An Outlaw’s Christmas is a sweet and endearing story about two people finding love in the most unusual of places.
Sawyer McKettricA great holiday read!
An Outlaw’s Christmas is a sweet and endearing story about two people finding love in the most unusual of places.
Sawyer McKettrick arrives in Blue River, Texas looking to get away from some things in his past. His cousin Clay lives nearby and Sawyer is going to take over his job as town marshal for the time being. As soon as he gets off the train, he is shot by an unknown assailant. Spooked, his horse takes off and Sawyer, injured and barely conscious hangs on until the horse come to a stop beside a tiny building in the middle of a raging snowstorm. Sawyer falls from the horse and passes out in the snow.
Piper St. James relocated from Maryland to take the job as the schoolmarm in Blue River. Her home consisted of a small room built off the back of the one room schoolhouse. It wasn’t much, but it was all she had. Her cousin Dara Rose had recently been married and sang the praises of Blue River, causing Piper to make the long trek across country to be near her only family. However when she got to Blue River, it wasn’t all she thought it would be so she was saving all her meager earnings to buy a ticket back to Maryland. Everything changed one night in the middle of a snowstorm when she sees a horse standing outside her window. She rushes outside and finds a man, shot and unconscious in the snow at her feet.
Using all her strength and resources, Piper manages to drag the man into the schoolhouse and tends to his injuries as best she can. He weaves in and out of consciousness over the next day, but to Pipers relief, he stays alive until help arrives. Clay, Dara Rose’s husband comes to check on her when the weather clears and is shocked to discover his cousin Sawyer passed out on the floor of the schoolhouse. He gets the doctor and they quickly tend to Sawyer’s injuries but determine if they try and move him, Sawyer will not survive the trip so much to Piper’s chagrin, they carry him to her bed and leave her, a single woman and schoolmarm to tend to this stranger’s injuries. Piper is terrified what the town gossips will say about her, but knows helping Sawyer is the right thing to do, so she concedes.
As Sawyer slowly recovers, he and Piper slowly grow an awkward situation into a blossoming, sweet romance that ends with true love. An Outlaw’s Christmas is a charming story of hope, dedication and redemption that will have to smiling and bring tears to your eyes. Linda Lael Miller weaves a beautiful Christmas tale that hits all the right notes to warm your heart.
This was my first novel by Linda Lael Miller and I was hooked! I started with book one of the McKettrick Series and have enjoyed them more than I can say!
I gave a lengthy review of book one, High Country Bride and book two was just as strong. When I picked up this book, the third This is a great series!
I gave a lengthy review of book one, High Country Bride and book two was just as strong. When I picked up this book, the third in the series, I was worried it would be hard to follow the first two and I might be disappointed, but I can say I wasn't!
From the first pages of this one, where Chloe Wakefield or McKettrick (depending on who you ask) blows into town, Indian Rock and Jeb McKettrick are never the same.
My absolutely favorite line is right at the beginning describing Chloe's arrival at the Triple M ranch:
"The buggy she drove might have been a chariot, drawn by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, instead of a battered conveyance and a single lathered and huffing nag, both hastily procured at the livery stable in town."
Jeb and Chloe don't take the easy route to love in this one, they fight more than they speak civilly to each other, but in the quiet moments you swee their love grow until they are ready to own it and trust one another.
Linda Lael Miller has me, lock, stock and barrel in love with the McKettrick men. ...more
So I LOVED this book and have fallen in love with this series! I was lucky enough to get and ARC of one of her other books in this series (review comiSo I LOVED this book and have fallen in love with this series! I was lucky enough to get and ARC of one of her other books in this series (review coming closer to release date) but after reading and enjoying it, had to start at the beginning. I'm happy to say, I wasn't disappointed!
High Country Bride is about the McKettrick men Rafe, Kade, and Jeb who live with their father on the Triple M ranch in Indian Rock which is in the middle of the Arizona territory in 1884. Their father, Angus McKettrick is tired of their wild ways and wants them to settle down. He tells his sons that whichever of them gets married and gives him a grandchild first will get the controlling interest in the ranch. His sons, not wanting to answer to one another, grudgingly scramble to find themselves a wife first.
