horses to the ranch where they now live. Then he fell for Cora Mae (Maverick Wild), offering to marry her, only to have Chance snag her away from him, leaving him heartbroken. In the seven years since, he’s set up his own ranch a half-hour ride away from the others. He was also briefly married to a Southern Belle who quickly figured out that ranch life wasn’t for her, once again breaking Garret’s heart. Now he’s dealing with a range war between the local ranchers, but no one yet knows who’s stealing the cattle. One day, when his ranch foreman and business partner doesn’t return home, Garret goes looking for him, only to be attacked himself and left for dead. He awakens in Maggie’s humble cave home after a delicious dream of kissing a beautiful woman, not realizing at first that it was real. Once he’s recovered from his injuries, he discovers a deep attraction for Maggie in more ways than one. After spending several days snowed in together, during which they share intimacies, Garret knows he has to get back to his ranch before something else happens. But he’s reluctant to leave Maggie behind. When it becomes apparent that she isn’t inclined to go with him and that his dog won’t be able to make the long trek back in the snow, he leaves Boots in her care, knowing that at least he’ll see her one more time when she returns the canine. When Maggie finally shows up two months later, Garret has once again been attacked and beaten senseless by men who want to know where she is. It’s then that he realizes the danger Maggie is in. But when Garret is arrested by a corrupt sheriff and accused of being the cattle rustler, he’ll have a hard time proving his innocence. Garret is a sweetheart who treats Maggie with kindness and gentleness. He’s loyal to those he loves, and she quickly comes to fall into that category. Although he has a history of falling hard and fast for women and then it not working out, I admired that he wasn’t afraid to do it again when it really counted.

Overall, Mountain Wild was an enjoyable read. Garret and Maggie were both great characters. Maggie can be a little prickly and understandably so given how things went down with her brother after their father’s death and how she’s had to live rough ever since. She thinks she wants to be alone, but having Garret with her for a few days shows her how lonely her existence has become and makes her long for things she never dared to before. Garret has an open heart and is patient in dealing with Maggie’s fears and uncertainties. He falls quickly for her and misses her deeply after going back down the mountain to his ranch. Together they made a great match. There are touches of suspense as Maggie’s brother stirs up trouble and tries to kill Maggie so that he alone has claim to their father’s fortune. Admittedly his motives perhaps weren’t quite as strong as they could have been. He’s basically just greedy and sociopathic, but because of his wealth and position, he’s able to buy off officials, making him a somewhat scary villain. The way that all wrapped up maybe could have been a little more climactic as well, but overall not bad. All things taken into account, Mountain Wild was a very respectable entry into the series and a nice ending to this family saga. My enjoyment of the entire Wild series has left me very interested in checking out the author’s remaining backlist. show less

Mustang Wild is the first book of Stacey Kayne’s Wild series and the very first book she wrote. It’s the story of a feisty, young lady and the charming cowboy who captures her heart. All heroine Skylar Daines ever wanted was a home to call her own, but she’s been forced to live on the trail, being treated like “one of the guys” by her father. Then one of her father’s men kills him in cold blood in an attempt to steal his horses, the deed to the land he was headed for in Wyoming, show more and Skylar herself, so Sky takes her little brother, Garret, and rides like the wind toward New Mexico in search of her father’s business partner, Chance Morgan. She thinks she’s tracked him down at a small-town saloon, only to discover that it’s really his identical twin brother, Tucker, who’s drunk as a skunk. As she tries to get him to understand why she’s come, she finds herself caught up in a flurry of words that make no sense, and in an instant, the two are accidentally legally wed. Once Tucker sobers up and Chance finally arrives, Sky discovers that her father lied to her about certain things, and now all she has left are the horses she and her brother rode in on and the deed to Tucker and Chance’s ranch, which she leverages to get them to take her with them to Wyoming. Along the way, they brave dangers while Sky and Tucker find themselves surprisingly attracted to one another and contemplating whether they still want to get an annulment when they reach their destination. But the real test occurs when they cross paths with her father’s murderer and the stolen horses she intends to get back to ensure a future for herself and Garret. Overall this book was a pretty enjoyable read, albeit one that’s a little slow-paced at times.

