The Bridegroom: A Stone Creed Novel - Book 5 by Linda Lael Miller. HQN Books. July 2009. ISBN #: 9780373773886
Gideon Yarbro has returned to Stone Creek to respond to a letter he knows he would receive only if the sender is urgently in need of his help. On appearing, however, it seems that Lydia Fairmont is stating she made a mistake. Only after considerable pushing does Gideon realize she is about to marry Jacob Fitch, a man she abhors, to save her aunts from being foreclosed and ousted into a world they are sorely unprepared to enter. So what does Gideon do? Why, kidnap and marry her, of course. Isn't that what any friend would do in such a situation?
Time passes with a tension-ridden air between Gideon and Lydia. For Lydia is falling in love with Gideon but Gideon has sworn to never let himself get involved in love again. In addition, he has returned to Phoenix, Arizona in this year of 1915 to help out the miners in the area who are planning to strike over worsening financial conditions. Although we might consider Gideon and his family to be ultra-rich with their ownings, the miners and their families often go to bed without dinner. There aren't any federal laws protecting their rights and Gideon's job is to prevent what seems to be looming disaster from happening.
Little does he know that more trouble is brewing from Lydia's jilted fiance and from Lydia herself, who is not the meek and mild "lady" who's polite behavior belies the tigress beginning to emerge. As Gideon begins to answer that need, he discovers a most unexpected passion more than occasionally demanding release.
The Bridegroom, the fifth Stone Creek Novel in a well-loved series, is a vibrant, action-packed, lusty and exciting novel that is a great read for the summer - for any time of the year in fact! Linda Lael Miller knows how to craft a multilevel plot and fill it with engaging characters who hold one's interest even when one knows the outcome will be better than fine!
Montana Creeds: Tyler by Linda Lael Miller. HQN Books. March 2009. ISBN #: 9780373773640
The youngest of the Montana Creeds, Tyler has the least reason to come back to Stillwater Springs. Then why does he immediately upon approaching his old home trade his SUV Cadillac for a rusty, beat-up, ten-year-old Chevy truck for no fee whatsoever? The lucky recipient doubts Tyler's sanity but after checking ID papers quickly agrees and invites Tyler for dinner; but Tyler's in a rush to get home. There's plenty of hesitation but he figures he'll take it all in as it happens; one thing for sure he knows is he wants nothing to do with Logan and Dylan Creed!
Almost faster than the reader can adjust, Tyler meets an old flame, Lily Ryder Kenyon, who now has a gorgeous little girl, a youngster who blurts out the most shocking statement to Tyler and any other stranger she meets. But that's hardly the largest shock Tyler is about to get from his past.
The spirit of Montana cries out to Montana as one of a very special group who lived for this special land, sons by proud Creed blood and not the poisonous rats he really believes he and his brothers are. That moving moment of realization serves well as Tyler and Lily gradually begin to meet and search out the possibility of a meaningful connection, while there's certainly more hot romping between them that's far more present and explicit than in the previous two books in this series!
Once again, plenty of action pounds through these pages with a berserk driver, an actual and attempted murder, some furious and fast attempts at bribery, a packet of mysterious letters and much more that shows how well Linda Lael Miller knows how to craft a Western, romance!
Yes, the reader knows where the ending is going but definitely not how Tyler, Logan and Dylan will deal with each other after their very violent past and untrusting future! It's worth quite the hours of sleep you'll miss as you plow through the last of the Montana Creeds series, one that hopefully will have some kind of future evolution in time to come!
Splendid, Linda Lael Miller!
Montana Creeds: Logan by Linda Lael Miller. HQN Books. February 2009. ISBN #: 9780373773534
Imagine having a father who was a drunk, mean to everyone around, seemed to hate his three sons and died a most violent logging death. And then imagine a wandering guy named Logan, a lawyer, a former Iraqi soldier, and a cowboy who's finally come home to roost. Yes, Logan Creed arrives to fix up a dilapidated ranch, find a good woman to love and hopefully have a "passle" of kids that he can truly father in a healthy, wholesome way.
