Review: Historical love story that should be a movie
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 14, 2013
BANKING ON TEMPERANCE is the third book in the Cotillion Ball Series and author Becky Lower continues to amaze this reader with another beautiful love story, this time between Basil Fitzpatrick and Temperance Jones.  Again, she has woven her love of history and gift of words into a story filled with the antics of Basil who runs the family's bank branch in 1856 St. Louis and is known for his playboy ways and love em and leave em attitude.  However, when a covered wagon arrives literally at his footsteps in front of the bank and he meets the Jones family, and sees the beauty of the young woman, Temperance, he's already awestruck.However, when her father, a preacher collapses in Basil's bank, and needs a doctor, Basil comes to the family's rescue because they are so much like his family.  After Mr. Jones' death, Basil hires Temperance who is gutsy, stubborn, sweet, and of course temperamental, to clean the bank.  Is it because of his immediate attraction to her and he wants more from her, or does Basil really feel as though he needs to take care of this entire family who are now stuck in St. Louis until the next wagon train departs for the expanding West come spring?Of course, Basil is not interested in marriage although he does consider marrying Temperance just to help the family, especially since her mother announces that she is pregnant. The author has managed to weave Basil's sister Ginger and her husband Joseph into this book, re-introducing us to the main characters in her first book, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE.  With their help, a place is found where the Jones family can now reside during the harsh winter months, and also provide Basil with a closer relationship with Ginger and her husband, where he can escape to when his growing attraction to Temperance becomes more difficult for him to handle and admit to himself Temperance means more to him than a one night stand.Becky Lower has poured her heart and soul into this story.  Basil is not your usual cowboy from the Midwest. Temperance has shown us that even though she hails from Pennsylvania, she knows how to shoot a rifle, ride a horse, and work as hard as she can in the bank and also a restaurant, and cook, clean, and take care of her younger siblings.  She intends to carry out her father's dream of taking the family to Oregon and since Basil refuses to help her, she meets Jake, a handsome, strong wagon master.  Thus, Temperance becomes all woman and uses her feminine wiles to convince Jake to marry her and take her family out west.  But, what Temperance doesn't know is that Jake has a test planned.  If she intends on driving the family's covered wagon through dangerous land, then she needs to cross a raging river first before they depart in the spring.Temperance, determined and strong-willed, agrees to the test.  Is part of this because she is so insistent on fulfilling her father's dream to go west, or is she eager to run away from the man who has really captured her heart? You need to read this book to discover how a special love develops and through constant wavering of hers and Basil's stubbornness, how another historical story blossoms.Becky Lower is a great story teller, a true author that will be remembered in the likes of Zane Grey.  I loved this book.  I cried, I gulped, I laughed, and I felt for these two people.  With each page I turned, the author did not disappoint this reader.  Thus far, I have read all of Ms. Lower's books, whether historical or contemporary.  She continues to surprise this reader in the way she weaves history, words, and finding love into all her stories. Sharon Lee Fernberg