Customer Reviews

Bride of Willow Creek

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

 

 

When she was sixteen, Angie Bertoli married Sam Holland in Chicago. However, her father interceded, ending the relationship before the duo can begin learning how to be a married couple. Sam flees for the West while Angie remains home living in shame.

A decade later following the death of her father six weeks ago, a financially broke Angie travels to Cripple Creek, Colorado seeking Sam. She wants a divorce she can start anew. Angie meets Sam's two young children, Lacy and Daisy, offsprings of the deceased Laura, the woman he lived and loved with for several years. He informs Angie that he cannot afford to pay for a divorce, as he needs all his money to provide surgery for his youngest daughter. They agree to a business arrangement with her caring for his children and handling his money while he works as a carpenter and prays a mining claim comes through. As they learn to respect one another, Sam and Angie fall in love again, but for this pair it seems the opportunity of a relationship has past.

THE BRIDE OF WILLOW CREEK is an engaging western romance that sub-genre fans will enjoy due to the strong cast. Angie and Sam make a fine couple struggling with their joint and separated pasts and guilty feelings. His children, the look back at Laura, the townsfolk, and his in-laws add depth though his deceased wife comes across to perfect in a comparison with Angie. Still readers will fully relish Maggie Osborne's engaging historical romance.

Harriet Klausner

Humorous, sensitive, and emotional are but a few terms used to describe this latest read by Ms. Osborne, who seems to have a special knack when it comes to western historicals.

Angie Bertoli Holland was furious when Sam Holland left her in Chicago, shortly after their elopement ten years ago. When her domineering father refused to accept their marriage, Angie let Sam leave for undisclosed locations in the west. But when Angie finds herself penniless and homeless after her parents' deaths, she goes to Willow Creek, Colorado to find Sam and seek a divorce.

True to romance novel form, both Sam and Angie blame the other for the unfortunate turn of events ten years ago. However, spice is added to the pot when Angie discovers there is no place to stay while awaiting the divorce except with Sam and his two young daughters, Lucy and Daisy.

Providing complexity to Angie's character is her daily struggle with her feelings for Sam as well as loving his endearing children and coming to terms with Laura, their dead mother. And she and Sam are both faced with the ultimate decision of all, whether to repeat their mistakes of ten years ago or swallow their pride and reach for the brass ring.

The interesting cast of supporting characters, from the neighborly Molly and Can Johnson of Willow Creek to the Govenors, Laura's wealthy controlling parents, further enhances this read. Following in the footsteps of SILVER LINING and I DO, I DO, I DO, Ms. Osborne's latest is not to be missed.

I thought I only liked historical romance and time-travel romance (a la Diana Gabaldon). I thought I disliked western romance. But that all changed when I read Ms. Osborne's SILVER LINING (then saw HBO's DEADWOOD series too). BRIDE OF WILLOW CREEK is my third. I can't put them down. I'm rarely so involved with characters. But this author has a way of really making every situation so realistic. Her situations are so REAL and so unusual. Not your average romance novel settings that's for sure. These women have troubles. They are not always perfectly beautiful, but they are perfectly beautiful inside. They are strong heroines all on their own, don't fall in love with rapists, aren't conquered by barbarians they fall in love with. Thank you Maggie Osborne! I enjoy your writing so much I can't say enough good things about it. But I wish your books were a tiny bit longer because I am so happy but sad when they're done.

"The Bride of Willow Creek" was an enjoyable read. I especially liked the heroine Angie and the two little girls, Lucy and Daisy.As for Sam, he was ok, but nothing that really captured my interest. My main problem with this book was Angie and Sams frustrating stubborness to profess their love to one another. They were intimate,and completely open about their enjoyment of eachother, but still they refused to admit that they wanted to stay in their marriage. To me, this just seemed like a ploy to keep the story moving. All in all, not bad, but definitely not a keeper.

This is the second book I have read by Maggie Osborne. Easy on the ears and eyes! A glimpse into the Old West where things were tough especially for women. Her repartee is engaging and sweet. Read her "The Best Man" for some real education and laughs in the Old West. Good, light story.. always a sweet ending. Nice summer reading.

This is certainly an unusual story, as are most of the novels by Ms. Osborne. This was the book that I chose to read right after falling in love with Ms. Osborne's writing style after reading Silver Lining. However, for some reason I read a couple of pages and found my interest straying towards some other book and I had all but forgotten about it until my pile of to-be read Ms. Osborne novels have shrunk into 1 or 2 books. And finally after reading this book, I for the world of me cannot understand why I put this book away because yes, this book is really good.

Ten years have passed since Angie Bartolli then sixteen years old had married Sam Holland. Angie with a formidable father had not been ready to defy him and leave with her then husband for whom her father felt nothing but loathing saying right to his face that Sam would never be able to make anything for himself. Both Sam and Angie had been young, both expecting things from the other that they had not been mature enough to understand or give. Thus Angie had stayed behind, a married innocent, whilst her husband Sam made his way to the West swearing that he would make something of himself by prospecting for gold and silver.