In Kansas City, Emmaline Harding lives with her Aunt Becky in a brothel. Her aunt has sent her to the finest finishing schools and protects her from 'the business.' One night, Emmaline, feeling not herself dresses up as one of the working girls and goes downstairs to have some fun. She meets a Texan who she flirts with and drinks a little too0 much whiskey with. She kisses him in the hallway and stumbles into a room with him. The next morning she wakes up, in a bed wearing her underclothes, with a pile of coins on the night stand. She has no recollection of what happened but when her aunt finds her stripped and sees the money she screams at Emmaline and throws her out. Hurt and shamed, Emmaline signs up to be a mail order bride and is sent to Indian Rock as Mrs. Rafe McKettrick.
Rafe and Emmaline have many struggles in this entertaining western historical romance but eventually find love only to have that one indiscretion from Kansas City follow Emmaline to Indian Rock complicating and threatening to ruin everything she has built between herself and Rafe.
Linda Lael Miller creates an entertaining family in the McKettricks with a wonderful supporting cast of characters in town that add color and humor to the story.
What I liked: The McKettrick men- all gruff and stubborn with no idea how to handle women. And the housekeeper, Conception, doesn't shy away from putting them in their place when they get out of line. Emmaline is a great character with brass and balls.
What I didn't like: I figured out the big secret right away, so there was no aha moment for me when the truth came out, but watching it all play out was very entertaining.
I highly recommend this series if you enjoy western historical romances. I've read the second books and am getting read to crack into the third book and they keep getting better. I've laughed, I've cried and I've thoroughly enjoyed High Country Bride by Linda Lael Miller. I hope you do too.
You Don’t Want to Know is a suspenseful novel filled with an intriguing cast of characters who will keep you guessing until the bitter end. Just when you think you have it figured out, Lisa Jackson throws another twist into the mix that turns everything you thought you knew upside down. Ava Garrison is a woman tormented by the disappearance of her son, Noah two years ago. She’s been in and out of mental hospitals as she tries to deal with her loss, heavily medicated and for the most part has lost contact with reality. She can’t remember things happen in her daily life, she loses time and has little connection with people anymore. Sequestered in the family/s home on Church Island, Ava is constantly plague by visions of her missing son and questions about what could have happened to him.
Church Island has also had its share of tragedy and infamy. There was a mental hospital for violent criminals which was housed on the island. Lester Reece was a serial killer with money and an excellent attorney who got him placed as a patient at Sea Cliff. He escaped and was never found. His escape ruined Ava’s uncle, who ran the facility and he had to retire in shame. Locals for years have reported sightings of the serial killer, but he has never been caught. When the sightings start again, everyone is on edge.
On the island Ava is surrounded by people, all with an opinion on what is best for her. Her husband Wyatt, her cousin, the doll-carrying Elvis loving Jewel-Anne who is confined to a wheelchair because of a boating accident but never misses an opportunity to make a dig at Ava and her lose grasp on reality. Add to the mix a bitter friend, a sketchy psychiatrist Ava is convinced is having an affair with her husband, servants, therapists and various relatives and spouses and you have all the makings of a nervous breakdown for an already fragile woman. Convinced she’s again seen her son standing on the edge of the dock, Ava races out into the night and throws herself into the sea, only to be rescued by a mysterious man her husband recently hired by the name of Dern. Ava’s family is convinced she’s again on a downward spiral but Ava fights through the fog of her drugs and makes the decision to find out what happened to Noah. She secretly stops taking her medication and her head begins to clear. She is still missing large block of her time and events from her past but slowly, she beings to put the pieces together and finds out the people closest to her aren’t as trustworthy as she thought.
