Review: The Lion's Den

The Lion's Den by Alina Hurtado
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

How many of our choices would be different had we known the outcome in advance?

The Lion's Den was an mystery, suspense, and romance drama that took hiding it's big reveal very seriously. The beginning introduces readers to Laura's pov, a seemingly wide-eyed late twenties woman who sounds like she was set-up by her friend Lane to act as Donny's girlfriend. She's a fish out of water as Donny is involved in a cartel and her pov is immersed in fear but somehow always doing the right thing, to the point that the cartel members that she starts to befriend, make her a part of their business.

And there are times we meet a version of ourselves we didn't know existed.

Laura and Donny are kept in the shadows, as the story goes on, I think one of the reveals gives enough clues to what is going on but the bigger one, I think was forced kept hidden, which I mean in the sense if you go back and think about some of Laura's thoughts and actions, it doesn't make sense. While the vast majority of this story is from Laura's pov, there are a few from Donny and other side characters. Secondary characters play a big role in the story, kind of creating a family epic drama feeling, this family just so happens to be a cartel. One of the brothers that leads this cartel, Kid, seems to be very curious about Laura and beside herself, she is drawn to him, even though she's supposed to be in a relationship with Donny. There's some push and pull there, hyping up the drama, and building to the climax romantic drama.

And somehow we collided into each other,<?i> if only for a brief moment in time.

This was over five hundred pages and ends in a cliffhanger (the second book is out) so while there is that family epic drama I was talking about, there was also some slow pacing and stretching out with Laura almost dithering around. There was some Mary Sue with Laura, she can just do it all and doesn't recognize how hot she is! Almost all of the men just find her so resistible, to the point of putting lives and business in danger. The cartel side of the story world building was there if not fully believably structured out but the relationship drama was there enough to keep me reading. Laura makes an insane amount of questionable decisions, to the point you'll just have to go along with them for Drama's sake. The last twenty percent gives the hinted at reveals and a few very surprise ones that may have a few gasping. The cliffhanger felt predictable in it's line of Drama Plot and with the second book going another five hundred pages, if you're looking for some sensational, a bit drawn out, cartel, with family and romance drama, this series could drown you in it's pages.

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#TBRChallenge Review: A Bed of Spices

A Bed of Spices by Barbara Samuel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.

"I wish she had loved more wisely," Charles said heavily, looking away. "How could she love you, knowing how dangerous it was? How could you let her?"

September's TBRChallenge was “Lush Life”. I'm going back to NOT reading the back of books because this was the synopsis:
He filled her dreams with desperate longing...

The exquisite Frederica der Esslingen fled the castle to the herbalist's cottage. Rica could never give in to her father's wishes and marry the man her twin sister loved. Another man, a stranger, set her blood racing and understood her bold, searching heart. Yet he was denied her forever.

She set him afire with forbidden desire...

Son of a wealthy Strassburg merchant, and determined to become a physician, Solomon had come to study the herbalist's art. It was there, in a wild garden, that he first set eyes on Rica. Her golden-haired beauty and bold spirit bewitched him. As plague ravaged Europe, he struggled against his passion, risking his life for the woman he longed to hold in his arms forever on...A Bed of Spices.

Sounds “lush”, right? Y'all. Just, please be aware this book discusses/has antisemitism, rape of a child, physical abuse, and murder. I thought I'd get a purple prose heavy on the sexual tones and instead I just got HEAVY. It took me two weeks to finish this and it's about a month later that I'm sitting down to finally write some thoughts. I kind of wanted to forget this story but for readers that like some not oft discussed historical aspects in their historical fiction, I wanted to at least mention some things about this.

Throughout that summer, plague and pogroms raged through Germany.

It's Strassburg, Summer 1348, and we know what that means, the Black Plague is lurking around. True to form, no matter the time, people are frightened about a disease they don't understand and are blaming Jewish people for it, creating a dangerous atmosphere. So, of course, our FMC Rica, is falling in love with our MMC Solomon, a Jewish man studying medicine under the same midwife Rica goes to for herbs and medicines to help the people of her father's castle. Rica is also the twin sister of Etta, who is mute to just about everyone than Rica. When Etta was six, she was out walking with her mother when soldiers came and raped her mother to death and then raped Etta, leaving her unable to have children or have sex again. I told you, this book gets so dark. One of Rica's father's knights, Rudolf, wants to marry Rica and makes a deal with her father that he'll court her over the summer but if he still doesn't win her over, he still gets to marry her. Even though Etta seems to keep herself pretty distance from everyone, she likes Rudolf and this starts off Rica and Etta pretending to be each other at times to fool Rudolf. Rica thinks he'll eventually fall in love with Etta, not knowing how often Etta pretends to be her. Rudolf is very religious, growing more towards zealot as the story goes on and this causes him to see one of the sisters in his thoughts as a whore and generally just gets more erratic as they play with his mind by switching.

