Review by Katie
A face paced Western Romance where you can
almost hear the Howard Hawkes musical themes weaving through the story. Shane and Ashley are rough edged as the
Dakota Territory was in the late 1860s where the regrets of war and lessons
from the past must be subordinate to survival.
Raised from birth until his majority with
the Cheyenne, Shane struggles to find his identity without betraying those he
loved, or himself. Likewise, Ashley,
raised by her father and ranch hands after fleeing war torn South Carolina,
struggles to run not only her ranch but find a way to keep all her promises to
her later father. Rough they may be, but
Shane and Ashley are destined to face their past before they can dare have a
future. It is in confronting who they’ve
been that they find out who they really are, and more importantly, what they
can be, together.
There were a few historical points given
the hand wave but nothing more than a John Wayne set with no horse dung in the
streets. The villain was way more evil
than I felt anyone’s reactions acknowledged but again, with the pace of the
story, it was entirely plausible they seemed to move on to the next crisis and
deal with all the omigosh, did he really…
later. The secondary characters were as
interesting as our hero and heroine and for me, that’s as important as the happy
ever after.
I enjoyed this book on a sunny Sunday
afternoon and recommend it for anyone that misses the Western Matinees. I’ll definitely will be watching for other
books by Ms. Sharp.