Sounds like a great plan, but there are people and circumstances trying to wreak havoc and even criminal activity on the long-visioned enterprise. Logan immediately meets Briana, a woman who's sexy and smart, who just about pierces his heart with jitters every time he looks at her. But she comes with her own baggage, a dead-beat ex-husband and his girlfriend, two normally mischievous boys, a job that barely enables her to make ends meet and a secret invader of her privacy whose presence threatens her life and well-being.
Meanwhile, Logan's Aunt Cassie tells him like it is, warning him that all his plans will come to naught until he can forgive his Dad and his brothers. So while he knows he surely can't do the former, he can try to do the latter and come to some kind of healing relationship with his brothers, driven off after a brutal fight right after their father's funeral. How will Logan fare in communicating with the just as argumentative and fight-loving Dylan and Tyler? Will this very sexy couple move past their memories to form a solid love or will their respective family histories repeat the past?
The plot thickens with several stories layered within the larger story. A fence holding in a quiet bull who could wax volatile at any moment - that's a literal reality on Logan's ranch border and a metaphor for the two ways this romantic, gutsy Western story could go. The pages turn rapidly along with the pulse as the romance and wars proceed until the reader gets to a most unexpected and truly satisfying ending.
Linda Lael Miller knows how to spin a great yarn and you'll find yourself not only relishing this first in the Montana Creeds series but eagerly anticipating the next two singular stories about Logan's brothers. Very nice job, Ms. Miller! Logan is a great tale with just enough old style western grit mixed up with some modern techy parts, plots and subplots to produce a terrific Western romance!
Montana Creeds: Dylan by Linda Lael Miller. HQN Books. March 2009. ISBN #: 9780373773589
Dylan Creed became well-known as "rodeo's bad boy" and Logan's nasty brother in Book 1 of the Montana Creeds series, but readers will come to love this man who's shocked into some serious change, without losing any of his spunk. Unsure of where to wander next, Dylan is challenged by his two year-old daughter, Bonnie, who's been abandoned by her shiftless, money-grubbing mother. She's a cutie who can make your heart weep one minute and then roar with laughter the next.
Dylan's old flame, Kristy Madison, is just starting to settle down in Logan and Dylan's hometown. An attractive, busy lady, she works as the town librarian and cares for her two boys who are mischievous and constantly ragging on each other. It doesn't take long for Kristy to realize how much she really cares for Dylan but she's just not sure if she can trust him to be a steady presence around her boys.
Sounds tame enough so far, right? Wrong! Murder on the land of Kristy's childhood, a female intruder who likes to knock out walls and intrude into Kristy's home, a sniper aiming to kill - deliberately or accidentally, a lot of very hot-tempered people who are just angling to make trouble for Dylan and Kristy, this and so much more will keep you spinning those pages and never figure out just how destiny will rearrange it all.
The author's obvious love for horses and dogs again shines through in this novel, without repeating much of anything from the last - not an easy task at all.
Will Dylan stay put or hurt Kristy again? Should Kristy even go after him, hoping to hold him to ground for good? What guy and gal are in town to test just how strong Dylan are Kristy are with each other? Money's a problem for her but certainly not for him as Dylan turns out to be much smarter financially than anyone could imagine and the reader will be amazed at just how he arrived in that very comfortable state.
Aunt Cassie, Logan, Briana and the Sheriff are all back in this second book of the Montana Creeds series, spicing up the stories within stories, and extending the novel to as much of a mystery as it is a spicy, thrilling and lusty tale of another brother seeking a different life than what he'd previously known. Dylan's quite a guy you'll love and Linda Lael Miller is quite a storyteller!
The Bridegroom: A Stone Creed Novel - Book 5 by Linda Lael Miller. HQN Books. July 2009. ISBN #: 9780373773886
