Retro Review: Outlaw's Bride

This review of Outlaw's Bride by Maureen McKade was originally posted at The Romance Reader in 2001. Back then I rated this 4-Hearts (B Grade) with an MPAA sensuality rating of PG-13.

+++++

Clint Beaudry made a pit stop in Green Valley, Colorado only to have the owner of the local boardinghouse refuse to give him a room. Mattie St. Clair knew a hired gunman when she saw one and Clint was too tall, dark and dangerous looking to be anything but. Giving up, Clint camps out for the night in the woods behind Mattie’s house, only to be shot by the man he was tracking down. 

Mattie’s 10 year son, Andy, and her hired man, Herman, discover Clint back shot and take him home. The town doctor has to go to a neighboring settlement because of flu epidemic, so he leaves Clint with Mattie.

Clint is not happy to be laid up. The man who shot him was also the one who raped and murdered his wife, Emily. A U.S. Marshal at the time, Clint has been racked with guilt ever since, because he wasn’t home at the time to protect her. He made a promise to find the man responsible, but now is in too much pain to get out of bed, much less on his horse. Besides that, Mattie is as stubborn as a mule and watches him like a hawk.

Mattie was married to the town’s sheriff when his inexperience and short fuse got him killed. Widowed for 10 years, she makes ends meet by taking in laundry and boarders. She vehemently hates guns, and is more than a little overprotective of her son, the only person she has left in this world. She despises everything she thinks Clint stands for, and even though the two soon find themselves attracted to each other, they find that promises stand in their way. Clint is unable to break the promise he made to find his wife’s killer and Mattie is unwilling to fall in love with a man who lives by the gun.

Outlaw’s Bride is standard western fare that is sure to be a real crowd-pleaser. Mattie and Clint sizzle on the page, both of them exuding some heavy sexual tension. They both are lonely and drawn to each other, but their pride and mutual stubbornness keeps them from acknowledging how much they need one another.

Mattie’s first husband was killed before they could even finish the honeymoon. In her youth, she believed herself in love with Jason, but she was more in love with the idea of being needed. By the time she was eight, both of her parents were dead, and Mattie found herself in an orphanage. When Jason came along with all of his sweet talk, she quickly tumbled into bed with him and was just as quickly rushed to the altar.

Clint was more in love with his job than his first wife, and he believes his reluctance to quit led to her death. Guilt ridden, he doesn’t care whether or not he lives through the manhunt. While he’s immediately drawn to Mattie, he is unwilling to give up his search, believing that it is the only way he can do right by Emily now that she is gone.

McKade includes some nicely drawn secondary characters in Andy, Herman and Amelia, a local woman with a past. Children in romance have always been hit or miss characters for me, and the author’s depiction of a 10 year old desperate to be seen as a grown-up, but smothered by his overprotective mother, rings true.

My only minor complaint with this otherwise enjoyable western, was the fact that Mattie later suspects Clint of having an affair with Amelia, which just boggled my mind. The man is recovering from a gun shot wound, and doesn’t leave the house until page 150, how the heck could he carry on an affair?

Aside from that, Outlaw’s Bride is a tried and true story sure to please western buffs. McKade’s ability to write likable and wounded characters will undoubtedly win her more fans and a loyal following. I know I’ll be picking up her books in the future.

+++++

Wendy Looks Back: I was as good as my word with that last sentence - this was my first read by McKade and I've gone on to read a number of her westerns over the years.  While rights have reverted back to a number of her books and she's gone on to self-publish them, I believe she's retired these days.

#TBRChallenge 2018: A Dime Novel Hero

The Book: A Dime Novel Hero by Maureen McKade

The Details: Historical western romance, Avon, 1998, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  It's a western and it's Maureen McKade.  I won't tell you how long it's been in my TBR though.  Years.  I'm not exaggerating...YEARS!

