Leigh Greenwood

Apparently I bought this whole series eons ago on Kindle and read them at the time, but have zero memory of them. I was in a western romance mood lately, so reread a couple.

This one is pretty good, if a little melodramatic. Same problems with some dated attitudes and such apply as with Jake, but a little less in this one.

I like Ward and Marina as characters, though their relationship is a little odd. If Jake suffered from heavyhanded insta-lust, Ward and Marina go a step further to VERY heavyhanded insta-love. Like total undying give-up-everything love after one brief encounter and conversation. I can buy infatuation or lust that fast, but real love that's still lingering 7 years later? They scarcely knew each other!

The other flaw, perhaps, is that the villain is SO over the top unrelentingly hateful and bad. She does have reasons that are believable, but she is a little one-dimensional. Her son, who was the co-conspirator and beneficiary of her schemes is also pretty shallow but at least gets a tiny bit of depth toward the end.

Jake and Isabelle and their family from the previous book make up the supporting characters, plus the residents of the nearby town. Greenwood is pretty good at well-realized background cast, with enough personality and development to feel realistic.

Ward and Marina's reunion, gradual hashing out of their past and what tore them apart and what really happened vs what they thought/were led to believe happened is well done and believable and mostly satisfying enough to make up for the somewhat silly insta-love start to their relationship. Marina's son is cute and engaging without being too much of a generic plot moppet.

Overall, good, mostly satisfying and enjoyable but not dazzling or anything.… (more)

Bought a whole bunch of Greenwood books years and years ago and apparently read them (according to my Kindle app) but had no memory of them at all. I was in a western romance mood lately and don't have a lot of westerns to choose from, so figured I'd try these again.

This one is pretty good, if you can ignore some dated attitudes and tone that are Not Great by 2022 standards. Nothing outstanding or super memorable, but a good romance.

I liked the heroine, Isabelle. She has a pretty convincing transformation from prim and proper lady, fairly helpless and sheltered, to learning how to live on the trail and handle a crowd of orphaned boys. She really makes an effort and toughens (and lightens) up and I liked her.

The hero, Jake, is a little too domineering and crude, especially early on. He takes the whole rough, crude, set-in-his-ways bachelor (with a heart of gold, of course) thing far enough to be off-putting for a while, but he does improve over time. He claims to be a loner who is only out for himself and doesn't want to be tied down, but of course eventually finds himself not only responsible for but caring for the whole band of orphans and Isabelle. A little predictable, but likeable by the end.

Their relationship is well written, as both of them gradually change - Isabelle growing stronger and less helpless, and Jake stepping up to responsibility and caring for the boys - which also gradually changes their opinion of each other. They start out with a pretty strong mutual dislike, which is mostly believable but slightly undermined by a somewhat over the top dose of insta-lust. Hating each other while also wildly attracted to each other can be a fun dynamic and it mostly works here, though the attraction is maybe a little heavyhanded.

The supporting cast of orphans, shepherded west by Isabelle and on their last chance to find families and redemption, are mostly an engaging bunch, with distinct personalities and relationships among themselves. (They of course are the protagonists of the rest of the series.)

So overall, reasonably enjoyable. There are, however, a few aspects that have aged rather poorly.

I haven't read a lot of western romance, mainly just these and Lorraine Heath, but in both of them the heroes fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, which is...unfortunate (even if probably accurate for Texas at the time). It's generally some handwave-y "fighting for my home & family" (though one went as far as "way of life") and general "war is bad and traumatic" stuff while totally sidestepping the major issues involved.

There's also Night Hawk, one of the orphans who is half-Commanche and speaks in rather cringey broken English - he's treated well by the central characters but the general attitude toward Native Americans is very "cowboys vs Indians" and stereotypical, and Hawk and Zeke, the black teen rescued from Jake's abusive neighbors, seem somewhat less fleshed out than the other boys.

I liked the plot, most of the characters, and the romance itself a lot, but there's definitely some elements that haven't aged well.… (more)