The Fragrance of Her Name

At first I thought this book was weird, then delightful, then way too long.

It is about a young lady named Lauryn who has been haunted all her life by her dead great uncle Brand, meanwhile a Brands great nephew is being haunted by Brand's dead wife Lauralynn who is Lauryn's great aunt.

Lauralynn's body was never found and there for she has never been at rest and Brand can't be at rest without his one true love.

After years of never knowing about each other Lauryn and Brant (the nephew) meet and begin their search of Laurlynn's body together in the hope of putting these two souls at rest and joined once and for all.

Sigh....what a book.

I am not sure if I had a hard time because it was so long (or at last felt like it) or if I made the mistake of starting Downton Abby while in the middle of the book.  Made it hard to focus on reading when I really just wanted to watch TV.

Anyway.  It is a good story, sweet love story (times 2).

The Heavenly Surrender

This has been bar for my favorite McClure book so far.  It was wonderful from the get go.

I no longer have the book so I have no clue the names of the people in them....deal with it.

The story goes...a young (obviously hot) Irish farmer puts a want add for a wife in the paper.  Not a romantic wife...a woman to work side by side to cook and clean for him.  Not kiss.  He expected and hoped for an older lady who knew what she was doing.  Instead he got a young beautiful city girl.

One of the great things about these romance novels is that you know exactly how it will end...the fun is how. This book was filled with passion (clean) and some really intense moments.  When I say intense I really mean bad guys trying to kill the good guys.

So the things I didn't like about this (and probably all McClure books for that matter)  THE LONG CHAPTERS are killing me.  There is no real good stopping place.  So annoying.  Also in the last pages of the book it was so intense...the kind of intense where I was ready to stay up until 1 am to finish it.  It became a nail bitter.  SO GOOD....until I realize the last pages where MISSING.  that has nothing to do with the author but so frustrating...although Dave and I did have a good laugh about it.

I have read 3 McClure books now and this is my favorite.

Dusty Briches

Ahhhh....nothing beats a story about cowboys!  Why is that?

Dusty is the daughter of the ranch owner and she grew up surrounded by ranch hands...many of which were very handsome (duh).  One of which she fell in love with as a little girl.  When she was 14 her cowboy (who was 20) left the ranch and broke her heart...instead of dealing with that heart ache like a normal person she mopped around until the banker's son started courting her and then he broke her heart and instead of dealing with it she grew bitter and angry and held on to her hurt day in and day out.  She had a father and sister who then had to deal with Dusty being a downer all the time.  And then on glorious day her cowboy came back to work on the ranch.  Would he want a bitter Dusty?  Would he help her find her true self again?  Would she be able to let go of all that ugliness inside her black whole of a heart to find true love once again in a pair of Levi's?

Oh man.  Did he. and oh boy did she (oh did I ruin it for you?)  I guess I should have said SPOILER ALERT...but in all honestly it is pretty obvious who is going to end up with who from the start.

I do enjoy a good western romance.  And this was a page turner...in fact I turned on the TV and instead of doing dishes I finished the book this morning.  GASP.  I am that way.  At times it was a little far fetched...but isn't that why we love them so much?

Here is what I didn't like about the book....I didn't know what year it was set in.  A silly thing really but it drove me nuts.  Also...they said things to each other that I doubt they would have said back then I always picture people back then a little more reserved and proper even on a rach....but that is most books.  If a book was written so that it matched real true life it would be slightly boring.  Right?  Ryder (the handsome cowboy) would sweep Dusty off her feet carry her to the barn and "kiss her lips raw."  I mean did they really do that?  The hired help making out with the daughters?  I bet so.  I think my biggest issues was how possessive the handsome cowboy was.  He would practically force the girl to kiss him.  Granted she wanted to and all that but did he have to hold her hands behind her back.  There were a few things that he said to her and did that I thought was a sign of a horrible future relationship.  Having said that....he is still a cowboy and there is something great about that.

I am glad I read this book and although it might seem like there was more wrong about it than right I liked it and would suggest it to others to read.  It was a page turner.  Also...it is a romance and since there isn't a sex scene that lasts pages like many romances it is clean with lots of wonderfully long kissing scenes.  And kissing passionately doesn't make me feel like I should be skipping it.  So that is a nice thing about this book.

If you have a week without anything to read pick it up...and be ready to fall for a cowboy...or at least start talking like one in your head.