Review: A disillusioned ex-con and a lonely spinster - does it get any better than that? -- 4.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 24, 2010
When Chloe Maitland's father dies he leaves her nothing but a heavily mortgaged home and the deed to a worthless mine. With no family to turn to Chloe is forced to make ends meet by taking in laundry, but her only hope of saving her home is to hire someone to get her father's old blacksmith business up and running. She can only offer room and board as payment and is about to give up hope in finding a candidate when a tall, slim, battered stranger makes his way into her front yard and promptly passes out.Travis McGuire has spent the last 5 years in prison and is being relentlessly hounded by a ruthless bounty hunter. With few other options he's willing to accept Chloe's offer of work, but his first impressions of her are not flattering. At first glance she appears to be middle-aged and worn; a spinster with a sharp tongue and rigid disposition.Both Chloe and Travis are people who are used to solitary lives and bitter disappointments. At 28 Chloe feels that her chance at love and passion was lost along with her youth and good looks. Travis's memories of heartbreak and betrayal by his faithless young wife haunt him day and night. There's no instant attraction, but somehow the two sense something, some kinship, that draws them to each other. Slowly and warily the two form a relationship, but romance is a bit of a minefield for these two guarded personalities.I suspected that I'd like this because it contains two of my favorite romance themes: People who have given up on finding love and a hero who has hit rock-bottom and is struggling to rebuild his life. I must say that the story exceeded my expectations. These two characters are vividly drawn and fully fleshed out - warts and all. You get a real sense of how hard Chloe's life was; how few options were open to her. Travis is a true tortured hero; a lost soul in need of redemption. The relationship plays out in a believable way and the author allows the sexual tension to build until the reader is just as anxious as the characters for that first physical contact. Very well done; very satisfying.Finally, while I know this is in no way the author's fault, the kindle version of this book is an absolute nightmare. There are major formatting problems with blank pages and awkward spacing, spelling errors galore and erratic punctuation. It's the e-book equivalent of reading a paperback with food stains and water damage. Too bad, because this is an excellent book. If you're stuck with the e-book version then I'd encourage you to try to overlook the shoddy presentation - it's worth the effort.No strong language and some fairly mild sexual content.