His eyes were grave when he looked at her, and weary beyond measure. "There is no force that can stop fear, liebling. Remember that."

The romance has that “trying to fight it but not too hard” back and forth between Rica and Solomon, as they both know her being a Lady and him being Jewish kind of forbids them to be together. There's also the added danger growing as the Plague gets closer and the danger for Jewish people grows because of antisemitism. It all comes to a head when Solomon's father finds out about their romance and he beats Solomon, trying to put fear into him about he's risking his life and the end of summer has Rudolf wanting to marry Rica. Solomon is told by his father that Rica died and leaves town, while Rica prepares to marry Rudolf thinking it's her way of saving Solomon, only to be drugged by Etta, who has also steadily grown more erratic, and takes Rica's place as Rudolf's bride. Because of the physical damage from the rape, Rudolf realizes he married the wrong sister and this causes him to strangle Etta to death.

We're at 50%. If you're still hanging in there, some comic relief:
His limbs trembled so violently he reached for a crotch of the tree to brace himself.
Romance, where even the tree crotches get action!

"It seems we are fated to meet, my lady. What are we to do?"

Rica's been miserably living at home as her once bestfriend father won't speak to her because he blames her for Etta's death, thinking Rica maneuvered it so Etta had to marry Rudolf. It takes the midwife straight talking the father to finally get him to see the truth. Meanwhile, Solomon ends up surviving the Plague, causing him to go back home and in his traveling ends up seeing Rudolf whipping himself because he has joined the flagellants (still doesn't feel like a justice enough ending for him to me). Once home, Solomon immediately runs into Rica, who pretends to be Etta but Solomon's not fooled but goes along with it for the moment. Once he is reunited with his father, all the antisemitism catches up with them and we get Solomon relaying this make you tear up story to Rica when he decides to finally go to her:
"My father pretended he would leave with me on Friday. I dressed as you see me now to travel. When the mob came to arrest us with the others, he screamed that I was trying to convert him." Solomon raised his eyes, unable to quell his grief. "He would not come with me. He screamed that he'd rather die a Jew than—" Overcome, Solomon bent his head. "And die he did."

With Rica's father also dying (a stroke), they decide that life's too short to be apart and get married. Their love doesn't solve antisemitism though, and they recognize the danger and decide to move to Cairo, where Solomon's ancestors originally moved from. It felt a little out of left field to me but maybe there was a historical movement by Jewish people at this time to Cairo that I'm not aware of. So, they get their HEA but my god, what a not make you particularly feel good love story, however, there was good historical context and feel if you're wanting a different time period historical romance, just be prepared for all those trigger warnings.

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Review: Broken Rival

Broken Rival by Tessa Bailey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

My parents abandoned me fifty-two years in the past.

A dystopian young adult romance that leaned into the teenybopper feel. Magnolia's parents were scientists in the year 2076 who found a way to invent time travel, which ends up causing catastrophic results for the year 2024. While they tried to keep the technology restricted to trusted users, it gets out to the masses, and in a world where resources and environmental concerns are rampant, everyone is trying to travel back. This causes havoc for 2024 and with people trying to protect their resources in their time, a General Cyrus gets power and he uses it to kill any time travelers that come through. Magnolia's parents are killed when they come through but she's only sixteen years old at the time, causing people to stick up for her and she ends up being taken in by a family. A family with two sons, one who seemingly loves her right away and one who seemingly hates her on sight.

After Magnolia's initial arrival, the story then jumps two years and she's eighteen about to graduate high school and dating Fallon, the son who was taken with her right away, while Ramsey, the son who seemed to hate her left the house Magnolia's staying at with his mother and stepfather, and is working and living with his father, who just so happens to be the killer General.

