#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 20%

Chapters Prologue - 5 (spoilers in updates).........

I have to start by saying that I love that this couple is smiling/laughing at each other, usually these covers have the couple have either lustyface or seriousface, so this is a nice, sweet little alternative. I can appreciate the heroine's grip on the hero's hair, too. Hey-o!

The prologue starts us off in Manhattan in 1862 and I'm wondering if there is going to be some American Civil War in this, the blurb didn't have me thinking that but, we'll see.

The thought of being unable to watch over her cut him like a knife. And it twisted his gut that nobody else seemed to give a damn whether or not she was safe.

Our hero's thoughts have him calling himself Noble but the heroine calls him "Slats" but Noble is seventeen and the heroine Venice is 12yrs old. Venice's dad, Trevor Leiland seems to be a philanthropist and do-gooder. He seems to have taken Noble from the "slums" and given him a job. Noble is annoyed how Trevor is so trusting and so he tries to keep an eye on Venice. He does some rescuing (the villain Noble rescues her from is the target of constant fat shaming) she isn't aware of it sets up their dynamic of worldly boy and spunky gal. 

The first chapter then fast forwards us 10 yrs in the future and Venice is on a train to Salvage, CO. She's looking for her paleontologist uncle that hasn't been heard from in 6months and wanting to prove to her father that her adventures that the New York papers have twisted to make her seem naïve rich girl aren't true. Her father's trying to get elected to a council and just wants her to get married. Venice realizes she'll have to eventually get married but wants to prove that she deserves a seat on her father's foundation to help write grants. Her uncle hasn't found any bones in the area so far and so the spur line that the Leiland pays for into Salvage, a tiny town in the Rockies, will probably be shut down. This will obviously devastate the town so Venice wants to come up with a way to make the town self-sufficient. 

On the train, Venice meets a Katie Jones who won The Gold Dust Emporium in a card game. They have some fun women bonding but when they get to the town, the Salvage Ladies' Conviviality League of the town's nine "proper" women are there to greet Venice and end up thinking she's Katie. The ladies are mad and the townspeople think Venice is there to show their town isn't worth keeping the line going and so Venice isn't exactly welcomed. 

The body looked like some sort of rodent, but the head was definitely a bird's, possibly a crow's. What made it so revolting was that someone had fitted the bird's head onto the rodent's body, securing it with a twist of wire threaded through the base of the skull. The wire was all but invisible until you turned the gruesome thing over. Somewhere in this town lurked some mighty disturbed children. Or perhaps, Venice thought, some perverse cult. The thought raised gooseflesh on her arms

Brockway gives the town a handful of characters that help set the small late 1800s town in the Rockies vibe. There's two brothers who got lucky and ended up owning the town's mercantile store and made a lot of money. They think if Venice finds skeletons, she'll keep the train line open and that gives us the previous scene. I had no idea what to think about it when I was reading it, lol.

There, arms braced on either side of the trough, just about to plunge his head once more into the muddy, grass-flecked water, was the most extravagantly masculine being Venice had ever seen.

EXTRAVAGANTLY MASCULINE

He was a Greek Olympian, a satyr, a pagan deity, and a Christian saint all in one.

All I can say, is girl is feeling it.

There was no way such a physical ideal could contain a mind worthy of it, she thought. Please, don't ruin it by doing something stupid, Venice silently begged the man. Like talking.

LOL. Who among us has not whispered this wish?

I don't think I'm going to surprise anyone but the guy Venice is jonesing over is Noble. Talk about coinky dinks! It seems Noble has been doing some scouting to help get a federal law to create some land around Savage into a National Park. I forgot to mention that while on the train, Venice had a thought about "Slats" but it was with her thinking about how he said he'd never leave her and he lied. So, some drama/angst there but we're left in the dark so far. Since it's been ten years, Venice doesn't recognize Noble because of all the muscle and manness he's packed on. 

With a sound of annoyance, the man wrenched the shirt from the rail and started to push an arm through a sleeve. Overwhelmed by the fear that he was going to cover all that wonderful sculptured flesh, Venice, without conscious volition, pursed her lips and let loose a low, clear, absolutely unmistakable whistle of appreciation. The man's head snapped up. This time Venice caught the flash of amber-colored eyes as his gaze moved across the verandah, seeking her. An expression Of puzzlement replaced his wariness. He punched his other arm through a sleeve. Venice sighed. "Why do you want to go and do that for?" she said softly, not recognizing the low, throaty drawl as her own, certain she had lost her mind but unable to stop the words from coming. "You're so… so… pretty just as you are!" The words arrested him in mid-motion. He stood still; not a nerve twitched. Slowly, captivatingly, a boyish smile spread across his face. A quiver of pure attraction nearly brought Venice to her knees. With a shrug, the man pulled the shirt off and casually tossed it over the rail. 

Looking up, he parted his lips. His straight teeth gleamed whitely. "Lady," he drawled on a grin, "you ain't seen nothin' yet."

I had to put this little scene up, it was so cute and then Noble getting playful and flexing his muscles and posing for her. A bit cheesy but still some cute playfulness. Venice is on a balcony and shadowed so he can't see her and then since she is at the Gold Dust he thinks she's a prostitute and they have some misunderstanding, sending Noble grumpily away.

"Venice is here, in Salvage?" The whispered words were drawn from his throat against his will.

Ooooh, the way Noble reacts to learning Venice is in town. The boy is still clearly so smitten with her. I know she was 12 and he 17 and there was no sexualness behind his protectiveness of her but he has read the newspaper accounts of her over the years and he is still clearly interested in her. It's obvious how his feelings will morph when he sees her grown up.

When he shows up to see Venice, Noble runs into a Cassius Thornton Reed, that he calls "Thorny" and obvious no love lost between the two. Reed's clearly there to get Venice to marry him and lined up to be our villain by the way he is portrayed.

Whatever she'd become, she'd been the one bright spot in the gray, dirty world of his youth. And he hadn't realized she'd left an empty place in him, until she returned to fill it. 

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"Darling, you don't have to defend yourself to me. I thought all those newspaper stories I read about you would make a difference in how I feel, but they don't. I don't give a damn about them or what you think you are." Lord help him, it was the truth. "All I know is that you're here and it seems like I've spent the past decade waiting for you." 

*********************

"I know you like I know the rhythm of my heart."

See, smitten! Off hand, I can't think of a hero who so early on delivers some hell of lines, that show him deeper than the heroine. I mean, "All I know is that you're here and it seems like I've spent the past decade waiting for you." and "I know you like I know the rhythm of my heart." Gah! 

Venice didn't know who he was, Noble realized. It was an odd sensation. As though all of his flesh was hardening into stone, while inside he was shattering into thousands of lethal, piercing shards. He kept his eyes on the crown of her head. He couldn't look into her eyes. It was all he could do to stand before her.

And then you have the heroine still not recognizing him. The dude's feefees are mega hurt and look, I've read enough stories where the heroine is in this position, so I kind of enjoyed it. But dang, after the spouting off he did, ouch, my man. Noble leaves without telling her who is and I just hope this not knowing doesn't go on too long.

His golden eyes gleamed; the moonlight washed over his clean, angular features. They were set in a fierce, familiar expression. And suddenly she knew. "Slats McCaneaghy," she breathed.

Ok, well, yay! Her not knowing doesn't last long. 

There seems to be a parent's messed up marriage that could be affecting Venice and some rich girl burned him from Noble to create some angst to keep them from simply getting together. The town and it's people are nicely vibed, we have a villain set-up, a heroine that could veer into annoying territory but seems to have depth to back up her actions and thoughts, and a hero who seems to be a pining mess. I'm liking!