Tag: Western

  • Montana Dawn

    Rancher Luke McCutcheon takes his first crack at one of his family’s cattle drives and stumbles upon Faith Brown. Alone in a wagon in the wilderness.  Ready to give birth, Faith has no choice but to allow the handsome stranger to help her.

    Running for her life, Faith, joins Luke’s cattle drive thinking she can escape her horrible past and the secret she holds in her heart. She wants no one, especially the handsome cattle man to unearth her deepest pain. Her kindness toward those around her makes her a character worth the time to read.

    Luke’s mother taught him to be a gentleman but his need for validation from his family forces him to take a stand and keep his men in line where Faith is concerned. But he takes responsibility for her because of his connection to her when she gave birth.  Throughout the story, Luke penchant for honesty and his realization that Faith’s life is an enigma.  She tells untruths which causes him to be reluctant to keep her near at the same time she’s giving and caring. She’s a mystery to him. The strain of his self-imposed distance from his family offers a tenuous bond to Faith. His lifelong hurts rallies the reader to root for Luke.

    Through many twists and turns, Luke and Faith face their human weaknesses, and strengths, to recognize their love for one another.

    I rated this story four hearts because while the story kept me turning the pages, Faith’s inability to share her secret with anyone for chapters on end became tedious even though I understood her secret was integral to the plot of the story.  It needed just a little bit of payoff.  Something to keep the reader reading. The main characters, Luke and Faith were well developed and even the orbital characters had their own nuances which came out within the pages of the book.

    While this book is almost a decade old, that’s no reason to bypass it.  Romances, especially Western Romances are timeless. I’m on book #2 of the series and looking forward to finishing the series. Take a chance and read this well-written book.

    A snippet from the story reveals the author’s easy prose.

    “The light from the lantern played across his face. His eyes, midnight black, centered on her face and never wavered.  As moments ticked by, she became increasingly uneasy under his scrutiny.”

    You can reach the author at www.carolinefyff.com and see her newest books.

  • Reading Romances

    When I look back at all the romances I’ve read over the years, it seems to me they have changed.  No longer do readers want “just” a romantic movie or book where the central theme is a love story and there’s a satisfying end to the story.  Most of the time that means “lives happily ever after”.

    No, today’s reader wants something extra.  Whether it be the amount of heat, that’s in a book or a movie or something suspenseful, today’s romance has a secondary and sometimes a tertiary plot running through the novel.  Then there are sub-genres: paranormal, western, Amish, inspirational, contemporary, historical, young adult, erotic or suspense.  A veritable smorgasbord to choose from!  And each person who loves a good romance has a different perspective on what they like or don’t like.

    These days the category or series romances are popular.  Personally, I love them because some of the same beloved characters show up again in another story!  Or sometimes it’s the setting where all the stories take place. It doesn’t matter, readers love them.

    While researching what surprised me was the number of men who read them.  A whopping 18% of all readers are men.  The men I know wouldn’t touch them unless they were being forced to as is the case with my husband who gives me feedback on dialogue.  Perhaps men who read them are incredibly secure in their own masculinity to do so.

    The statistics on the age of readers today were also surprising.  I would have thought it would be more baby boomers, but it wasn’t.  Very frequent readers were under the age of 34!  And only 64% were e-book reader which also surprised me.  Personally, I use a service with my iPad mini to read as many as I can in a month for a small monthly fee.

    There are other statistics regarding romance readership but these were the most interesting.

    Are you surprised by the statistics?  What’s your favorite sub-genre of romance?