The story had some interesting time travel plot, the whys of people clamoring to time travel back and how the current time period people react, some shadowing of current immigration issues. However, it didn't really capture me with the romance. Ramsey's revealed instalove made no sense to me, he never knew Magnolia nearly enough to immediately be saying lines like: “Like I said, I’ll go breathe somewhere else.”
Two beats pass. “What about me? How will I breathe, then?”
I think it was around twenty percent when some “I love yous” were said and I was just baffled by it all because at no time did I think there was enough substance between the two for such statements.

The story got a little better for me deeper in, Magnolia realizing Fallon's controlling love was not healthy and more development of the time travel politics. However, I found myself not a personal fan of how the characters younger ages, eighteen and twenty-one, was written with them forgoing a condom and baby talk; it's all personal dislike but with the climate in the US right now, it felt like I was suddenly reading a story implementing an appeal I'm not personally about.

The ending gave some us some action and a switch in pov from all Magnolia's to Ramsey's and some quick, sloppy to me, reveal about Magnolia's true power her parents gave her. I thought a storyline was going to be continued in a next book but it was surprisingly wrapped up and an epilogue gave us an HEA. Some interesting dystopian time traveling concepts here but for a younger demographic that would probably enjoy a less depth filled romance.

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Review: False Flag

False Flag by Rachel Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Jake stood at the foot of his bed, a bemused look on his face. “Please tell me you aren’t armed this time.”
She hesitated for just a moment, then dropped the towel, raising her hands high. “As you can see, no weapons.”
“That’s debatable.” Jake’s voice came out hoarse.

Rachel Grant is back with book four in the Evidence: Under Fire series and it contained all the action, history, and hotness that I've discovered are hallmarks of her storytelling. If you've been reading the series you'll remember Staci, this starts off with her having a sparking moment with a guy named Jake she meets at a pseudo-archaeology podcaster's dinner that she's semi-undercover at, she shuts down anything before it can really get started. Jake's there to try and repair a very strained relationship with his older brother and not an active listener, so he crashes and burns when he tries to impress, the unbeknownst to him, phd student working to show how and why pseudoscientists spread disinformation. When they meet again five months later, the attraction is still there and they'll get an opportunity to explore it when Staci gets picked to join the podcaster's archaeological expedition team and Jake, a Navy SEAL, gets sent in undercover to discover how a billionaire, podcaster, and the Vice President of the United States are entwined.

While exposing him was a goal and even the main benefit, she was also doing it for science.

You could easily pick this up without reading the series, you'd miss some friendship connections and maybe start off a little confused how Navy SEALS and a group called the Friday Morning Valkyries, archaeologists and intelligence agents working to covertly protect archaeological sites and stop artifact looting and trafficking, are all connected but there's just enough rehashing to get new readers caught up. The secondary characters work great as emotional touchstones and series baiting, I need Vickie and Teague's book now. As with most of Grant's stories, there's intricate and complex suspense story weaving; sometimes I think there are too many moving parts but I'm not sure what I could say to take out, you just need to be ready to lock-in when your're reading.

She could hear him whispering her name now, feel his lips trailing on her skin.

This had open-door hotness and I liked the chemistry between Staci and Jake. I thought it took a little while to get Jake's character going because of the front heavy story setting up but Staci was an interesting enough character to carry the load and then with Jake's familial drama coming in, we get good emotional investment from him. The villains were timely with their evilness, making it easy to root for Staci to give readers a living vicariously through her to enjoy some joy revenge. I just really enjoy this series' world Grant has created, for romantic suspense, it's one of the best going right now. I mean, where else can you get believable danger, Pig War(!!!)mention, citogenesis explaining, and a devious paintball war kiss.

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Review: Unspeakable Things

Unspeakable Things by Elizabeth Hand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

I wanted to bite someone, to draw blood. To run and never stop. 

It's after the first World War and Olivia is coming of age in Cornwall with her struggling to still have a career actor and playwright father and his companion, Martin. She loves the moors and dressing as a man and when she meets Tasmin, her “Oliver” finds it's match in “Tommy”. When her cousin gets sent to them to rethink his got caught misbehavior, she suddenly finds herself at a houseparty and getting caught up in Tasmin's dreams, fighting to keep secrets, and the naivety of youth's thinking of invincibility. 

That thread of power that hummed between us had been spun into a web. We were invisible, seen yet not known. We were inviolable. 

