A Cowboy for Keeps (Colorado Cowboys, Book One)

 

JODI HEDLUND

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Bethany House, 2021.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: “Stop or we’ll shoot!”

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I’ve read two books by Jodi Hedlund previously, COME BACK TO ME and NEVER LEAVE ME, both from her Waters of Time series, both featuring time travel, and both of which I loved. So I went searching her back log to see if she had any other time travel stories, but alas, no. However, her Colorado Cowboys series caught my eye, and since I love cowboys as much as I do time travel, I bought this one, the first book. And I think I loved it even more than the other two books.

Set in 1862, Greta and her young half-sister have been orphaned, and rely on other family members to support them. Nine year old Astrid has consumption, and Greta feels she and Astrid are a burden to her sisters-in-law, who get angry and irritated when Astrid can’t stop coughing. Rescue comes in the form of a man in Colorado, who pays the way for Greta and Astrid to travel to Fairplay, Colorado, where Greta will be his mail order bride. But things don’t go as planned. The stagecoach is robbed and she loses all of her savings, and then learns that her fiance has died, leaving her stranded in Fairplay, homeless and penniless. But the mayor has a plan. He wants to make the town more family friendly so his wife will finally be willing to join him with their child. Wyatt McQuaid needs a loan to buy cattle. So he makes a deal with Wyatt. He’ll loan him the money, if Wyatt marries Greta and starts a family.

I adored Wyatt. He’s struggling to get his fledgling ranch up and running. He wants to get to a position where he can send for his ma and his siblings to come live with him, to get them away from his cruel stepfather. He’s tried various other ventures since leaving home, and they have failed. He’s filled with guilt for not being able to protect and provide for his family. His self-esteem is low, he feels like he is a failure at everything. A wife is the last thing he needs or wants right now, but he desperately needs some good cattle. Fairplay is a mining town, and he buys cattle off the new miners when they arrive, whenever he can, but those cows are all skinny and run down, and he’s struggling to come up with money even for them. On top of all that, he has an enemy, a neighboring rancher determined to run Wyatt out of town, because he wants Wyatt’s land. He feels a little bit of guilt for not telling Greta about the deal he made with Steele, but he doesn’t know how to bring it up. She thinks he’s marrying her to be chivalrous and keep her from being homeless, because of his close friendship with her late fiance.

I loved Greta also. She’s strong and determined. She agreed to be a mail order bride and come to Colorado not just to get away from the family who didn’t want her around, but also because she hoped the climate in Colorado would be good for Astrid’s health. She intends to be a good wife and make herself useful in Wyatt’s home, and she’s surprised when he gives her and Astrid the bedroom and he sleeps in the barn. But he doesn’t want to push her into a marital relationship, and tells her he’ll wait three months, and then if she wants to leave, she can. And she agrees to that, because if Astrid’s health is not improved in those three months, she intends to take her to a hospital in Denver, even though she has no idea how she’ll pay her care.

I like the author’s writing, and her descriptions of both the beauty and the desolation of the land is evocative. I had a little trouble connecting with young Astrid at first. She’s very precocious, and if we hadn’t been told early on that she is nine years old I would’ve thought she were eleven or twelve. But eventually she won me over, just like she wins over almost everyone she meets.

But it’s the slow build up of the friendship between Wyatt and Greta that is the heart of the story. As they get to know each other, they come to admire and respect each other, and of course to eventually love each other. They respect each other so much, in fact, that it gets in the way of the relationship growing. Sometimes I wanted to say talk to each other! Share your thoughts and feelings! Don’t let each other go!

Towards the end there’s an unexpected revelation that nearly ruined everything for both of them, but of course it all comes out right in the end, and I can’t wait to find the next book in the series.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Greta Nilsson's trip west to save her ailing little sister, Astrid, could not have gone more wrong. First, bandits hold up her stagecoach, stealing all her money. Then, upon arriving in Fairplay, Colorado, she learns the man she was betrothed to as a mail-order bride has died. Homeless, penniless, and jobless, Greta and her sister are worse off than when they started.

