Review: Overall these 3 stories were a nice, quick read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2014
3.5 stars.Overall these 3 stories were a nice, quick read.  Each is just the beginning part of what I assume are longer books to come. This is good because you can get a feel for each writer's writing (and of course a feel for each story in general) and decide if you'll want to read more.Outsider in Oklahoma: This was my favorite in the collection. Set in modern day, the characters are well-established and then thrown into the western, country setting where the real story unfolds. The progression of the plot felt completely natural, and the romance that develops between the two main characters is believable, not at all forced, and they are likeable enough that you end up rooting for them. The story ends right when things start to get really interesting, so as a reader I was pleased with this one because I wanted more.Accosted in Arizona: This story was interesting because it had a very otherworldly feel - mythical approach to nature, a dangerous shaman, etc.  I don't know if I would call what happens between the main characters "romance," but I assume that's what follows in the rest of the story.  The "bad guy" was intriguing, and it would be interesting to see what becomes of this danger later on. The two main characters were interesting enough in their own rights (their backstories were my favorite parts of this story), but how they jump into commitment seemed kind of forced and abrupt.United in Utah: The flow of this one turned me off a bit.  It's a lot of action/movement in a short span of pages, and you don't really get to know any of the possibly more interesting secondary characters because apparently they don't really matter. It DOES work in that way because this is a sixteen-year-old girl whose mind we're in.  The romance here actually bothered me a little bit for that reason - these might be different times, and she might be a very mature sixteen-year-old, but she still falls in love awfully quickly and runs away with a man.  The writing itself is ok, but (as I've seen others have pointed out as well) sometimes things happen that don't make sense, such as saying she'll take a bath and the next minute she instead crawls into bed.Again, overall this collection is worth taking a look at if you like romance with a western spin, and it's a nice taste of fuller stories to come from these writers.