Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Christian Western Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Karen Witemeyer
Publisher: Bethany House Publishing
Release Date: June 2nd, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
Ex-cavalry officer Matthew Hanger leads a band of mercenaries who defend the innocent, but when a rustler’s bullet leaves one of them at death’s door, they seek out help from Dr. Josephine Burkett. When Josephine’s brother is abducted and she is caught in the crossfire, Matthew may have to sacrifice everything–even his team–to save her.
COWBOY TAKE ME AWAY.
This was more charming that I was expecting, even if the book wasn’t the five-star hopeful I was going for.
What I really enjoyed was the romance, so that’s a positive. It’s pretty instantaneous, but with the time period + layout of the story, it worked well. Matt is a stoic ex-cavalryman trying to assuage his guilt and Josephine is a doctor trying to get the respect she deserves. I love the way these two hit it off and anytime Matt grasped her for a fierce, will he survive, kind of kiss, I swooned big time.
There was a severe lack of dialogue. The more I read the more I started noticing that the pacing kept sloooowing down. I wanted more conversation and banter between anyone. The story then started to feel about 50 or so pages too long. The plot was entirely focused on something that I didn’t realize was going to take up so much page time. It’s not that it was bad, with the combination of other issues, just made me want to skim to the good parts.
I loved the setting because I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a Western historical romance (and I need to change that ASAP). And I also admittedly love a good lover distress moment where someone needs rescued. Cue a racing heart and daring getaways.
Overall audience notes:
- Christian Western historical romance
- Language: none
- Romance: kisses
- Violence: gun violence, physical altercations, kidnapping for ransom
- Trigger/Content Warnings: the prologue is a recounting of the battle of Wounded Knee from the eye’s of Matt, loss of family, sexual harassment
Instagram || Goodreads
GoodeyReads 