The Review:  For those of you keeping score at home, my reading of late has been the pits.  I mean, the literal pits.  So this month's Comfort Read theme for the TBR Challenge was just what the doctor ordered.  I opted for a historical western (a sub genre I love) and Maureen McKade - who has written some amazing books and some ho-hum meh books, but who has never delivered an outright stinker.  And boy howdy, I've read some steaming piles of you-know-what lately.  A Dime Novel Hero was her second published book and no, it's not perfect.  But it's competently, and compellingly, written and I sunk right into the story.  I read this in two sittings, practically gulping it down like a man near death from thirst.

Kit Thornton was a motherless pudgy little girl with spectacles whose father didn't have time for her and worse still, didn't "get" her.  She loves to read books, take care of injured stray animals, and needless to say is a favorite target for bullies.  Then one day wild Jake Cordell comes to her rescue and hero worship quickly turns to puppy love. 

Years later, Jake is working as a law clerk in Boston when he gets word his father, a prominent judge, is gunned down by an outlaw.  Never close with his father, his mother having abandoned him at a young age, Jake is determined to exact his revenge.  He saddles up as a bounty hunter and six years later has finally brought the killer to justice.  Now he's back home to claim the family ranch.  Except the family ranch is now owned by Kit Thornton.

Thanks to a stipulation in Jake's father's will, Kit was able to buy the ranch and she lives there with her two hired men (both of them "not white" - so that goes over just about as well as you'd expect with the "good townsfolk") and her adopted 5-year-old son.  The boy, Johnny, is Jake's.  A product of a relationship he had with a saloon girl who Kit nursed in her dying days.  But Johnny doesn't know that and neither does Jake.  And now he's back in town.  Further complicating Kit's life?  She borrowed money against the ranch to buy some horses, that loan is nearly due, and Kit doesn't have the money.  Oh, and did I mention she's the secret writer of dime novels starring Jake Cordell?  Yeah, those books have expounded on his reputation and needless to say Jake's not terribly pleased.

We all know where this is going.  Jake has done what he set out to do, which is find his father's killer.  However his relationship with his father was complicated and Jake has a lot of unresolved baggage.  Kit's books (which nobody knows Kit is the writer) have elevated Jake to this mythic-like hero, when he's really a flawed man.  A man that Kit has to pick up off a saloon floor and bail out of jail in the early chapters.  But Kit, bless her heart, can't help herself.  She's still rescuing strays and her feelings for Jake are complicated.  Now he wants to buy back his family ranch, doesn't know she wrote those novels about him, doesn't know he has a son, and doesn't know about her current financial straits.

There's a Sword of Damocles hanging over most of this story because both Jake and Kit are lying to each other by omission.  Kit's reasons are fairly easy to understand.  I don't necessarily like that she doesn't come clean about little Johnny straight away, but she has her reasons - most of them wrapped up around the mother's wishes and Jake's footloose track record.  Jake is one of those complicated romance heroes that runs hot and cold.  He's a good guy underneath everything, which is what Kit sees in him.  But man, there are times you want to slap him into next Tuesday.  Kit is so good, and so giving, and frankly he does her wrong (by omission - but still done wrong) in more than one instance in this story.

This is a romance, so naturally it all works out in the end and there are some really heady emotional scenes during The Black Moment that I actually felt a few tears leak out.  That said, this ain't perfect.  Kit is the sort who claims she doesn't care what people think of her, but the cruelty hurts her all the same.  She's the sort that if she were pregnant out of wedlock she wouldn't hide away for 9 months, and yet everyone in town just assumes Johnny is biologically hers. This is a plot hole the author never explains. The conflict hinges on several Big Secrets and in the end the fact that Kit is the author of the dime novels is dashed off as an afterthought, which is a sign (in my opinion) that there were too many elements being juggled at once.

There's also a few elements that some readers may find upsetting that I feel like need to be mentioned in a minor spoiler sort of way.  One of Kit's hired men is black, and the n-word is dropped during one scene by a villainous character who just got done beating up Kit's other hired man, who is half-Pawnee.  There's a near rape of the heroine (because of course there is - this is a 20-year-old historical after all) and over the course of the story a horse has to be put down. 

