Synopsis
from Goodreads: Someone
is trying to kill Lynne Tremaine. After her father sentences two
members of The Briscoe Boys gang to death, Judge Tremaine feels he
has no choice but to send Lynne to Denver City along the Oregon Trail
to live with her Uncle George…against her will. For Lynne, the only
thing worse than being sent away to the wild west is making the
journey with the handsome, arrogant, wicked man her uncle has hired
to escort her. Especially when the anger she feels toward him begins
to turn to something hotter.
Cade
Lawson is determined to prove himself to his employer, George
Tremaine, after letting him down months earlier. But what he thought
would be his second chance may, in fact, be a harsh punishment for
his past mistakes. Lynne is headstrong, fiery, and determined to show
him she is fearless. She is also beautiful and tempting, and when
Cade sees just how afraid she really is underneath her brave act, he
may be in danger of losing his heart to her forever. When her
would-be killer attacks, it’s all he can do to keep Lynne safe.
He
swore to protect her, but who will protect him from her?
Stats
for my copy: Kindle edition, Smashwords, 2014.
How
acquired: Received from Badass Marketing for review.
First
line: The first glimpse Lynne Tremaine had of the mass of wagons
that would take her west was enough to sink her heart.
My
thoughts: Our story opens with
Lynne Tremaine saying goodbye to her father and joining a wagon train
to Denver City, much to her dismay. Judge Tremaine has been receiving
threats from the Briscoe Boys in retaliation for hanging two of their
members, and he is sending Lynne to stay with her aunt and uncle in
an effort to keep her safe. He's hired a young man to drive her
wagon, and Uncle George has sent one of his employees, Cade Lawson,
to escort her.
Lynne
is very independent, very stubborn, very headstrong. Her father calls
her his brave girl, and she's determined to live up to that
assessment, no matter what. I'll admit that in the beginning, while
she's a very likable heroine with an appealing character, I still got
a little exasperated with her, thinking her a spoiled idiot who
doesn't have the sense to understand the danger she is in, making
Cade's job of keeping her safe harder than it should have been. I
didn't expect her to be a weak complacent female of her time, taking
men's orders and doing as she's told without complaint, but she still
seemed to swing too far the other way. However, as the story
progressed and I got a little more into her head, I began to look at
her in a different light, realizing what motivated her, what shaped
her character.
Cade
Lawson is also very likable, and very appealing. On a recent
assignment he slipped up, and now he feels like a failure and a
disappointment to his boss. He's hoping that safely escorting Lynne
to her uncle will put him back in the latter's good graces.
He muttered a curse under his breath and swung his horse around to mount. “This is definitely a punishment.”
Cade
and Lynne are constantly at odds, and their sparring often made me
smile.
Not
too long into the trip, it becomes apparent that the Briscoe Boys, or
someone working for them, is among the many pioneers on the wagon
train:
On top of her things, turned so that it faced her, Lynne found a photograph of her father, splattered with blood.
As
the threats become more frequent and more frightening, vulnerability
makes it's way into Lynne's personality. By now Cade is smitten with
her, and I loved that whenever she gathered her resolve and acted
like her old tough nothing-scares-me self it made him grin and his
heart would swell a little more for her. As frustrating and
recalcitrant as he often found her, it was clear that he preferred
her that way over meek and mild.
There's
quite a bit of sexual tension between Lynne and Cade, and then
suddenly there was actual sex, which was a little jarring at first as
up until then the tone of the book felt more...innocent, for lack of
a better word. Especially considering the time the characters live
in, when proper young ladies did not bed down outside the marriage
bed, and where it would be so easy for their traveling companions to
suspect, or realize, what's going on. But that's not a complaint –
just an observation.
Except...there
was one instance that nagged at me. When Cade and Lynn are making
love, and Cade tells Lynne “Come for me, sweetheart,” and she
moans “Say that again.” That just kind of took me out of the book
for a moment, wondering if people actually used the word “come”
in this context in 1863, and if a well-bred young woman like Lynne
would have ever heard that expression, or understood it's meaning.
I
had an inkling of who was behind the threats fairly early on, though
several times I thought I might be wrong. But that did nothing to
mar my enjoyment of the story. This was a fun, sometimes tense read,
and I look forward to continuing the series.
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