Review: This Was My First Historical Romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 27, 2014
What a great introduction into the world of historical romance and I would like to thank Kristine Raymond for that.  I hear the term historical romance and think boring, however this was not the case with Here to Stay.  Kristine told me that while it was a historical romance, it was written with a contemporary feel, which is exactly how it read.Our setting is the 1800's in the Arizona Territory (as an Arizona native, I also liked that about the book) where Kate is working on building a horse ranch for herself.  She is alone in the town of Hidden Springs, she counts Daniel her ranch hand and his wife Carly as family.  Kate puts an ad up in town for some extra help building the fencing at her ranch.  A few men apply, but one catches Kate's eye, Sam.Sam lives in Hidden Springs, like Kate the only family he can claim is his buddy Jack.  He has seen the mysterious Kate around town, but other than her stunning looks, he doesn't know much about her.  Sam answers Kate's ad for help and decides he wants to get to know her better.Jack and Sam are vying for the attention of the beautiful Kate, but she isn't having it.  Kate has a bit of a past and figures once any man finds out about it they won't want her.  In her eyes the men are there to help her out and nothing more, she is fine with Daniel, Carly and her horse ranch.  However as time goes on, a persistent Sam emerges and starts to chip away at the walls Kate has put up.  She gives in and their romance begins.I figured out Kate's secret before she told it and then set my mind  back to those times and realized just how devastating it was, plus what surrounded it. Of course Sam didn't care about the past, wanting to focus more on a future with Kate.  He was such a good guy, giving her time and taking things slow.  Sam vowed to protect Kate, but of course that was too good to be true.Kate's world is up heaved again and this time she needs to deal with it on her own terms.  She is a strong girl, so what she did had reason behind it, even if nobody understood it just then.  Sam is left devastated, blaming himself that he didn't keep his promise to Kate.I am going to go ahead and stop there as to not post any spoilers.  The book takes a few twists and turns to keep you on your feet and reading to see how it was all going to play out.  Kristine Raymond did a great job fleshing out all of the characters to keep things interesting and the series going.  It was way steamier than I imagined it to be as well, a nice combination.  I was a huge Little House on the Prairie fan as a kid, so I had no problem picturing the small town where everybody knows each other and then the ranch on the outskirts.  The book is well written and I will be diving into the second one to see where these characters are headed next.