The Cornish setting with it's winds and cliffs and the old rambling estate helped to set the Gothic tone all before the mystery and murder came onto the pages. It was all hushed as the genre tends to keep it's cards to the vest with first person point-of-view to keep the reader in the dark about certain characters' motivations. Olivia worked as an eighteen year old coming into her own power as conventionally good looking and being the focus of men's dark desires. Her lack of interest and wanting to be left alone with Tasmin to make a life gave a little different direction and dimension but the same Gothic beats were all there with Tasmin being clouded with murder-y shadows. 

“[...You like to see how close you can get to the edge of things without falling. Not as close as you believed, as it turns out....]” 

The pace picked up when Olivia, Tasmin, and her cousin go to the houseparty and we get outside influences affecting the Oliver and Tommy bubble. The host Rex de Voil with his standoffish but seemingly drawn to Olivia (and drawer full of women's hairbrushes) brings in some more dread but as things picked up to come to a head, the ending felt like a whiff to me. The slow burn that was finally leading somewhere suddenly cuts off with numerous threads left dangling, left to the reader to decide if Olivia's youthful sense of power will be her downfall or if Oliver and Tommy will succeed in all the ways they hope to. It was hard not feeling like when the story finally was starting to go somewhere it abruptly ended, it didn't give the feeling of “left to your imagination” but rather, “leaving it for the sequel”, making me feel like I didn't get much of a story. I was drawn the most to Olivia's father's companion Martin and Rex de Voil's housekeeper, would love to read their novellas. Some Gothic atmosphere, murder and mystery, but ultimately, felt unfinished and unexplained.

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Review: A Nest of Magic

A Nest of Magic by Kate Moseman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“If everything is magic, then nothing is magic.” 

Nest of Magic was a perfect cozy magical realism story about coming out of your shell and meeting your person. Corinthia is a librarian in Shadow Ridge who's a little bit uptight and stuck in her routine but luckily has a bestfriend, Stevie, who pushes her to chase her feelings for Rosemary, a new woman who entranced her as soon as she walked into the library. Rosemary comes off ethereal and maybe a little, airy, but Corinthia can't help but want to leave her ridged world and connect with her. 

But just as she could not resist turning pages to find out what happened next, she could not resist knowing what might lie behind that door. 

When Corinthia loses a bet with Stevie, she has to take a walk in the Refuge, a protected park in the scrublands of Florida, connected to their town. When she has an unexplained experience, ended up in a part she's never seen before, her eyes start to get opened to the possibility of magic and she starts to wonder if Rosemary is somehow connected. This was mostly told from Corinthia's point-of-view but we get a Rosemary Interlude that let the reader in on Rosemary's story and why she is acting the way she is, even when she also shares feelings for Corinthia. 

 “We are all secretive about certain things.” 

Along with Corinthia and Rosemary trusting and finding their way to each other, there was a secondary romance, grounded more in realism, between bestfriend Stevie and Drew, who owns a food truck and is the local handywoman. If you're not into the spooky side of the Halloween season but want to embrace the magic, this would be a perfect pickup. This was low-stakes, cozy, sweet, and all about loving who the person is, no matter their form. The ending gave us a fun and sweet Corinthia's dog Beaufort's Interlude with a happily ever after.

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Review: The Pumpkin Bride

The Pumpkin Bride by Fiona Buttercup
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

To be seen was to be loved. 

The Pumpkin Bride was a cozy light read that would be fun to start off the Autumn season with. Taking place in a fantasy land, Bram has left Thornwick to make a name and fortune for himself so he can feel worthy of asking for Princess Marigold's hand. Unfortunately for him, he's put his trust and future in Prince Crispin's hands and when he betrays him, Bram ends up cursed by a sprite and turned into an orc. 

Now living as Jask Bone-Cracker on Grimroot farm, he's not allowed to leave the farm or tell anyone his true name, he's managed to make a life for himself these past three years. When his true love suddenly shows up at his door asking for shelter, he's panicked thinking she could be risking her life but with Crispin hunting her, they're to be married, Bram can't help but let her stay on the farm. 

This was light and cute with, while, not a lot of depth, some thinking of worthiness, and being true to yourself. Marigold's magic added some extra fantasy touches but the whole world structure surrounding magic felt a little off with the “it's banned” “the prince uses it”, for some pick and choose to what needs to fit for the moment. I also thought Marigold pretty much had the whole Bram/Jask thing figured out fairly quickly but got conveniently moved away from at points to keep it going. 

