HEARTBREAK CREEK – Kaki Warner
A Runaway Brides
Novel , Book 1
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-25426-4
November 2012
Historical Romance
Heartbreak Creek, Colorado;
1870
Edwina Whitney Ladoux and Prudence Lincoln grew up together on the
Rose Hill Plantation in Louisiana. They are close as sisters; in fact, they
are sisters. Edwina's mother was mean, perhaps a little mad. Prudence's
mother was a slave, but loved by all. Prudence is a year older and, though she
sometimes took the punishment for Edwina, they protected each other…and still
do. They are the only family either has left since the late war. They eke out a
living with a garden plot, Edwina's sewing and Prudence's occasional jobs. And
now they have no home; the plantation is taken by the bank for the back taxes.
The times are not easy in the South, especially for Prudence, a beautiful woman
of mixed blood. Edwina feels they would have a better chance elsewhere. Seeing
the inevitable, she had answered an advertisement for a mail-order bride. Declan
Brodie in Colorado wants a wife—a sturdy English-speaking woman to help with
mountain ranch and four children. Drinkers, w hores and
gamblers need not apply. As a precaution, Edwina stipulated a courting
period of two months in case they found the marriage needed to be annulled, then
went ahead with a proxy wedding before taking a series of trains to Colorado.
Pru thinks Edwina has acted in her usual emotional, impulsive manner, but here
again, the two women have each other's backs.
What Brodie finds
waiting for him in town is a skinny beauty in a funny hat for a wife and her
“companion” who will come along and teach her to cook. (Prudence does not want
Edwina to tell of their family relationship. She feels it would bring dishonor
on their father, who always treated her as a daughter. Pru is the practical one
with an insatiable thirst for education; she devoured their father's entire
library.) When Edwina first realizes the big, hulking man who meets them is her
new husband, she is glad of the delayed consummation pact.
What follows
is a highly entertaining tale of a bride raised in luxury and a huge, broody
husband with four wild children, the youngest a female, though you couldn't tell
that at a glance. They gradually get to know each other: he to see that she's
trying her best, she to be surprised by the feelings his masculinity brings
forth. On top of Edwina's and Brodie's differing backgrounds, her first marriage
was a disaster, the whole one day and night of it. His first wife ran away with
another man, both later found killed by Indians. These bits of their pasts will
not make this marriage any easier.
Supporting characters are varied and
interesting in themselves as well as in their dealings with our hero and
heroine. There are Brodie's friend, Thomas Redstone, a half Cheyenne whose tribe
was decimated; Lone Tree, a vengeful Arapaho; the four children, RD, Joe Bill,
Lucas, and Brin, all of whom are definite individuals; the two ranch hands, and
various townsfolk. Of importance are two women Edwina and Pru befriended on the
train to Heartbreak Creek and who decided to stay in the fading mining town for
reasons of their own.
I first read a Kaki Warner novel when assigned to
review CHASING THE SUN, from her Blood Rose trilogy, and found it
wonderful. This new series promises to be as good if not better. Ms. Warner
brings her characters and their eras vividly to life. I highly recommend
HEARTBREAK CREEK and eagerly look forward to the next Runaway Brides
novels.
Jane Bowers
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
Meet the Author: Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance inspired by the classics. She spent ...
-
Release Tour for MAYBE EVER AFTER by Cassie Graham Maybe it’ll never happen, or maybe they’ll get their ever after all in MAYBE EVE...
-
Meet the Author: Sheryl Nantus is an award-winning romance writer published by Entangled, St. Martin's, Samhain, and Harlequin...

No comments:
Post a Comment