An action-packed, old-fashioned Western romance with attractive, capable central characters.
A lawman and a landowner’s daughter form an alliance in Cortez’s debut romance set in the Old West.
The novel begins with a staple of Western fare: a town under siege and in need of a champion. In 1883, retired U.S. Marshal Tylor McBain rides into La Vida in northern New Mexico, en route to Fort Griffin, Texas, for a job. He’s seeking respite from people who are trying to kill him. His horse has thrown a shoe, however, so he looks for a blacksmith—and instead finds the town’s mayor shot and bleeding in the street. It turns out that bandits have been terrorizing La Vida, possibly assisted by one of the locals. In a stirring sequence, Tylor confers with the dying mayor behind closed doors before stepping out into the sun, wearing a silver star. Among those seeking Tylor’s help is the beautiful Abigail Harrison, who lives with her family on a ranch called Casa Antigua. Soon, the smitten Tylor reaches out to her for assistance with Spanish translation; later, he offers an informal assistant job to young Breanna Simms, who seems equally interested in La Vida’s newest arrival. Abby’s gruff father, Charles, is adamantly opposed to her associating with the marshal, as is ranch foreman Rufus James, who has a lascivious eye and a mean streak. However, with the help of her mother, Carmen, Abby makes her way to town disguised as a boy in order to meet with Tylor. Although it appears that she and Tylor are altar-bound, they don’t wait for the marital bed to express their love. Unlike High Noon, the classic 1952 film in which a marshal faces a gang of killers alone, the townspeople aren’t cowards but merely awaiting a galvanizing force. Tylor becomes that force, thanks to Abby’s emotional plea. Abby, meanwhile, is an assuredly feminine heroine who stands by her man—if need be, with a gun. Throughout the narrative, many other townspeople play significant roles, including 7-year-old Elijah Jenkins, who has “a nose for trouble.” Overall, this charming novel offers a fresh mix of familiar genre chestnuts along with some not-so-chaste love scenes.
An action-packed, old-fashioned Western romance with attractive, capable central characters.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500519582
Page Count: 296
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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