My twin sister Marisa turned me on to romance books many years ago, and I’ve been listening to her recommendations ever since. She’s never steered me wrong. In fact she offers better odds than an Off Track Betting Parlor. When she says I’m going to love a book, an author or a sub-genre she hits the nail on the head every time.
In 2005 when Marisa insisted I read J.R. Ward’s Dark Lover, my retort was sharp and to the point, “I don’t read romance books that include dead guys as heroes. Sex with dead guys ain’t sexy.” I was wrong. I read it and have been a fan of the The Black Dagger Brotherhood series ever since. Then there was the time, I gave Marisa ‘the look’. You know the look that scares small children and animals? Truth be told, she deserved it, she was trying to force me to read a western romance. Unlike the rest of the planet, I did not love John Wayne movies (shut up!) and I was the child that complained when her parents dragged her to retrospectives of black and white westerns on the big screen. But in her typical unrelenting style, Marisa insisted I would LOVE westerns. I caved. She was right. I did, and I do.
There’s nothing better than a well-written, make-you-want-to-swoon love story that happens on the open frontier of the Old West. Life was hard and obstacles sometimes insurmountable. There’s more to love because loving in those days just wasn’t that easy. And over the years I’ve been introduced to writers Loretta Heath, Maggie Osborne, and Jodi Thomas who have written many wonderful western romances.
Last year I discovered a new voice in western romance: Kaki Warner. Her Blood Rose Trilogy is a lush historical saga featuring three brothers, Brady, Hank, and Jack Wilkins. The unfortunate death of their parents and younger brother Sam sealed a bond between them, while sealing the rest of the world out. It will take a tough woman to penetrate the heart of eldest brother Brady Wilkins, but that’s what Englishwoman Jessica Thronton unwittingly does in the first book of the trilogy, Pieces of Sky. Fleeing from her home in England and from a man who savagely harmed her, she travels to the American West seeking aid from her brother. Instead, she is caught in a deadly stagecoach accident and comes face to face with the only man that can truly help her, Brady Wilkins.
Released this week is the second book in the trilogy, Open Country and this is Hank’s story. He’s smart, rugged, and has a heart as hardened as five-year-old clay after a drought. While traveling back to the ranch from a business trip by rail, a terrible accident leaves him for dead. Fellow traveler, Molly MacFarlane witnesses the accident, and desperate for the money the rail company will pay to the family’s survivors, Molly claims him as her husband. There’s one catch: Hank doesn’t die. Now what? Well, as Hank’s brother Brady says when he confronts Molly and her devious act, “You just married Hank Wilkins, the biggest, meanest, most elusive man in the territory.”
Hank finally wakes with amnesia, Molly hides the fact that she’s hiding a past that could get them all killed, and Brady wants Molly at the ranch for his own selfish reasons. The underlying mystery will keep you turning the pages way past your bedtime.
Pieces of Sky and Open Country are grand love stories and everything I want in a western romance. The men are rough and tumble when needed and gentle when it counts. The women are strong, self-determined, and smart. They’re happy to have found their soul mates, but you know they would survive on their own.
If you haven’t yet discovered the newest voice in western romance, treat yourself, because I for one am joining the list of fans waiting for the next book in Kaki Warner’s Blood Rose Trilogy.
The heroines in The Blood Rose Trilogy have an inner strength that helps them survive; who is your favorite strong, in-your-face heroine?
Until next Thursday, lay off the chocolates. And remember, every day is romance at Romantic Reads.
Maria Lokken is an avid romance reader and an award winning television producer.
