All American Read

Still sick - but I am getting some reading done! I finished a really good, and appropriately themed anthology earlier this weekend:

4th Of July Picnic by Pat Pritchard, Cheryl Bolen & Tracy Cozzens

Peace of Mind by Pat Pritchard - Heroine is a newspaper owner who lost her father in the Civil War. Hero runs the town's rival newspaper and has become increasingly intrigued by the intelligent heroine who always prints a rebuttal to his editorials. It's time for the town's annual 4th of July picnic and imagine the heroine's shock when the hero bids an outrageous sum on her box lunch! This was a really good story. Intelligent heroine, charming hero - my only quibble? The sex. There shouldn't have been any! The scenes felt intrusive and out of place. Would have worked much better as a "sweet" story me thinks. Final Grade = B+

The Four-Leaf Clover by Cheryl Bolen - Hero is an up-and-coming banker who proposes to his dream girl during the 4th of July picnic. He has admired her from afar for years, so is over the moon when she accepts. The story follows their marriage - which naturally features a big misunderstanding because the hero isn't the best with words. This would have been irritating in a novel, but in a story that clocks in at less than 100 pages it works. Final Grade = B

The Magical Elixir by Tracy Cozzens - Hero is a con man, selling patent medicines out of the back of a wagon with a "real swami." Actually Noah is a former slave - but whatever works! Heroine is a mountain girl who came down to town for the annual picnic. She buys the hero's magic elixir thinking it will cure her lame foot. Hero begins to feel like a shit-heel and gets a crisis of conscience. Certainly a different story, and well done. Final Grade = B

Back to being sick...