Review: REVIEW - Banking on Temperance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2013
As posted at THE READING CAFE[...]4.5 stars!REVIEW:This book reunites us with Ginger and Joseph but the main focus is on Basil Fitzpatrick and Temperance Jones in St Louis.Basil is the bank owner in St Louis and lives his life as a bachelor.  He is young, privileged, wealthy and quite a rake.  He enjoys his freedom and the "love em or leave em" way of life.  Well things are about to change and shake his only way of living when Temperance walks into his bank with her ailing father to withdraw funds.  Temperance's father is quite ill and collapses in the bank leaving Basil feeling responsible for her very large family.  Basil finds himself taking care of them by offering shelter, employment and general support.  He also begins to realize that helping them is a tad more selfish on his part than he would like to admit.  He fights his immediate attraction for Temperance.Temperance is the complete opposite to Basil.  She is poor, virtuous, one heck of a shot, non pampered and hard working young woman who promises her father on his death bed that she will ensure her family continues their journey on to Oregon.  She is also a no nonsense, spit fire, and get er' done kind of girl.  She accepts employment cleaning the bank in order to support her family.Basil and Temperance do the attraction dance for most of this book.  Both are incapable of giving in to the other and they let their pride get the better of them.  Basil also isn't so sure about accepting all of the baggage that comes with getting involved with Temperance, and Temperance cannot imagine why such a distinguished gentleman would ever be interested in the likes of her.  Instead, both engage in a tension filled friendship without revealing their real desires.As Temperance is so set on travelling to Oregon, Basil helps her in trying to achieve this goal while deep inside hating that she is leaving.  He goes as far as to introduce her to a man who has the means to make this journey happen.  Basil is shocked to realize just how jealous he becomes at seeing her in another mans arms.  All their friends and family seem to see the inevitable joining, but only if these two can get out of their own damn way.I really liked Temperance right from the beginning and can understand what Basil was drawn to.  She is a tough lady who can shoot the ass off a wolf, cook a mean corn chowder, fiercely protect her family in the process and work hard.  Basil  also really grew up in this book if you compare him to the Basil we met in the first book!  It took a while for these two to get there &^*& together but their journey was worth the wait.I really hope Becky Lower continues with this series as there are so many characters that are introduced that I want to know more about.  Once again, I LOVE that this centres around the civil war and is set in another USA city.  I loved that the setting for each books takes place in a different city and you can see how the approaching war is causing havoc in so many ways.I highly recommend you read all three books in order as the characters are repeated and you see the continuation of a couple's story.  I suppose you could read them as stand alones but if you do that, you miss out on so much!HAPPY READINGCopy provided via TRC via Becky Lower for an honest review!