If you're into cozy fantasy worlds more than me, you would probably enjoy this; I got tired of some of the focusing on mundane tasks and would have liked more focusing/filling out of plot and characterization. There were some open-door scenes and what I thought was a quick wrap up to a happily ever after. Light and cozy autumn vibes to get you into the season and an orc for those into that :).

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Review: Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

He says, “Listen to me. You’re going to be scared, but you can make it yours. You can have everything you never had. I’m sorry I had to scare you earlier, but I had to get you here. I’m so sorry, Jason. I’m doing this for both of us.” 

Oof, well, that was a wild intense ride. Told from Jason's point-of-view the reader is on the ride with him as he starts off his normal day of saying goodbye to his wife Daniela and his son Charlie before supper as he goes to meet a friend for a quick celebratory drink. Instead of making it home, he gets kidnapped, taken to an abandoned warehouse, told to strip, shot up with some drugs, and then thrown into a box. He wakes up surrounded by people he doesn't know but seem wildly excited to see him. 

And maybe that’s what makes tragedy so tragic. Not just what happens, but how it happens: a sucker punch that comes at you out of nowhere, when you’re least expecting it. 

What follows was a multiverse thriller with heart. I watch Rick and Morty, so I'm pretty, well, versed, in the multiverse concept. I do not, however, have a PHD in physics, so while I got a little glazing at moments when the author got into the weeds of describing, I think it was detailed enough to seem credible and explanatory for understanding and believing for a fiction story. If you haven't watched Rick and Morty and/or you're smarter than me, then your mileage will vary. From the moment Jason1 starts the ride, I was hooked and flew through this book. 

And maybe I can let go of the sting and resentment of the path not taken, because the path not taken isn’t just the inverse of who I am. 

When Jason manages to escape the world that Jason2 came from, with a psychologist named Amanda, the bleakness sets in as he becomes lost in all the different doors of roads taken and not taken. While, as the reader, you can get a little lost in the sheer enormity and complexity of the multiverse theory, I think the author still managed to get the emotional aspects in there, especially when, a bit fortuitously, Jason finds his world again, and we get him reuniting with his Daniela and Charlie. 

Daniela says, “Life doesn’t work that way. You live with your choices and learn. You don’t cheat the system.” 

As Jason fights to get his life back, the last half had a surprise that I should have seen coming (but I don't have a PHD in quantum mechanics!) and really started boggling my mind. The thriller aspects of this are pretty much the star of the show but, like I mentioned, the emotional moments when Jason reflects about choices not picked almost got me teary for a moment, because I think everyone thinks about The Choices that obviously forked their lives, if you believe in the Many-Worlds interpretation. It gives readers a moment to think about how other versions of themselves are out there living those lives and I do think, like Jason, makes you more appreciative of the fork You took (unless you're the Jason who had chunks torn out of his back). 

A thriller that had me not wanting to put the book down with some hitting emotion. 

Does Amanda get her own story??

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#TBRChallenge Review: Heart of the West

Heart of the West by Penelope Williamson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.

I started this a couple days before August 19, TBRChallenge day, and what a sweet summer child I was thinking I could finish it on time. First off, it's 700 some pages but pre-reading slump Whiskey could have done it! Slowly coming out of slumplandia Whiskey didn't have a hope, PLUS holy god was I not prepared for the encompassing this story was going to deliver. August's theme was Backlist Banger, I went to the ancient artifacts on my bookcase from the 1900s and picked an author I hadn't read since days of yore. I notoriously don't read the synopsis after I put a book on my tbr, no matter how many years it was shelved, but slump, so I flipped it over and read this was a historical set in the West and our female main character was going to lust after her brother-in-law. Sounds like a Backlist Banger! I went in expecting hot tension in the beginning and a husband getting trampled by buffalo by 20%. Y'all. What I got was a Louis L'Amour-esque epic but make it women's fiction and romance styled. This spanned 12 years (ok, after doing the math, this surprises me, would have said 30 years lol) and had a historical romance husband that lingered around late enough that when something does happen, you'd almost wish it hadn't.

"It's not a lot," her mother was saying in a strained whisper. "Not more than a hundred dollars. But it would be a good start for you, should you ever need to run away someday from this man you are running off with now."

