Amazon discontinued the ability to create images using their SiteStripe feature and in their infinite wisdom broke all previously created images on 12/31/23. Many blogs used this feature, including this one. Expect my archives to be a hot mess of broken book cover images until I can slowly comb through 20 years of archives to make corrections.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Random Romance Sunday: Someone Pass The Ginkgo Biloba

The Book: Wild West Brides by Cathy Maxwell, Ruth Langan & Carolyn Davidson

The Particulars: Historical western anthology, Harlequin, 2002, Out of Print

Is It In Wendy's TBR?:  Nope, I've read it.


The Blurb:
National Bestselling authors Cathy Maxwell, Ruth Langan and Carolyn Davidson team up to bring you Wild West Brides, a collection of three brand-new stories about women who conquered the West and found their soul mates . . .
Flanna and the Lawman by Cathy Maxwell
Desperate for someone to help her protect her land, a female con artist saves an ex-lawman from the hangman's noose by claiming him as her no-good husband, and finds herself wanting to turn their charade into a real marriage.

This Side of Heaven by Ruth Langan
When a runaway and her young nephew find a safe haven with a solitary Montana rancher, three lonely people become a family, until their peace is threatened by the boy's father, bent on vengeance.

Second Chance Bride by Carolyn Davidson
His mail-order bride's deceit had stung him to the quick, but the pregnant widow's care of his four-year-old daughter had Jebediah rethinking his vow to send her packing as soon as her baby was born.
Any Reviews?:  Mrs. Giggles gave this one an 86:
"Of the three, only Cathy Maxwell's Flanna And The Lawman is worth a reread. In fact, Flanna And The Lawman is, in my opinion, ranks up there with Connie Brockway's Heaven With A Gun (from the Outlaw Love anthology) as one of the finest Western novellas I've read. The other two are standard, formulaic marry-in-distress romances with no refreshing twist to make them memorable."
RT gave it 4 Stars:
"These three tales are heartwarming, fun and a wonderful way to wile away a few hours and feel satisfied not once, but three times."
Anything Else?:  You want to know the real reason I review darn near everything I read somewhere online?  Yeah, so I can remember something about the book!  I've read this anthology.  I know I've read this anthology, but I'm pretty sure it was pre-blogging days.  The bad news is I did not read it for TRR, so that means....no review.  Which means I can't recall a damn thing about any of these stories. 

Usually I can recall at least a little something.  Like say, "I remember liking the Maxwell story" or "I thought the hero in the Langan story was yummy."  But yeah - I don't even have that. 

I got nothing people!

Which usually means I just found the book a pleasant diversion.  Nothing blindingly brilliant, nor brain-damagingly awful.  Nice, pleasant, but just sorta there.

The worst of it is that I did, at one time, have yearly reading records going this far back, but yep - you guessed it - they went up in flames during a Great Computer Meltdown (circa 2005). 

Uh, which would be why I keep all my reading spreadsheets in Google Docs these days.  Unless Google melts down, I'm thinking they'll be safe for at least a wee lil' bit......

6 comments:

A Library Girl said...

I use to keep paper logs of everything I read, which was a little difficult to deal with when I'd amassed dozens of pages worth - plus, how was I to figure out if I'd read a particular book without having to look through all the pages. I switched to Excel spreadsheets for a while, and then got bored with that. Then I started keeping track on Shelfari, but I was lazy about recording everything. Now, my only log is my blog. I worry that that might die someday, but I don't worry enough to actually do something about it. Google Docs sounds like a nice plan, although I have a feeling it'd end up going the way of my other methods - I'd only remember to record things sporadically.

Anonymous said...

Wow, you know, I completely understand what you mean. There are only a few books that I completely remember the details about now, and I used to pride myself on that ability. Thank GOD for Goodreads keeping track for me now, even if it's just little notes I write. Ugh, you know, I've actually purchased the same book twice in the past.

Kim in Baltimore said...

Aloha! Once I became a Cathy Maxwell fan, I tracked down this book. It is the only published western historical that Cathy has written - her other full length and novelas are UK set historicals (primarily Regency). It is interesting that it was published by Harlequin since her other books have been published by Avon.

nath said...

LOL, it happens Wendy, that we don't remember a book at all... even if we enjoyed it :) But it is frustrating when you know you've read it, but can't remember anything ^_^;

Wendy said...

Library Girl: I kept Excel spreadsheets dating back to around 1999/2000, but naturally was sh*t for backing them up. So when the computer died around 2005ish? A bunch of my records went down in flames with it. Sigh.

Barbara: I run into double-purchasing problems moreso with out of print titles, than new ones. I'm pretty good with remembering the newer titles I bought, but it's when I'm browsing at a UBS and I see some Harlequin from 1995....that I'm not so sure. "Do I have this in the TBR already?????" Hmmmmm.

Kim: I really feel like I should have at least remembered SOMETHING about the Maxwell story, because it sounds really intriguing...and different. It's embarrassing that I got nothing.

Nath: Which is why I'm guessing it was "just OK" for me as a whole. I tend to have pretty decent recall on the great books and the OMG This Was Awful! books. Over the years the rest just sort of blend into the background.

Marie-Thérèse said...

Well, unlike some of your other random romance Sunday books, I won't be searching this one out. Just not enough here to get the old acquisitive instinct going ;-)

I do love the fact that you linked to Mrs. Giggles, though. I haven't visited there in a while (I think she was having internet connectivity issues and had no new reviews for weeks) and was thrilled to see some fresh content there. Laughed my ass off through the Laurens review-it totally made my Monday! So thanks for that!