As she becomes more of her old self, she discovers someone is trying to drive her crazy. She begins hearing Noah crying and a calling for her in the middle of the night, but no one else admitted to hearing it. While outside she saw movement at the window in what had been Noah’s room. As she raced inside she found a soaking wet pair of Noah’s shoes on the floor. As she tries to put the pieces of the puddle together, she hits wall after wall. On the mainland her friend Tanya helps her get some recording equipment so she can find out who is messing with her head and why.
Dern continues to watch over Ava, popping up whenever she’s in trouble. Her marriage to Wyatt is in name only with them bickering more than getting along so she begins to develop feelings for Dern and his protective nature, but Dern has secrets of his own that will rock Ava when exposed. You Don’t Want to Know is an action packed novel. Lisa Jackson created an intriguing cast in this book, many of whom you will love to hate. Ava doesn’t know who to trust or where to turn and you can feel that as you read. Everyone is suspect, everyone is less than kind to Ava in one way or another, but the real question is who hates her enough to torture her with her loss. And what actually happened to Noah? Will she ever have closure on that horrible day two years ago?
I highly recommend You Don’t Want to Know, especially if you’re looking for some heart pounding action that will have you cautiously looking around dark corners for days.
Within Reach is a beautifully written book by Sarah Mayberry that looks at people findI received this ARC from NetGalley
Within Reach by Sarah Mayberry
Within Reach is a beautifully written book by Sarah Mayberry that looks at people finding love after a tragedy. Angela and Billie are best friends and have been since their days in boarding school. Angela designs jewelry, travels and lives the single life while Billie is a woman who has it all: a wonderful husband, two wonderful kids and a life full of fun. On her thirty-second birthday, Billie suffers a heart attack and dies. Her husband Michael and her two children Eva and Charlie are left to pick up the pieces and find a way to carry on.
Angela spends as much time as possible with Michael and the children, providing support and heling them get through the days immediately after Billie’s death. Ten months later, Angela shows up at Michael’s house and finds him and the children living what she calls a ‘half-live.’ She goes out on a limb and tells him as much and encourages him to go back to work and start living again, that Billie wouldn’t want him to be miserable.
Eva and Charlie are Billie and Michael’s amazing children and both Angela and Michael do everything they can to support the children and get them through their loss. Eva is a whirlwind, much like her mother, and often sees more than the adults do within the story. Angela loves spending time with the children and Michael, it helps her feel like she is doing something to help them all move forward. What began as a tentative friendship between Angela and Michael grows into something much more. Both are shocked and scared of the feelings that develop between them as time goes on, but in the end they find it’s far more painful to be apart than to wade through their murky feelings and see what they really mean. In the end, they find a love that is real and based on the future, without forgetting Billie and how important she was in both of their lives.
Within Reach had me laughing and crying through and through. The way Angela interacts with Billie and Michael’s children and deals with the harsh realities of their loss is amazing and very human. She isn’t perfect, she makes mistakes as does Michael as they try and understand the new feelings they have for one another. What Sarah Mayberry wrote is a beautiful story of overcoming loss to find what is waiting in the future. I highly recommend it, just make sure you have some tissues nearby…
I have to admit, when I decided to read this one I was a bit leery of the whole "Cinderella" premise and how it would work in this story. I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised how Marissa Meyer used it in a unique way to enhance her story.
All the girl wants is a foot that fits.
A plague is killing countless people. Once someone shows signs of the plague, black spots on their skin, medics are called and the infected are taken away. To be quarantined. To die. In the midst of this plague, Cinder is a cyborg who works as a mechanic in New Beijing. Her reputation and skill leads to a very special request from Prince Kaito who happens upon her booth and asks her to see if she can fix a robot of his. He hints it might have important information on it, then reveals it's a robot he's had for many years and it has sentimental value. A flustered Cinder agrees to look at it and get back with him. And so begins Cinder.
What I liked about it: I liked how Marissa Meyer didn't shy away from the references to Cinderella in her book, even going so far as to name her lead character after her. Many authors would have written a story line similar to this, but given the character a different name and played it off as it's own creation. I liked how she went back to small pieces of the story of Cinderella, but they were more accessory pieces to the main story line. I liked the relationship between Cinder and Kaito, it seemed very true to the situation they were both placed in.
