Review - - Reed

Reed

By R.C. Ryan

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: April 25, 2017 

Reviewed by Maria Lokken

    

  

Who wouldn’t love a tall, handsome, sensitive, modern-day cowboy?  Particularly one that saved your little boy from hurling head long into on-coming traffic. That’s reason enough for any red-blooded woman to want to get a little closer, find out his name, and hope he asks her to the local watering hole. But, it’s a romance. And we’re going to need a few complications before we get to that drink. Here’s how it plays out:

Reed Malloy, the youngest brother of the Malloys from Montana, is a work obsessed cattle rancher. He’s had his share of women, but nothing permanent.  Reed’s been much too busy working the ranch and tending to their first ever organically raised cattle.

Ally Shaw quit her big government job in Virginia, sold everything she owned and traded it for a more peaceful existence in Glacier Ridge, Montana.  Now she’s focused on getting her business up and running and spending quality time with her four-year-old son Kyle, who by the way is an adorable character. Kyle comes complete with funny quips and great manners. I’d keep him.

Reed is the kind of man any woman would be happy to have in her life, he loves his family, he’s sensitive, smart, intuitive, romantic. Yes, he is the complete package. But Ally’s not just any woman. She’s strong, smart and she’s been burned in love once and is in no hurry to give away her heart again.

When reading a romance, I am guaranteed a happy ending, but I do not expect a smooth journey. And this romance novel has several pitfalls and one rather large mine field that I found surprising and exciting. it wouldn’t be fair of me to reveal much more. Suffice it to say, this author knows how to keep the pages turning with a little mystery here, a red herring there, and lots of romance.

The writing captures a tenderness and warmth that flows off the pages and extends beyond the hero and heroine to an array of secondary characters that make you want to be invited to the Malloys ranch for Thanksgiving dinner.  Each character comes vividly alive - the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children and friends - drawing you closer to Reed and Ally through dialogue and action.

This is the third book in the Malloys of Montana series. It’s a tender and warmhearted romance that will keep you smiling long after the last page.

What is your favorite type of hero? Sweet and tender, bad boy, rough and tumble, geek? Or is there another type that makes you sigh?

Review - - Down the Rabbit Hole

Review ~ Down the Rabbit Hole

By: J. D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Elaine Fox, Mary Kay McComas, and R.C. Ryan

Publisher: Jove

Release date: September 29, 2015

Down the Rabbit Hole is a fitting name for this anthology, as each story deals with twisted reality, either actual or perceived, and has elements tying it Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The lead story, Robb’s “Wonderment in Death” is a solid entry in the In Death series. When a woman stabs her brother for no apparent reason and then commits suicide, her actions initially appear to be the result of a longstanding disagreement.  Eve Dallas’s friends Louise Dimatto and Charles Monroe, however, knew both people and are sure this can’t be what it seems. For them, Eve pulls rank to handle the case and soon finds out how many people are eager to prey on the recently bereaved. It’s nice to see Charles and Louise step to the fore for a while, and the other characters are in fine form.

“Alice and the Earl in Wonderland” by Mary Blayney finds an earl and the woman who refused to marry him transported from Regency London to its modern counterpart.  Their counterparts here have been transported back to the era they left but don’t appear in the story.  As the Lord Weston and his Alice walk through London, they see change everywhere they look. Electricity, mass transit, and women wearing trousers and holding professional jobs are all a bit of a shock to them.  The couple have a great rapport, despite their unsatisfactory relationship, and their guide is engaging.  The story is a fun look at culture shock.

“iLove” by Elaine Fox examines what can happen when someone is entirely devoted to his smartphone. Macy Serafini adores Jeremy Abbott but finally reaches her limit for tolerating his constant attention to his phone.  She breaks up with him, and Jeremy finds himself sucked into the world of online dating in a cool way I don’t want to spoil.  Too late, he realizes how much he loves Macy.  Has he lost her for good?  Or can he win her back via unconventional use of a dating app?

“A True Heart” by Mary Kay McComas uses the search for the perfect Halloween costume as a way to make a busy Elise, who’s recovering from a really bad relationship, re-examine her approach to life and love.  A great guy named Max loves her, but bad romantic experiences have left Elise with a tough protective shell.  Only if she can find a way around it can she seize her chance at true love. It’s difficult to give a character who hurts others a sympathetic aura, but McComas handles it so deftly that the reader is rooting for Elise.

“Fallen” by R.C. Ryan is a time travel with shapeshifters mixed in. Sent to Scotland to buy a valuable piece of land from highland Laird Colin Gordon, Beth Campbell takes a tumble and finds herself back in medieval Scotland.  The laird there reminds her of Colin but is under a terrible curse.  Even if she saves him from it, there’s no certainty that they can be together.  Her sojourn in this era forces her to face all the things she doesn’t like about her life and so leads her to make a fateful choice.

Obviously the stories vary in their themes and approaches.  Each put its own spin on Wonderland and romance, and all were enjoyable.

~ Nancy Northcott

A former attorney who never outgrew her love of comic books, science fiction and fantasy, Nancy left the legal profession to pursue her dreams of creating her own action adventure stories.  Check out her terrific contemporary romances set within a fantasy world in present-day Georgia. 

Review - - Montana Legacy

Montana Legacy
By R.C. Ryan
Publisher: Grand Central
Release Date: February 23, 2010

They're the McCords...three rugged, sexy cowboy cousins who'll inherit the family range--if they seek the treasure hidden on it. But even more precious are the women who can tame their wild hearts...


As young boys, Jesse McCord and his cousins, Wyatt and Zane roamed their grandfather’s Montana ranch in search of excitement and the lost gold that consumed their Grandpa Coot’s life. None of them could imagine living anywhere else, but Coot’s obsession with finding the gold drove two of his son’s from the ranch, leaving only orphaned Jesse to live and work alongside his beloved grandpa. Now, Jesse is reeling from Coot’s sudden death, the return of the two cousins he hasn’t seen since they left the ranch with their parents all those years ago and what he views as a betrayal by the one man he thought he knew better than anyone.  He's an angry, emotionally battered man, left wondering what fate has in store for him next when, at Coot’s funeral, he looks up and his gaze collides with Amy Parrish: his high school sweetheart, daughter of the McCord’s sworn enemy, the only woman he’s ever loved, the one who, years earlier, left Montana, and him, without even a good-bye.

Just watching her, he felt all the old memories rushing over him, filling his mind, battering his soul. Memories he’d kept locked up for years in a small, secret corner of his mind. The way her hair smelled in the rain. The way her eyes sparkled whenever she smiled. The sound of her laughter, low in her throat. The way she felt in his arms when they kissed. When they made love…

He’d be damned if he’d put himself through that hell again.

Amy Parrish has returned home for one reason: to care for her ailing father – a bitter, argumentative man who has never shown her one ounce of love or affection. She has no intention of starting anything with Jesse McCord, not after the way he abandoned her when she left for college. But fate has other plans and, as Amy and Jesse soon discover, what each of them thought was the truth about that long-ago summer may have been something else entirely. And, when mysterious accidents begin occurring with Amy as the target, they are forced to acknowledge the depth of their feelings for one another.

A family torn apart, a couple given a second chance at love, a search for lost treasure and someone willing to kill to claim it for their own are at the heart of this satisfying contemporary western romance.  


~PJ