Monday, January 16, 2012

Autumn Lover-Elizabeth Lowell

Autumn Lover


Elizabeth Lowell

Avon, Jan 31 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780380769551



After spending the Civil War years overseas, Elyssa Sutton returns to her Ladder S Ranch in the Ruby Mountains once the fighting ended. She finds her spread devastated and the peace signed in Virginia meaningless in Nevada where raiders and others steal her cattle and use her natural assets as their own.



Hunter (Maxwell) tracks the butchers who killed his family to the Ruby Mountains. Needing to go undercover he comes out of the shadows to ask Elyssa for employment. She hires him as a “ramrod who can use a gun.” Although she somewhat fears the rage she sees in his eyes, she is also attracted to her employee. He does not wants to care about his boss as he fears losing his ugly edge, distrusts women whose strength is betrayal, and besides people you love die.



This reprint of a 1996 “Only” post-Civil War romance (see Only Love and Only Mine) is an intriguing tale starring an intrepid rancher and an unlikable acrimonious person obsessed with revenge. Hunter’s constant debasing of the heroine even when they make love fits his ire that women betray while he still grieves the murders of his wife and children by the Culpepper gang. Although the story line is as straight as the Bonneville Salt Flats even setting up the obvious sequel starring Hunter’s s bitter brother (see Winter Lover), readers can see the plot for miles ahead, fans still will appreciate this engaging dark historical romance.



Harriet Klausner

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