But in the end, even with the faults and nit-picks, I really fell right into the story.  It's well-written (nit-picks aside), I was invested in the characters, and easily kept swiping left to read the next page.  It's nowhere near my favorites by McKade, but it was a pleasant, memorable read that found me in the nick of time.  As my reading of late has showcased, I definitely could have done worse.

Final Grade = B-

#TBRChallenge Review: A Reason To Sin

The Book: A Reason to Sin by Maureen McKade

The Particulars: Historical western romance, 2008, originally published by Berkley, out of print, self-published digital edition available, third book in trilogy

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Besides the fact that it's a historical western (which is usually enough of a reason), the first book in this series, A Reason to Live, is one of my all-time favorites.  Seriously, drop your life and read it now.  I also liked the second book in the series, A Reason to Believe - which in hindsight I probably should have graded a B+.  So why has it taken me almost 10 years to read A Reason to Sin?  Well, after this one came out I saw some not-so-great reviews, and my friend Rosie (who doesn't blog anymore because she doesn't love me) was really underwhelmed by it.  So yeah.  It languished.

The Review: This is an instance where waiting nearly 10 years to read the final book in a trilogy was probably a good thing.  I think I'm going to be kinder to this book now than I would have had I read it so soon on the heels of the first two books in the series.  That said, even with all the time that has elapsed, this one still has major issues.  Had I read this one 9 years ago I likely would have set the book down disgusted.  Now though?  It's more of a "Meh, this should have been a lot better" reaction.

Rebecca Colfax is a gently born lady who has fallen far from grace.  After her parents died, this St. Louis Miss wed her husband, who gambled away all her money before he left town.  Adding insult to injury?  He left her before she realized she was pregnant.  With no other option, she leaves their son Daniel in an orphanage and hits the road to find Benjamin.  She's hoping that once he learns he's a father he'll do right by his family (ha ha ha ha ha!).  She somehow ends up in Oaktree, Kansas (this isn't really explained - did she just go there to find work or did she think Benjamin was there?) and quickly discovers that respectable employment is hard to come by.  She ends up at the Scarlet Garter saloon where she becomes a hurdy-gurdy girl, dancing with the clientele and singing a couple nights a week.  And, you know, if she wants to make extra money upstairs, the owner will look the other way.  But no.  Rebecca isn't that far gone just yet.

Slater Forrester is a faro and poker dealer at the Scarlet Garter, rescued as a boy when he tried to pick the owner's pocket.  Andrew instead taught Slater to gamble, and he parlayed that skill working for the Pinkertons as a Union spy during the War.  Naturally bad stuff happened (Andersonville) and now Slater no longer works for the Pinkertons and has a heaping helping of PTSD.  Rebecca is a complication he doesn't need or want, but they're both (naturally) attracted to each other and they're both keeping secrets.

The hallmark of this trilogy is definitely the complicated heroines.  Rebecca isn't always easy to like, but McKade makes you understand her character.  This is a young woman who months earlier would have crossed to the other side of the street had she seen a "fallen woman," and now she has to resort to working in a saloon - a saloon that also boasts a freed slave piano player and a dwarf bartender.  She has certain ideas (yes, prejudice and racist ones) given her upbringing - although quickly realizes the error of her ways once she, you know, gets to know the other employees at the saloon.  The owner is a fair, honest bloke and to be perfectly frank this "community" aspect to the story was the highlight for me.  Think of it like a small town romance except set in a saloon.

Original cover

The problem here is that the conflict doesn't hang together well, and that makes the romance less than ideal.  For someone who has had to leave her infant at an orphanage, Rebecca doesn't spend a whole lot of time fretting over it.  The kid is mostly an afterthought until the final few chapters of the story.  Likewise, she's not working all that hard to find her ne'er-do-well husband.  She asked the Scarlet Garter owner about him, but when she learns that Slater has spent extensive time in St. Louis - does she ask him?  Of course not.  Never mind that Slater is a gambler and Benjamin is a gambler.  I'm sure St. Louis had a ton of gambling establishments in the day, but odds would have been more than decent that they might have possibly oh....I don't know....RUN INTO EACH OTHER!

Ugh.

Slater's PTSD, the fact that he has no clue what happened to his two brothers (this is the series baggage), Rebecca being married to a swindler and with a kid stashed in an orphanage - this seems like enough conflict, right?  Well, apparently not.  Because the author chose to shoehorn in some external conflict involving villains shaking down the area saloons as part of a protection racket.  Slater then uses his Pinkerton "skills" to ask questions - but needless to say he's not terribly sneaky about it. Frankly I quickly realized how he got nabbed during the War and thrown into Andersonville.

I was in the mood for a western, so even with my various and sundry issues, I was happily tearing through this - until the protection racket conflict heats up.  Then the whole thing starts to sag in the middle, Rebecca and Slater start sleeping together, and I started to skim.  Also, because I know some readers feel strongly about this - be advised that Rebecca is married (even though her husband is no-good) when her and Slater finally succumb - and yes, Slater is aware of her marital status.  I was OK with this, given that her husband's actions don't exactly warrant any consideration as far as I'm concerned - but for some readers adultery (no matter the circumstances) is a hard and fast no.

Capping off my final disappointment is the epilogue, when the three brothers are finally reunited.  This is the overarching conflict that the trilogy hangs on, and it's kind of a "big deal" in the first two books (less so in this one).  So to have the whole reunion wrapped up in, like, 4 pages?  It's unsatisfying to the point where I'm really, really glad I didn't read this trilogy back-to-back-to-back.  I think I'd feel a lot more enraged about it if I had.

So, yeah.  Seriously.  The first book is amazing and the second book is really groundbreaking, challenging and interesting in a lot of ways.  This one?  Not so much.  But hey, now I can say I've read the whole series and this book is no longer starring back at me from my TBR shelves.  That's something, right?

Final Grade = C-

TBR Challenge 2010: To Find You Again

The Book: To Find You Again by Maureen McKade

The Particulars: Historical western, Berkley, 2004, Out of Print

Why Was It In The Bat Cave TBR?: You have to ask? Historical western. Plus I tend to like McKade's westerns.

The Review: Seven years ago Emma Hartwell was captured by the Lakota Sioux and adopted into the tribe. She had well moved past the idea of returning to her white family when the cavalry attacks her village. She's severely wounded, but is saved when a solider stops long enough to notice that she's a white girl. Now she's back in her hometown, living with her parents and younger sister. But the reunion hasn't been all that smooth. She's now well and truly "ruined," and her parents have no idea what to do with her. They propose to send her to live with a spinster aunt in Minneapolis, which sends Emma into a panic. When she was rescued, she left behind her son. Now, fully healed from her injuries, and the threat of Minneapolis looming, she takes off to find him.

Emma's daddy would rather spit at Ridge Madoc than look at him, but the man is a former army scout. If anyone can find Emma and bring her home, it's Ridge. Desperate to get back the land that Hartwell swindled out from under his useless, drunken stepfather, Ridge agrees to bring Emma home. What he doesn't know, what nobody knows, is that Emma isn't going anywhere until she finds her boy.

McKade wrote some nice westerns for Avon, but when she moved to Berkley her stories took on a heavier, emotional component. This book follows that pattern. What we have here is a road romance with a heroine caught between two worlds, and not really "belonging" in either. Ridge is your classic outsider, who knows what it's like to be unloved, unwanted, and looked down upon. These two are made for each other, and really make the perfect couple. As the reader you get the impression that not only do these two belong together, but that they'll go a long way in healing each others' emotional wounds.

However, this read wasn't entirely smooth. Emma's Daddy hatin' on Ridge was painted with a thin brush, and I didn't really "get it" other than Daddy wanted the land. Frankly, I need more reason than that for the serious amount of hatin' going on. Also, for all Emma had been through, she struck me as pretty dense at times. If not for her past, I would have chalked it up to naivete', but given how poorly she was treated in town after her rescue, the fact that she would think for one single solitary moment that things would be fine for her "half-breed" son given enough time? Yeah, that's just flat-out dense. She's a straight-forward, practical character. Frankly, she should have been a whole helluva lot smarter in that regard.

Plot lines of this nature, featuring Army and Native characters can be tricky - but I think McKade navigated it well. The Natives aren't all Goody-Goody Goodness and the Army isn't all Evil Evil Evil. Some are evil. Some aren't. Some are good. Some are bad. This worked for me. I also appreciated that the author does a nice job with Emma's family - both biological and adopted.

This one won't be landing in the Bat Cave Keeper Stash, but it was still a nice read. Pretty consistent for what I "expect" out of a McKade western. If you've read and enjoyed other books by her, this one is definitely worth hunting up. Says me.

Final Grade = B

Hurting The One You Love

It was once suggested to me that I don't give romance readers enough credit. That's true - I don't give the majority of romance readers enough credit. It's been my experience that many romance readers want the safe bet. The book that is going to give them exactly what they want, and not challenge any notions they might have of love, sex, marriage or basic human nature. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but own up to it. Sadly, very few actually do - which means the comments about A Reason To Believe by Maureen McKade should make for interesting reading. This is one flawed heroine. Deeply, deeply flawed. While there were aspects of this story that didn't entirely work for me, you have to admire the author for having the balls to write it.

Rye Forrester has a debt to pay. An Army deserter (with the brand on his back to prove it), he rides up to Dulcie McDaniel's dilapidated farm to atone for his part in her husband's death. But the words get stuck in his throat and instead he asks for a job. He'll fix up her home, property and bring in her crops in exchange for room and board. Dulcie is desperate beyond measure, and not taking a moment to look a gift horse in the mouth, accepts his offer.

Dulcie married the useless Jerry McDaniel to get the hell out of Locust, Texas. She gets out of Locust, but in exchange she gets a worthless husband who spends all of his time either in saloons, with whores or both. When Jerry dies, she is left with a young daughter to care for and no means of support. The only answer is to go back to Locust and the farm where her useless, lazy, drunken father still lives. They hitch a ride with a peddler who expects payment, and Dulcie only has one thing to offer (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). After they arrive, her father is accused of murdering the most popular man in town and is lynched. Dulcie knows damn well her father didn't murder anyone, but nobody believes her.

She doesn't trust Rye Forrester as far as she can throw him. Her experiences with men have taught her to be wary. But the more she gets to know him, the more she lets her guard down. What happens when she learns the truth about Rye? And what will he think when he discovers what kind of woman she really is?

Dulcie is a woman who has made disastrous choices, mostly brought on by youth and desperation. For a girl whose home life is terrible growing up, what options were there in the 19th century? Um, not a whole lot - so Dulcie uses the one thing she has (her body) to secure herself a means out of Dodge (marriage). Unfortunately, she picks the wrong guy. When the peddler threatens to leave them stranded in the middle of nowhere if she doesn't pay up, Dulcie does what she must to secure the safety of her young daughter. Yes, she uses her body and yes, she allows others to use it as well. But that's not what haunts her. It's the fact that her body "betrays her" and she enjoys sex that troubles her the most - and when Rye begins awakening her desire she hits the whiskey bottle to starve it off.

This is a heroine that won't work for a lot of readers, and I'll admit the whole "drinking in secret" thing is really hard to read about. But half the joy in this book is watching the characters owning up to their mistakes and trying to make amends. The scene where Dulcie learns the truth about Rye is particularly fantastic, and really brings both of their destructive tendencies to a head.

What doesn't work so well here is the conflict surrounding the lynch mob and Dulcie's Daddy. She swears he's innocent, nobody believes her. Frankly I felt this aspect of the story was unnecessary. There's oodles of internal conflict; this just mucks up the works and takes the focus off the internal struggles of our romantic couple. I guess it does give them something to do - but the main problem here is that the mystery is no brain-bender. Frankly the minute Rye starts snooping around I had the thing solved and after that it just got tiresome. It does succeed for helping the plot move along, and if you're the sort of reader who needs external conflict then it does serve it's purpose. Me? I just didn't see the point.

I didn't like this one nearly as much as A Reason To Live, but I still admire what McKade has done with this book. It's not easy to read and it features characters that aren't always easy to like. Both Rye and Dulcie have a lot to atone for, and to watch these two damaged people learn to truly love each other is a joy to read about. So McKade gets the gold star for not taking the easy way out, but Final Grade = B.

