Respectability is in the eye of the beholder. Or so Lily Penhallow
hopes when she assumes the guise of the widow Albright. She has learned the
price of flaunting convention and is determined to obey society's rules from
now on. After her lover, Nigel Albright, was killed in a duel over a card game,
Lily dons widow’s weeds and travels to Grass Valley, California where she plans
to marry the man her uncle works for, a respectable mine owner named Hugh
Ogilvie. Then, on the riverboat from San Francisco, she meets Creighton 'King'
Callaway, a professional gambler, just the kind of man she should avoid.
King believes that since life is a gamble, there's no point in planning
for the future. You have to trust Lady Luck. After meeting Lily, King knows he
has found his Queen of Hearts. But can he convince her to pass up a sober
businessman for a foot-loose card sharp?
Only Lady Luck knows for sure.
Buy link: Amazon
My Review
Linda McLaughlin, one
of my favorite authors, writes another winner! If you've read any of Linda McLaughlin’s books you know she doesn't
disappoint. From the first page to the
last. This author is entertaining in her
storytelling and keeps you flipping pages.
As always, the author comes
through with an entertaining, smart and well written book that keeps you
involved to the very end.
Lily Penhallow posing as the
widow Alright and King Callaway are fantastic characters and their story is
everything you hope for in a Western Historical Romance. The heroine was smart and strong
despite her young age. The hero was enticingly rakish. What King did, seemed not right to Lily, but I
was able to see glimpses of his true, kinder, more gentlemanly self as well. It was an intoxicating combination.
Although they may protest, women love a "bad boy" regardless of the era.
The seduction scenes were wonderful. Hot and spicy and deliciously drawn out.
For me, there is nothing better than the anticipation as long as it culminates
in a HEA. The road to this HEA was paved with obstacles and misunderstandings
and a little bit of danger that made this one of the best stories for in a Western Historical Romance I have read
this year.
I highly recommend
this book, it is so worth your time to read it.