Rosemary “Rosie” Stanton is 26, unmarried, and tired of living with her brother and sister-in-law, who don’t want her around either. The year being 1890, her options are limited. So, in answer to an ad, she agrees to go off to Colorado and marry a rancher named Tom Harris, sight unseen.
Tom’s first wife, Sarah, ran away with a fast-talking peddler and then was reported dead in a carriage accident, leaving Tom and their two children, ten-year-old Ben and three-year-old Suzie, alone. He is, therefore, disinclined to open up his heart to this new wife. But her beauty and kindness, along with her persistence and willingness to work, begin to win him over – just as his supposedly-late first wife shows up with a plot to kidnap Ben. Can Tom and Rosie, working together, save both Ben and their marriage?
Rosie is a likeable character, with the independence and strength of character needed to take such a risky step (and marrying a stranger, under a legal system which made women the property of their husbands, was deeply risky). Tom is cynical at first but willing to open up, and his love for his children is touching. The sex scenes are erotic and sensually written.
The story’s writing can be clumsy in places, with sudden and unexplained changes in verb tense, misspelled words (“frivoless” for “frivolous,” for example), misused punctuation, and incomplete sentences. The plot is a bit too simplistic – the kidnapping unravels pretty easily with a convenient accident, and there’s never any real doubt that Tom won’t be able to keep Rosie at arms’ length forever. Sarah is a rather cartoonish villain, with no redeeming qualities or much personality other than pure selfishness and alcoholism. The kids aren’t much more than cardboard figures either – even Ben, after undergoing a rather traumatic experience, responds with a simple sulking fit which needs no more than a stern talking-to from his father to reverse.
This is a pretty formulaic romance novel that doesn’t deviate much from a standard pattern, and is best suited for those who mainly skip the story and head straight for the sex scenes.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader