An Impetuous Season

 Ruined by a youthful indiscretion, Verity Standiford travels from upper crust England to the wilds of Victoria, Kansas in time to see her rakehell brother being forced into marriage at the end of a shotgun. Until he meets Verity Seth Adamson has given up all hope of future happiness. But only a prairie fire can bring the two together.

An Impetuous Season (Western Historical Romance)

By Denise Domning

Amazon Kindle

BO14NE704C

Price $0.99

73 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“The Kind of Story I Enjoy Reading.”

Oxfordshire, England, August 1873, Verity Standiford is left at the Alter once again. A fallen woman because her father had caught her with a man she thought loved her. However, her father paid him off, and he left. Now no man wants to marry a used woman, and at 29 she’s become a spinstress. Her brother had recently left for America, and her father suggest Verity take her mother to visit. She accepts, and when they arrive at her brother’s farm in Victoria, Kansas in late September, 1873, they find two men with shotguns at her brother’s door. It seems her brother has gotten 15-year-old Sarah Adamson pregnant, and her uncle and the justice of the peace are there to see the boy marries the girl. There’s an instant attraction between Seth Adamson and Verity, but this is no time for foolishness.

The main characters, Seth and Verity, are strong willed, and up to the task of seeing that things get done. It was a pleasure reading about strong characters, as that’s what it took to settle the West. The author is able to weave an interesting yarn about two people from different backgrounds, who find love while dealing with the harsh land. It was people like these that brought civilization to the West, not the gunfighters and saloon girls. People who picked up hoe and shovel when needed, and faced diversity. I think that’s what this story was about. Yes, it was about finding romance, but it had humor and drama, and danger. The kind of story I enjoy reading. Highly recommended to readers who like a good yarn with many facets.

Tom Johnson

Author of HAUNTED RANGE

Western Wenches

Western Wenches (Historical Western Romance)

By Holly Newman, Diane A. S. Stuckart & Denise Domning

BOOROV8Z7M

624 Pages

Price $0.99

Rating 5-Stars

This Kindle format includes two novels and one novelette. TREAIL OF DREAMS by Holly Newman, DESERT HEARTS by Diane A. S. Stuckart, and AN IMPETUOUS SEASON by Denise Domning. (The File sent to me did not contain the novelette.)

TRAIL OF DREAMS by Holly Newman. Savannah Escalante Pemberton is the child of an American white woman, and a Mexican gentleman. When the child witnesses something bad on their family farm, it leaves her mentally troubled, and her mother sends her to live with her family in the East, where she’s raised as a sophisticated lady. But Savannah wishes to return to her Mexican family, to learn of her heritage. Her brother sends her a letter requesting her help with his daughter in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but it’s 1824 and she has a problem traveling there. Eventually tying up with her stepfather’s caravan taking goods to Santa Fe, she meets Zachariah Connelly, the trail boss, but her presence among a caravan of men brings only danger and hardship. Rough men, and wild Indians might be too much for a lady.

DESERTS HEARTS by Diane A. S. Stuckart introduces us to Jessamine Satterly, the bank owner of Brimstone, Arizona Territory. The Black Horse Gang led by Rory Devilbiss robbed the bank the previous year, and Devilbiss killed her husband. When Jacob Hancock arrives, claiming to be a bank examiner, she learns that the Black Horse Gang may be back in the area. Indeed, they are, and in no time the bank is robbed again, and the sheriff and his deputy are killed, while Jess and Jacob are away. They’ve taken her aunt as hostage, and now Jess plans on trailing the outlaws and rescuing her aunt. She discovers that Jacob is also following them, and he may not be the man he claims. Outlaw or Pinkerton agent, his real name is Nick Devilbiss, brother of the leader of the outlaws.

TRAIL OF DREAMS was well written and had good characterization, but it was badly paced. The author should have tightened it more. Readers do not need to be told something over and over again, such as the repeated information about the main character’s sophisticated upbringing, to understand it. The men and women that settled the west had grit or they wouldn’t have survived. Yet Savannah Escalante Pemberton never shows her Mexican courage, and Zachariah Connelly, who we are told is big and tough, never follows through in a fight, leaving me to wonder if either would have survived in the West. I was also disappointed in the slave girl, whom we are told loved Savannah and liked being her slave. I don’t believe history has ever proven that any slave liked being owned by someone. DESERT HEARTS was also well written, and moved at a fast pace, with never a dull minute. The characters were tough and determined, with grit and courage. Nor do we have a slave in this one; of course it was after slavery had been abolished. There is a young Chinese girl, and she is portrayed as a smart and an independent woman. I liked that. I want to see strong female leads, even for secondary characters. As for Doc Holliday, the biography I read of Doc Holliday did not paint him as a gentleman.

The stories were a fun read, and despite my personal gripes I think fans of Historical Romance will like these two novels set in the Old West. Highly Recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of CARNIVAL OF DEATH