Skylar's mother died when she was young, and after that, her father forced her to learn to ride, rope, and train horses with the best of his men. She’s lived out on the open range being treated like merely another cowboy ever since, but deep down, she likes feminine fripperies and just wants a roof over her head again to call home. When her father is killed, she knows that Garret is now her responsibility, too. Her father had promised that once they drove the horses to Wyoming, she could finally have the home she so desperately wants, but what she didn’t know is that the deed to the ranch he’d been showing her really belongs to someone else and he was just holding the document for safe-keeping. When she finally tracks down Tucker and Chance and learns the truth, Sky is disillusioned but determined to get her horses back from the slimy weasel who stole them so that she can sell them to Tucker and Chance and make a new start for herself and her brother. But the only way she can do that is by talking them into hiring her and Garret as trail hands to help them drive the mustangs they’ve rounded up themselves. Once they see how skilled she is at gentling the horses, they’re happy to oblige, but Chance worries that since Sky still holds the deed to their property and Tucker foolishly got himself hitched to her she might try to take part of their land. None of this stops Sky from getting closer to Tucker and giving in to his seductive kisses, which leads to a whole lot more. Until she met him, no man had ever treated her like a woman before, which makes staying married to him extremely tempting, but she has her own agenda and she wants more from him than the occasional roll in the hay.

Skylar is a real spitfire who gives Tucker a run for his money, always getting her back up about one thing or another. She can be pretty stubborn even when Tuck is being sweet to her. Most of the time, I understood where she was coming from, but there were certain aspects of her characterization that I thought could have been deepened to make her even more sympathetic. Her objections to staying with him became a bit tedious at times. I don’t think I could have resisted, especially when Tuck was doing so many nice things for her. Also, once she and Tuck become lovers, she acts like there’s something wrong with it and she’s nothing more than a whore or a mistress to him even though they’re married, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. However, in spite of her feeling this way, it doesn’t stop her from returning his passion in equal measure, which helped to balance it out some. Overall, Sky was a pretty good heroine. But since she really wants a home and more feminine things and to be treated like a woman, I would have liked to see her gradually soften a bit more each time Tuck provides her with some of her desires instead of being so stubborn right up until the end.

Tucker lost his mom when he was young, too, but later on, his father remarried. However, his step-mother proved to be a shrewish woman who made life miserable for them, making both Tuck and his brother vow never to marry. After his father’s death and a stint in the confederate army, he became a bounty hunter, but more recently, he and Chance have made plans to settle down, buying a ranch in Wyoming. Chance worked for a while with Sky’s father, and cut a deal with him to buy his horses, leaving him the deed to their property as collateral. Tucker went to New Mexico to round up mustangs, which is where all three end up meeting. Tuck is having a wild time at the saloon and just won a large pot while gambling that included a marriage document. His opponents razz him about whether he’ll actually use it, and he says he will if he can find an angel. At that very moment, Sky walks in and a drunken Tucker thinks his wish has just been granted. The preacher says a few words over them and he gets Sky to sign the document, then awakens from his stupor later to find he has a wife. He doesn’t want to be married any more than she does but getting an annulment proves impossible, so they head for Wyoming, planning to take care of it there. Along the way, though, he succumbs to his desire for the feisty beauty, making it harder and harder to remember why he wanted an annulment in the first place. Tucker is an easy-going guy who is always patient with Sky’s obstinate nature and proves to be more amused by her sharp tongue than angered by it. He respects her abilities with the horses as being even better than his own, while also treating her like a lady. He’s a gentle and skilled lover who can make Sky practically forget her own name. He may have a bit of stubbornness in him when it comes to the marriage thing, but his fear for Sky when bad things happen, as well as all the thoughtful little gifts he buys her and his observant nature, show just how much he cares for her, even when he isn’t saying the words.

Overall, Mustang Wild was a good read and a respectable debut novel from Stacey Kayne. As I already mentioned, it could be a little slow at times. The bulk of the story centers around Tucker, Skylar, and their brothers driving the horses from New Mexico to Wyoming, so it kind of has the dynamic of a long road trip. There are a few dangers that they face along the way to make things more interesting, as well as the romantic interludes between Tuck and Sky, so generally speaking when the pace started slowing down, it didn’t take too long for it to re-engage my interest. I liked all the main characters. Tuck was a confident charmer and a sweetheart, and even though Sky could be rather stubborn, I found enough substance in her character for her to be relatable in spite of it. This was my first foray into this author’s writing, and even though it wasn’t totally perfect, it’s left me very open to trying more of her work. Chance’s book, Maverick Wild, is next, and a grown up Garret becomes the hero of the final book, Mountain Wild. I look forward to checking out both of them in the future. show less