This starts 1879 in Boston as seventeen year old Clementine is setting up to run-off with a cowboy. We get that pull you in with the sense of a little bit of danger as it's obvious Clementine fears her dad and with her mom coming in and quietly aiding her. There's some internal flashbacks by Clementine as she remembers her preacher father striking her and all around trying to smother her spirit and make her be who he thinks a girl/woman should be and observations by Clementine as she grew-up watching how her mother was around her father. When her mother hands Clementine her saved up money, your eyes are going to water because you'll think about hows/whys her mother didn't use the money to save herself. It's a common theme throughout this story, commentary on societal structures and how they benefit some and not others. It was mostly focused on speaking to sexism but out west where Clementine encounters Native Americans, fallen women, and different nationality mail order brides, there was some racism discussions too. There were a couple times I felt Clementine started to fall into the white savior role but there are numerous point-of-views in this story and all the characters I mentioned get pretty/decent full mini-stories played out to fruition that was pleasantly surprising.

Clementine Kennicutt looked back to the house, to the window of the room that had been hers for all of her life. A flickering light flashed once and was gone—her mother lifting a candle in a brief and lonely farewell.

When Clementine runs off with Gus McQueen, her cowboy she met on the Boston streets when he runs her over on a bike, we get more internal flashbacks to why she made this choice. With a fun historical tidbit we learn a maid in Clementine's house shared her five cent Wide Awake Library's Wild West series novels with her (there was a scene where Clem's father finds out and fires the maid where Clementine is crying saying “you're my friend” that made you hurt for her loneliness). So, Clem's a naive seventeen year old with allusions of what a wild west life will be like. Also, Gus is twenty-five and there was a cringe moment where he asks her age and makes a comment like “lord help me”, and if such age differences disturb you, well, there wouldn't be an ignoring that.

There ain't a man out here who wouldn't give his left ballock to be gettin' the cook, housekeeper, laundress, and all-round slave that you're gonna be to your man. Yup, slave and broodmare and bedmate all done up in the starchy trappings of an honest-to-God lady—Christ, the wonder of it stretches the mind." She hooted a laugh. "Dearie, you ain't only a rarity, you're a damned luxury!"

When Clem makes it to Gus' ranch in Montana, the rose colored glasses start to come off when she sees how rough the “town” and little cabin Gus' home is. And that he co-owns the ranch with his brother, Zach Rafferty. Which, when Clem first sees Zach he's looking like he walked off a Stetson's commercial, so, girl, same. There's that instant animosity between them that comes with sexual tension and not wanting/being able to act on and hating that you feel that way. Zach's constantly on her that she won't make it a year out there and that drives Clem even more to make it.

"I won't accept your different ways, Mr. McQueen. Not all of them."
A startled look came into his eyes; then his mouth tightened. "You will if I say you will."
"I won't."

With the years that this spans, you're going to be able to see and feel Clem's growth, her coming into her own. As she gets older and more experience seeing the world and mingling with people from all different walks of life, she starts to question things. Like, why can't she be friends with Hannah, the retired fallen lady who now owns the brothel? For his part, Gus is mostly blustering with his disapproval, they do have a blow out, but Clem's got a grit spirit and she always thinks back to how her father stifled her and she won't go back to the feeling.

"Oh, God, God, how could I have known, how could I have known? Up until that moment, you see, he was the closest thing I'd found to you."

Around 25% we get Clem and Zach cracking more under their attraction and it's that teeth gritting tense. You have that initial gut reaction of don't betray your husband and brother like that with the great layered character work of understanding why these two feel towards each other the way they do. Clem was too young to know herself, let alone who she could and want to love, and Zach has lived a life where he spent years not growing up with his brother and under the care of an awful father. Their personalities just go together better with both of them wanting to face the grit and Gus always turning away to not have to deal with the “hard” stuff. Clem's too strong for Gus and meets her match in Zach. It's not that Gus is necessarily “bad” but he's just not the right one for her, I appreciated the author not easy demonizing Gus, making this more taunt push and pull for the reader.

And she felt a rage at virtuous women like herself, who condemned their own kind for the things that were done to them by men.

Around 50% we jump to 1883 with Clem having given birth, a scene that binds her and Zach together even more and frays that rope that has them hanging on. There's also more of giving time to other side characters, Hannah and Zach have their own, sort-of, romance, Erlan the Chinese mail-order bride comes into the picture along with two brothers from Cornwall, and Gus and Zach's father makes some appearances, along with some other minor characters. There's dedicated time to their povs and stories.

