Customer Reviews

Bad Penny (Harlequin Romance)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maggie Deaton has just came from prison, for cattle rustling, she is innocent, but she has to prove her innocence to the law.
Maggie's Lawyer Jason has his brother-in-law Ethan Kincaid take on Maggie as a new employee.
Ethan has no idea Maggie has been convicted of cattle rustling, he has a deep hatred for cattle rustlers.
When she tells Ethan she has just came out of prison he puts Maggie out in the worst storm of spring. Ethan turns Maggie out in the streets.
But he goes to get her. Ethan soon finds himself attracted to Maggie, but he fights it.
Cody the Sheriff comes along and finds out Maggie was struck by her step-brother Bret, the true thief. and he cooks up a plan to catch the thief. The Sheriff gets shot, and Ethan finds out Maggie is innocent, but he is quilty of loving her.

Back cover reads:
The Kincaid Ranch,
near Red Horse, Wyoming

Ethan Kincaid-He's got a rough-and-ready sense of justice; he's a man who makes his own rules, a rancher who wears his authority with confidence. He's a widower and a loner-and the loving father of a five-year-old girl.

Maggie Deaton-She's a rancher born and bred-but a rancher without a ranch. Framed by her stepbrother and convicted of livestock theft, she's spent the past two years in jail.

Maggie arrives on the Kincaid Ranch because she's been promised a job-a job that may not materialize. Not suprisingly, Ethan doesn't want a convicted cattle rustler working there. He also makes it clear that he doesn't want a woman as attractive and appealing as Maggie anywhere near him!

Maggie,a ex-con just reliesed from prison is determined to find the step-brother who framed her with live-stock theft.as soon as she gets out,she gets trapped in a snowstorm and eithen(a rancher)finds her a reluctantly gives her a place to stay,despite her past.eithen and maggie try to deny their feelings while the sheriff trys to catch maggie's step-brother.its pretty good,but it kind of drags on about ranching.i'd recommend it.

Maggie is fresh out of prison for a crime she didn't commit and looking for a job, with nothing but $50 in her pocket and the promise from her attorney his brother in law will give her a 2 week trial on his ranch as a ranch hand. When Ethan gets the full story about Maggie being an ex-con convicted of cattle rustling she is kicked out of the house and into a blizzard. Once Ethan's continuous gets to him, he finally drags her back to his ranch and lets her stay on never trusting her because of her past, while Maggie is just happy to be out in the open on a ranch again away from the small spaces of a jail cell.

This was an excellent western, but a rather poor excuse for a romance. The intrigue over the current cattle rustling in the area and Maggie coming to terms with getting out of prison and her new role in life is very well done, along with all the honest and wonderful emotions in her true to life character. That being said, the emotions of the romance rather left me cold. I think that a romance might have worked between Maggie and Ethan except the pacing of the story was way off. The whole thing took place in about 3 weeks and I couldn't get over how callous Ethan was and found based on his behavior it was ridiculous she would love him. He thought that women were basically just play things to be used and discarded when he got tired of them. When she asked what him kissing her meant and how long their "relationship" was going to last he told her, "For as long as it takes to put out the fire," he then when on to say "You haven't got the right set of chips to barter in exchange for a ring and a ceremony." Being a single father of a little girl I find that even worse to see his view of women. But certainly wouldn't forgive someone a week after telling me I wasn't good enough to marry just because he said sorry. It would take me a LONG time to get over that, especially if said comment was made in my bed.

I'm sorry but I just couldn't forgive him as a romantic lead, he was a wonderful anti-hero but I was seriously rooting for Maggie to go off and find her herself and not fall in love with him. I've read only one other Susan Fox book but it had the exact same problem of the overly nasty hero who's appology I just couldn't totally believe. If you can forgive more easily then read this and you won't regret it for a moment, but for me I just couldn't forgive him, even though I did believe he was sorry for his actions. She was the same person she always was but suddenly she was no longer trash when he found out she was innocent and that overly judgemental and self rightious attitude is not attractive to me.

5 stars for a western/drama and 2 stars as a romance but I have to even it out to 4 stars becuase the romance is really secondary to the drama.