Dead, My Ass

I love it that New York, editors, authors, readers, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy (take your pick) keep telling me the western romance is dead. It's not dead. It's being neglected. It's in hibernation. It's dormant - but it ain't dead. The themes, the atmosphere, the heartbreak that exemplifies the western romance will never completely go out of fashion. It's too powerful. It's too profound. It's a part of all of us - even you non-Americans reading this. It feeds into the best parts of human nature - resilience, grit, and hope.

I like books that challenge me emotionally. The kind of books that speak to me on a deeper level. Romance at it's best does this for me. Romance at it's worst makes me want to drink Drano - but that's another blog post entirely.

I literally could have read Maureen McKade's latest, A Reason to Live (laydown date September 5 folks) in one sitting if not for this pesky working for a living gig I have, and the fact that this book emotionally walloped me. Seriously, I needed to take the occasional little break but it kept calling me back. As is, I still read it in under 24 hours.

Laurel Covey is from Massachusetts, but married a man from Virginia. When the Civil War breaks out, she follows her husband - so she is disowned by her family. While Robert is fighting in the Army, Laurel is a nurse - then Robert dies in Gettysburg. Laurel transfers to a field hospital close to the front lines and witnesses the horrors of war. She also hears the final words of dying men, and after peace is declared, takes it upon herself to visit the families of these young men and deliver their final messages.

On the road she meets Creede Forrester, who just so happens to have come looking for her. A Texas cotton farmer, he traveled to Virginia only to learn his only son is dead. The doctor he meets with tells him about Laurel, and suggests she might know more about his son. She does. Austin came into the field hospital dead on arrival. There was nothing she could do.

Creede has now lost both his wife and son in tragic ways. He feels guilty, having been unable to keep them safe, and also mourns the last words he spoke to his son - words of anger and contempt. He is also haunted by his past - a terrible childhood tragedy and stint as a hired gun. Maybe it's his guilt that drives him, or his fascination with Laurel, but he tells her (in no uncertain terms) that he will accompany her on the rest of her mission.

This story is so good it's painful. It's the kind of book that rips your heart out, dances a jig on it, then puts it back together again. Laurel is haunted by her past and believes she is going crazy. She has night terrors. She has flashbacks where she can smell the blood, death and hear boys screaming for their lives. We, as modern readers, know she is not crazy. She has post-traumatic stress disorder. But she doesn't know that, and it gives her mission a frantic quality. She wants to deliver these messages before her sanity completely melts away.

Creede admires Laurel, and desperately wants to get close to her, but can't quite figure out how. She's a tough one to crack, and he too is a haunted man. News of his son's death has stripped the last of his new life away - he figures he might as well go back to being a hired gun. Then he meets Laurel and it all changes.

One of the many things I loved about this book is how McKade handles the aftermath of the War. She doesn't dumb down the Civil War, bless her heart. Yes, it was about more than slavery. She also doesn't have villains. She doesn't place blame. The North is just as guilty as the South. She also portrays freed-slaves in a manner I've never before seen in a romance novel. A people exhilarated by their freedom, but left adrift with no resources.

Also notable are those messages that Laurel is delivering. She meets people from all walks of life and not all of them are happy to see her. Some are grateful for the dying words she brings them, others are angry and bitter. Grief, while a universal emotion, is not dealt with in a universal manner. Even Laurel questions whether or not she is doing the right thing - but she made promises to those dying boys...

I guess if I had to name a quibble it would be I wanted a bit more on the death of Creede's wife. But really, that's a minor detail hardly worth a mention. What makes this story work is that it emotionally exhausts the reader in a good way. You bleed for Laurel. You admire her for what she tried to do and what she is doing. This isn't an easy book to read, in fact it's heartbreaking, but McKade rings out more emotion with this book than in 95% of the other romances I've slogged through this year. It's wonderful, it's tender, it gives me hope that someone out there had brains enough to see this fine book published. Even if it is a western and the western is apparently dead.

Final Grade = A.