Prairie Girl

Different take on time travel

Reviewed: 08-12-18

Most time travel stories seem to hurl the protagonist back to an amazing point in history ... Tudor England, the battle of Culloden, Deadwood, MT. This author manages to strip out all of the trappings in the genre and leave something totally elemental. I enjoyed it. Especially the singular perspective of the hero who struggles to understand his mate but loves her regardless.

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8 people found this helpful

Entertaining but not all that memorable

Reviewed: 08-07-18

I am a huge fan of Linda Lael Miller so I’ll read anything she writes set in the historic west. This story was not her best offering but still proved an enjoyable read. I do enjoy Pilar Witherspoon’s narration style and that certainly makes up for any shortcomings in the plot. This story had a bit more spice and the hero and heroine were a bit older which I found to be a refreshing change of pace. All in all, no regrets surrendering a credit and I’ve already given up another for the latest LLM title released this week.

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2 people found this helpful

Improvement from the last story and performance

Reviewed: 07-28-18

I gave this author a second read following the disaster that was “Love Against her Will”. This was a definite improvement but the bar was low to start.

As one reader commented, this is not a mail order bride story but the genre was otherwise in the historical western romance category. The plot was fairly typical with little to distinguish it from other offerings in the genre. The narrator was also an improvement but still a bit over the top in terms of dialogue delivery with one exception. Her Scottish accent was spot on. In fact, her performance would be better if she adopted the same level of speaking normalcy in performing the rest of the characters.

All in all, happy this was included in the romance lovers package so that I could explore new authors and narrators without surrendering one of my precious 2 credits per month!

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Not a fan

Reviewed: 07-27-18

The mysterious ‘bad guy’ was pretty obvious from the onset. The storyline was weak, predictable and neither character was overly appealing. I frankly didn’t care if they lived happily ever after. The intimate scenes were just plain ‘icky’ and I finished this one simply because it was so short. I didn’t return it since it was included in the ‘romance lovers’ package. Had I used an Audible credit, I would have requested a refund.

I’m giving the author another try with a second book from the ‘romance lovers’ package mainly because it’s more or less free but only because the narrator is different. I don’t think I could have endured another three hours of this sort of performance. The narrator does the one thing that I find the most irritating ... delivering female lines by adopting a ridiculous falsetto voice. I might be able to overlook that flaw if the narrator actually narrated the story. He didn’t though; he read it. More precisely, he recited it in much the same manner as a student giving an oral report.

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Refreshingly original!

Reviewed: 07-22-18

How do I even start to describe this series? In a word, it’s ‘original’, refreshingly so. This author has a way of portraying the least likely of heroes as sexy, masculine and oh so desirable. I’ve read a lot of historical, western romances but never have I stumbled across a series with a cast of characters that included a male prostitute who dreams of opening a bakery, a man confined to a wheelchair with a spirited monkey for a companion, a Comanche detective who relies on a Pug to assist in his investigations, a female deputy and mayor, and more! And the storyline is so straightforward. It’s not dependent on the usual plot formulas although my favorite elements form this genre are also included ... a mail order bride, cattle ranches, men reaching for love with women far above their stations, Indians living in the white man’s world, saloons and brothels too.

I eagerly await Audible to release the next installment as soon I finish the last. Each time I’m tempted to buy the Kindle format but I resist because I think Jay R. Smith is responsible for at least 50% of the series appeal. As much as I love the storyline, I don’t think it would be nearly as entertaining without this narrator’s talented delivery of the dialogue and backstory.

Worth a credit? Most definitely
Heat factor - some spice but nothing gratuitous and the scenes with ‘Wheels’, the paraplegic are sensitive and sexy.

Please hurry Audible with the next installment... there are so few titles like this - must we wait between releases?

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Better late than never!

Reviewed: 07-17-18

I really loved this tale and was surprised to learn it was written in the 1990’s. I hope Audible is already working on the next two installments in the series. It had everything on my credit worthy must have list:
1) Strong but still vulnerable and determined heroine - check
2) A damaged hero who is all the more attractive because of it - check
3) Brothers, ranches, and travel by horseback - check, check, check
4) Mail order bride - check
5) Forbidden love - check
6) Talented narrator - BIG check
7) A bit of steam - check
It’s only missing two things ... sequels 2 and 3!

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7 people found this helpful

Read it by sundown too

Reviewed: 07-17-18

I actually didn’t realize that this was a continuation of the Callahan-Warren series of which I read the first two books a few years back. By my count, two more Callahan brothers have yet to get ‘hitched’ so I’m holding the author to remedying that ... soon!!!

Good storyline with a buffet of my favorite genre tidbits ... mining; a saddle weary, pampered heroine; difficult and brooding hero turned thoughtful, kind and chock full of love; a big and boisterous family of brothers lead by a strong but warm matriarch ... the plot wasn’t overly unique but neither was it predictable and “formularic”.

There was some steam but by no means was it gratuitous. I am not a fan of the overly sanitized romances but I don’t particularly enjoy bedroom scenes for the sake of filling in the pages either.

Pilar Witherspoon gives her usual stellar performance ... I had no idea she could master British accents and Irish brogues too! She is quickly becoming a must listen narrator for me.

Credit worthy? Surely - give one up for this tale.

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3 people found this helpful

Enjoyable read - not too sweet

Reviewed: 05-06-18

I liked this book ... I confess to enjoying a good mail order bride story but it's difficult to find one that strays from the typical plot sequence along the way to HEA. I knew the direction this one was heading but I wouldn't call it predictable. It wasn't too spicy but it had a couple intimate scenes that were integral to the storyline rather than gratuitous. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a spicy romance and I am not a fan of the 'sweet' and 'inspirational' versions that seem to be overrunning the western historical romance genre that I love. But, I don't really enjoy stories that seem to be structured around a plot that reads like 'insert bedroom scene here'. I've noted in prior reviews my disappointment in some of the inaccurate classifications offered by Audible. I've found a number of historical romances classified as 'contemporary' and now that Audible has their steam factor rating system, I am finding issues there too. I would not call this 'sweet' and I probably would have passed it by entirely were it not for the review of another listener who lamented the existence of scenes that I prefer authors to include.

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4 people found this helpful

Okay but nothing memorable

Reviewed: 04-29-18

The headline truly covers it ... the book was okay but I doubt I’ll remember much about it next week. The narrator made most of the characters sound like children, hicks, or robots.

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Don’t judge a book by its author’s gender!

Reviewed: 04-14-18

I’ve seen this author’s works on Audible for years and (upon learning that ‘Leigh’ Greenwood was actually ‘Lee’), I’ve always passed. Lesson learned. The concept of gender equality works both ways. It turns out that men are equally capable of spinning a great historical western romance ... or at least this one is.

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3 people found this helpful