What I didn't like: Many of the characters on the book are not what they seem. The first one, I bought, the second one, was a stretch, by the third one I was wondering how anyone with 'powers' could be so dense. I also am not a fan of the "big cliff-hanger ending" in a book. Especially because in this book, nothing is settled as it ends. Many things are set up, but nothing comes to conclusion. It ends with more questions raised than answered. I also figured out the big secret early in the story because it was a bit predictable, but it didn't matter it was interesting to see it all play out.
I think this one is definitely worth a read just to see how Marissa Meyer weaves elements of the classic Cinderella tale into a futuristic cyborg setting that is more like Star Wars than Disney World.
Street Game is the the 8th book in the Ghostwalkers series and the reason for the 3 stars instead of 4 like I gave the previous books is because the sStreet Game is the the 8th book in the Ghostwalkers series and the reason for the 3 stars instead of 4 like I gave the previous books is because the series takes a jump here and goes from the the characters in the first Ghostwalker Team to a new set of characters (Ghostwalker team 3) that haven't been in the series at all until now so it feels a bit disjointed from the rest and I had to become invested in them and their story much more than I had to in previous books. The plot is fine, but that blip in the arc of the series really throws me.
Mac and Jaimie are solid characters. I like that Jaimie is a different kind of Ghostwalker, not at all a warrior like many of the women at times seem to be. She is more wary of their powers and enhancements and chooses to fight not with weapons, but with her brain- and is just as capable.
I still enjoy the series, but I wish the transition into this new group of characters was handled smoother like when the Nortons came into the picture as part of the second Ghostwalkers team in earlier books.
This book in the Ghostwalker's series is intense, but fun. Gator Fontenot is a slick, cheeky cajun and Flame (Iris) lives up to her name to create somThis book in the Ghostwalker's series is intense, but fun. Gator Fontenot is a slick, cheeky cajun and Flame (Iris) lives up to her name to create some fun and hilarious dialogue in this latest installment of Christine Feehan's Ghostwalkers series.
Christine Feehan is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of her books, and the Ghostwalkers is one series I return to time and time again.
ShadoChristine Feehan is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of her books, and the Ghostwalkers is one series I return to time and time again.
Shadow Game centers around a woman, Lily Whitney, who is brought onto a project by her father as a consultant. The day she is introduced to the Ghostwalkers, an elite military group who signed up for Dr. Whitney's psychic enhancement experiments, her father is brutally killed. Before he dies, he issues a plea and apology to her, asking her to help the Ghostwalkers, who are all being held more or less as prisoners at the lab with horrible side effects from the enhancements and to forgive him for what he has done. As Lily forms an immediate connection with the leader of the group, Ryland Miller, she finds out they are all in grave danger and need answers. Her life is torn open when she learns the truth of her childhood and how far her father's experiments have gone. Lily also struggles with her powerful feelings for Ryland, wondering if they are real or more of her fathers scientific manipulations.
What I liked about it: The premise behind it is great. Enhancing psychic powers to make an elite military unit. Lily Whitney and her warped childhood and the lengths she goes in this book and future ones in the series to right her father's wrongs. Ryland and his men pull you in with their personalities and make you want to see who the next book is about.
What I didn't like: Because the characters often use their senses, there are times where everything is described to the last detail. Again, that is in part a function of the story line, but it had me skimming back to character interactions. Description lovers will enjoy it, but for me it at times was a bit much.
This series has action, it has emotion, it has heat and it has laughs. Christine Feehan has a great style to her writing that draws you in and makes you fall headlong into her series. As an opening book, this is a strong one that I know readers will definitely want more of.
Sorry world, I just don't understand it. There is infinitely better written erotica out there so I can't comprehend what people see in it. Couldn't evSorry world, I just don't understand it. There is infinitely better written erotica out there so I can't comprehend what people see in it. Couldn't even get through the first book. And don't get me started on her writing style......more
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