"To avoid a forced marriage, Laura Gibbs has little choice but to go along with her controlling father's plan to deceive the man she's secretly loved for years. Scared and alone, she lies next to a drugged and sleeping Jake knowing fully well the position she's putting him in."
Pages: 94 pages
Publisher: Self Published on April 2012
Form: E-book ( from the publisher for an honest review)
Genre: Historical Western Romance
Series: A Bandit Creek Novel
Amazon: Buy / $5.47 (Kindle) ( EU price, click to see yours )
Laura agrees to her controlling swindling father's plan to trick Jake in to marriage by letting him think he'd compromised her. Laura who's been in love with Jake since her teenage years sees this as better option than having her dad marry her to a old miner thrice her age.
But getting Jake to see that she isn't like her father isn't easy, if at all possible. But she's determined she'll show him that she's kind, caring and nothing at all like her father.
Jake's sure he's been plotted to marry Laura, and he's sure as hell he won't fall for her good girl act, she's out for his money and see won't see one red dime of it - but when the gold digger resumes her work in town Jake's having to face the fact that there actually might be more to Laura than he first thought.
I haven't yet read a novella that got me to tear up, but Heart of Mine did - twice! The story is a beautiful, well plotted historical western romance with romance, emotional entanglements and one decrepit evil father trying to fulfill his plot with no regard for his daughter.
The character both were very realistic and 3 dimensional, Laura was so caring and good that against her father she really shined as the good girl, her love for Jake and how she but him first was truly emotional and really got me shedding tears. Jake was tough, very cool and collected until he begin to have feeling for his wife, who he wanted to despise. And of course tall, blond and built in a white cowboy hat wasn't a fault either. ;)
The romance was beautiful, it moved slowly but in very good speed for a novella. It was near sweet in the beginning but moved to full blow romance in the middle as it was a perfect fit for the story. I was nervous of them finally going to bed together because the plot was from the beginning that Jake took her virginity and thus had to marry her, but as it really didn't happen what Jake would do when he figured that out she was a virgin the "second time around" was so nerve-wracking!
A great story! Michelle Beattie did good in writing an engaging novella with depth, threat, emotion and romance!
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