Review: The Gold Miner's Daughter...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2013
Newly widowed with a newborn daughter, Jenny MacDonald is alone in the frontier mining town of Colby after her husband, Sheriff Myles MacDonald, is shot while attempting to bring in a desperado.Jason Colby is a man tortured by his mysterious past...who also happens to own a gold mine and much of the town. Rumors circulated by Jason's enemies implicate him in Myles' death. Jason adores Jenny's baby, Lily, and wants to provide for her and Jenny, but knows he must keep Jenny at arm's length because they could never really be a family.Colby takes Jenny to be his wife in name only to provide a safe residence for Jenny and baby Lily and to protect their interests in the mine inherited from Jenny's late husband. Not consummating the marriage will enable it to be annulled once he convinces them to move back East, where he has decided they belong.Colby's character is so flat, it was difficult for me to engage with the story, and the premise of the romantic tension just did not work. There has to be a credible reason for the I'm-not-good-enough-for-you argument, and this was lacking in Colby's background. His argument that it was unforgivably shameful to have been a bounty hunter ("Money should never be accepted for doing what is right, but that's exactly what I did, hauled men in for money.") would also make it unforgiveable to be a sheriff, a ranger, a law enforcement officer, or a court official.After being told by Jenny that she would stand by him even if he was wanted for murder, no matter what was in his past, continuing to cling to the I'm-not-good-enough-for-you rationale comes across more as hubris, rather than noble self-sacrifice (I know what is best for you, and your feelings don't matter or are not worth fighting for). All of this self-sacrifice for baby Lily ignores the notion that an intact loving family might be a plus.It was a struggle to finish Colby's Child, so I cannot recommend it.