Molly McFarlane comes to her drying sister Nellie's aid
after their father killed himself a month ago. She's in
shock to see how Nellie's second husband, Daniel Fletcher,
has been mistreating her and her six-year old niece, Penny
and eight-year-old nephew Charlie. Molly promises to take
the children with her after Nellie dies because Fletcher may
hurt them. But what she doesn't realize is that one of the
children has taken top secret papers that will incriminate
Fletcher and the man he works for regarding a new type of
artillery that may help the South rise again and start a
second Civil War. Molly and the two children have
disappeared and Fletcher has no idea where they went. Now
Molly maybe in grave danger because a very dangerous man is
searching for her, and won't stop unless he gets those
papers back, even if it means hurting everyone she cares for.
Things become very desperate for Molly because she has run
out of money. While she is on a train near El Paso, Texas,
it derails and Molly helps the victims due to her training
in medicine because of the years she had helped her doctor
father. When she hears that the railway will offer three
hundred dollars to the families of the deceased, she spots a
familiar man who kept eying her on the train and is now
close to death. She does something very unethical and
pretends to be his fiancée and marries him. But then his
brother comes and figures out that Molly is lying. He is
Brady Wilkins of the very profitable Wilkins Cattle and
Mining Company out of New Mexico, and the unconscious man is
Hank. Brady blackmails Molly where she has no choice but to
keep up the rouse.
When Hank comes to, he has no memory of Molly or their
marriage ceremony, but takes Brady's word for it. They head
out to the Wilkins' family ranch where Hank wants to court
Molly and get to know her all over again. Molly is torn
because her feelings for Hank have grown, but he has no clue
that she is deceiving him. As the months fly by, Molly is
still being stalked by a man, who is a true monster in face
and in spirit. She has to come clean to Hank before he
figures out her deception and before she is harmed.
Fans of Western Romance will truly enjoy OPEN COUNTRY by
Kaki Warner. The second book in her Blood Rose Trilogy is
well-written, has wonderful description of the frontier life
in the early 1870's and characters you can really connect
with. Hank has a reputation of being hard and mean, but this
is never shown, especially in the way he treats Molly and
her two charges. His interaction with Penny and Charlie are
delightful and his feelings for Molly, and the way he acts
on them, will make your heart swell.
The first part of OPEN COUNTRY is everything I could have
hoped for in a romance. Things slide a bit when the
dastardly villain confronts Molly. The Wilkins' men are
worthy warriors who can protect Molly and take down any bad
guy, but all of a sudden they act unsure even though the
villain lurks around with no real weapons and is vastly
outnumbered. The way Molly handles this situation turned me
off a bit, especially without any thought to her safety
Kaki Warner is really making a name in the Western Romance
genre. Even with a few issues on my end, I found myself
right in the middle of all the action and can't wait to read
the third and final book in this lovely trilogy.
The award-winning Blood Rose trilogy continues in a bold
romance of the Old West by the author of Pieces of
Sky.
From a "truly original new voice in
historical fiction"* (New York Times bestselling
author Jodi Thomas) comes the second novel in a
passionate new saga of the three Wilkins brothers, living
and loving on the dangerous American frontier. It's a tale
of unlikely romance in an unforgiving land, where the
greatest reward awaits those with the will to overcome all
obstacles.