"I always think of Montana as a he, for this is every bit a man's place, and you will hate him in the way that only a woman can hate a man. You will hate the wind and the dirt and the miserable cold winters, hate his harsh strength and his lawless, violent ways. And then one day you will realize that you have come to love him fiercely in the midst of all your hate. Love him in a way that only a woman can love a man..."

The setting was also huge in this, I wouldn't say it romanticizes American West pathos, but it did make me think of my own sod house ancestors and what those women endured. The characters and story show you the reality of how tough it was, child deaths, injuries, and the lack of rights but it also touches on the wrongness of how these settlers treated Native Americans and hunted food supplies to almost extinction for sport. It will get the conversations in your head going about they were gritty tough and they did awful things.

Zach's internal goodbye thoughts to Gus:
He thought sometimes that Gus was so stupid blind he couldn't track a fat sow through a snowdrift. He wanted to grab his brother by the scruff of his neck and shout into his face: You big, dumb son of a bitch. I want to fuck your wife. I eat, breathe, sleep, and fuck thoughts of fucking your wife, and if you weren't such a big, dumb son of a bitch you'd see it.

Zach's spoken goodbye to Clem:
"Clementine," he said, and her name came out of him broken and mangled. "My love for you won't stop with my leaving. Come an evenin' over the years, when you step outside your door and hear the wind blowing through the cottonwoods, that'll be me, thinking of you, whispering your name, and loving you."

Around 70% Zach realizes that rope is going to snap so in 1886, he leaves and we get more of Clem and Gus dynamics and trying to fit together when clearly Clem has just outgrown the marriage to him. But, circumstances being what they are, Clem makes it work and it's not to say there wasn't love between them, he just wasn't the best choice for her. There was also a quick little scene where the reader learns that Gus was aware of the reason for the tension between his wife and brother. I gasped, lol. But in true Gus character fashion, he just doesn't face it head on. Later on, Gus has this thought: “Sometimes he hated the strength he saw in her. Sometimes he thought he was married to a woman he didn't know, and didn't like.”
And I thought, bingo. “he hated the strength he saw in her.”

She looked from one dear friend to another. Saphronie, in her satin whore's dress, with her tears inked permanently on her face for all the world to see and shudder over. Erlan, in her blue quilted Oriental robe and English croquet sandals, with her homesick eyes. And Clementine... Clementine, looking so very Bostonian in a plain black muslin mourning dress with a high, stiff cleric collar, looking so very sad. How different we all are, Hannah thought. And yet how much the same, in all our woman's sorrows and fears and vulnerabilities. In all our woman's strengths, to have endured what we have.

I really liked the women bonding in this and it's clear in the story that they all needed each other and the different strengths each one brought to the table to survive the west. Also, as a little bonus, our Hannah gets an HEA with a younger man. There was also great heart hurting commentary on motherhood: She is all that I once had it in me to be, Clementine often thought, before my father and life beat it out of me. And she worried for her little girl's future. She wished she could wrap Sarah up against the pain that was coming as easily as she had bundled her up against the cold. For as sure as night ended even the sunniest of days, life would try to break her daughter's spirit. The world was cruel to little girls who didn't want to please, and to grown-up women who bravely spoke out and went their own way.

"It's hard, Clementine. Hard for a man to look into a woman's eyes and see love lookin' back at him. And to know that when she's lookin' at him, she's seeing not what he is, but what he ought to be."

Like I mentioned in the beginning, what you go in immediately wanting to happen, doesn't until around 80% and I was more sad than I thought I would be, kudos to the author. It's not until 1891 that Zach returns, four years after Gus is gone and seven years gone total. There's a period of feeling out between the two, both have grown even more and I think some fear of finally might be able to act on such deep feelings. The end also jammed in some economic and environmental plot that I felt intruded on Clem and Zach time in a way but also felt so timely with how the women are the ones to step up and initiate change, a women's march 1890s style.
So yeah, this story was a lot and the chunk of Clem and Zach's relationship is going to be individual character internal with the reader having to feel what is not said (I think the author accomplished it, I felt that fraying rope). If you're looking for a historical western romance that feels like an epic, willing to go on many journeys with different characters, and take the time to watch a character grow from naive seventeen to coming into her own, this would be one to hunt up.

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Review: The Beast in Him

The Beast in Him by Shelly Laurenston
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I liked how she started scratching him behind the ear with her hand and his leg almost started kicking. 

That's all I got, lol

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