Wyatt McQuaid is struggling to get his new ranch up and running and is in town to purchase cattle when the mayor proposes the most unlikely of bargains. He'll invest in a herd of cattle for Wyatt's ranch if Wyatt agrees to help the town become more respectable by marrying and starting a family with Greta. But when old insecurities and surprising revolutions arise, can a union born out of desperation survive?

Windward Crest (Harlequin Presents No. 494)

 

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS.

ANNE HAMPSON

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Harlequin Books, 1982.

How acquired: Do not remember.

First line: Snow lay thick on the hills, glittering like a myriad diamonds under the light of a full moon floating in a purple sky.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: When I started this book, I was already reading a hardback that did not fit easily in my purse, so I pulled this one off the shelf to leave in my desk at work, for reading on my lunch break. But I got so caught up in it, that two days later I took it back home with me, and then sat up until 1 in the morning to finish it.

Two years after the death of her younger brother, Dominie inherits some money, and still grieving and not wishing to spend the Christmas holiday with her well meaning friends, she takes a Caribbean cruise. On the cruise she meets Jake and his two young children, Susie and Geoffrey. Jake and his wife had been separated when she passed away, and he was taking the children to his home on St. Thomas.

Fifteen pages in I was laughing out loud, while cringing slightly at the same time, over the first night’s dinner conversation. Susie mentioned “Uncle Rohan”, and Jake was explaining to Dominie that Rohan was their neighbor and close friend who adored the children.

‘He like little girls best,’ interrupted Susie. ‘He likes boys too!’ Geoffrey glared at his sister across the table. ‘Yes, he does – a bit. But he told me he likes little girls – not big ones. Only little ones.’

Not a conversation you’re likely to come across in a book in this day and age! It turns out that women have caused Rohan some pain and unhappiness, first the young strumpet who stole his dad away from his mother and then inherited his father’s fortune, then by a fiance who jilted him, and later still by a drunk woman driver who caused the accident that killed his younger sister.

Dominie enjoys spending time with Jake and the kids, and exploring the various islands together. When the ship reaches St. Thomas, Jake persuades her to come home with them for the day rather than take the excursion with the other cruise ship passengers, telling her he’ll bring her back to the ship that evening. But as luck with have it, car trouble causes them to arrive at the dock too late, and the ship has left without her. So Jake arranges a flight for her to meet up with the ship at it’s next destination, and then for some reason ship changes destinations, and he is unable to get her another flight, and convinces her to just spend the rest of her holiday with them. And then when her holiday is over, he offers her a position as the children’s nanny, and she settles in to her new happy life on St. Thomas.

In these older category romance books, the heroes are generally arrogant, dominant, demanding men, sometimes even downright cruel, and I love them. (On paper. I suspect I would not love any of them in real life.) Anyway, I did not feel that way about Rohan once Dominie met him. In fact, I disliked him very much. I very much did like Jake, on the other hand, and I found myself wishing he would be the one Dominie ended up with, despite his being considerably older and treating her in a fatherly manner. When talking to her about his marriage falling apart, he speculates over whose fault it was, saying “Perhaps it was mine. I believe women like a masterful man and I’m not that sort. I’m always afraid of hurting people. I suppose I’m not manly enough.” Dominie indignantly tells him of course he is, but, well, we know they aren’t meant to be. Not once she meets Rohan. Fortunately she later meets Erica, who loved Jake once upon a time before he married his wife, and Dominie determinedly sets out to get them together.

Like me, she dislikes Rohan very much. At first. And like me, she warmed up to him, although I never loved him as much as she came to. Maybe because of all the times he called her a silly child, or threatened to shake her, or beat her. I do believe he truly loved her though, and don’t think he would ever carry out those threats, but still.

Anyway. The course of true love never did run smooth as they say, so there were obstacles and an other woman determined to marry Rohan, and then the biggest obstacle loomed up that sent Dominie running back to England, but of course Rohan chased her down and cleared things up and they all lived happily ever after.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Dominie was delighted when an unexpected legacy enabled her to enjoy a Caribbean cruise--her first real holiday in years. But she certainly hadn't bargained on missing the boat halfway and finding herself the sudden guest of a fellow traveler. Nor had she expected the island's most eligible bachelor, Rohan de Arden, to fall in love with her. Their plans to marry were shattered when Dominie realized that an episode from her past would surely turn Rohan's love to hate.