Now Angie's parents have passed away and left her broke with nothing to live on. Angie wants her life to start and yearns to actually live as a married woman. Practically designated the position of a wallflower after being deserted by her husband, Angie had always been on the outside looking in, until Peter De Groot shows an interest in her and wants to start a life with her. Wanting the divorce that she should have obtained long back, without any funds to achieve what she wanted, Angie makes her way to Sam hoping that he would pay all the expenses for the year long period that she would have to wait for the divorce to come through.

The Sam that she encounters is a grown up, more vital and more handsome version of the man that she fell so swiftly in love with. Old resentments that they both thought they had buried long ago come rising to the surface, both blaming the other for a marriage that never in reality began. When Sam realizes that Angie has nowhere else to go and that he is in no financial situation to pay for the divorce that the both of them wants, the only solution is for Angie to take residence at his small place.

At Sam's place Angie encounters Lucy and Daisy, the adorable daughters of Sam, which shock Angie more than anything else. The immense feeling of betrayal she feels when she hears that Sam had been living with Laura, the mother of his daughters until she had died of pneumonia, Angie doesn't know whether to start crying or to start screaming. The one thing Sam regrets more than anything else is the fact that he was never able to offer his name and respectability to Laura, a fact that he, Laura and her parents only knew. But the arrival of his wife, which Sam resents with everything he is, definitely stirs up the story which makes Sam's resentment to the forced arrangement grow.

Upon meeting Daisy, the youngest of the two girls, Angie realizes why Sam has other priorities at the moment. Born with club foot, the surgery required to correct the defect cost the earth and Sam was determined that this time as soon as he got enough money Daisy would be his number 1 priority. And with the courts having sentenced Sam that if during the 1 year period he is unable to get the surgery done on Daisy he would have to give up both his daughters to their grandparents, who loathe Sam for "seducing" their daughter into an immoral life with him.

Angie who doesn't know squat about caring for children, slowly learns what it is like to lose your heart to two beautiful girls who could try your patience until you no longer have any left. With Lucy fighting Angie and her affections every step of the way, life is a constant battle for Angie. And feelings she had never come across before start to haunt and taunt her with her alluring husband so close by. Intimacies that develop over living in a small space contribute towards the raging inferno that is ignited inside Angie, and suddenly every waking thought and dream she has is full of Sam and the way he could make her lose herself in desire she had no right feeling now.

Sam thought that anything he had felt for Angie 10 years back had long since being buried. But the woman that Angie has grown into is more alluring than he can resist. With her fiery spirit and courage, and her affection towards his two girls Sam slowly starts to fall in love with Angie all over again.

However, trust and belief in the other that has always been the problem between the two nearly breaks them apart once again. This was a heartwarming read on how Angie comes to care for the two girls who adorable and equally headstrong, how Angie tries to save and scrape whatever Sam earns so that Daisy could have the surgery she needs before custody would be awarded to their grandparents. I definitely loved Angie as the heroine and needless to say I wouldn't mind a Sam Holland of my own! *winks*

Beautifully done, this is a marvelous read any true romantic would love.

Final Grade: A-

Reviewed by: Maldivian Book Reviewer [...]

Western Historical.

Angie Bartoli and Sam Holland.

Angie eloped with Sam, against her father's wishes when she was 16. She, and Sam, allowed her father to pull them apart just hours after the ceremony.

Fast-forward ten years. Angie's father died, leaving the estate bankrupt. Angie has formed a relationship, proper with no physical attachment, with another man that has asked her to seek a divorce from Sam so they can be married. Angie tracks Sam down, and shows up expecting him to bankroll the costs of the divorce.

In the ten years they've been separated, Sam found love with another woman, Laura, who died. He is raising their two daughters, Lucy and Daisy. Daisy has a club foot and needs an expensive surgery. Sam is saving every single penny towards that goal. He cannot bankroll the divorce.

Angie has nowhere to turn. Sam is a man of honor and integrity - despite his adultery...that sounds really bad, and in reality it would be, but it flows for this work of fiction.

The story is about how Sam and Angie work toward being able to afford a divorce, and become a family with Lucy and Daisy in along the way.

I loved this book, and recommend it, fully.

Maggie Osborne does not write enough books to satisfy my hunger for her storytelling ability. It is one in which you will laugh, cry and stay awake until the last page is read.

Thanks, Maggie!

Maggie Osborne is one of the best writers in the business. Her stories are fresh and unique. The heroine is written to perfection. Not your average romance tale that repeats itself in book after book. I would highly recommend anything by Ms. Osborne - especially this one.

This is the story of reunion between Angie and Sam of forgotten love. When Angie meet Sam for their divorce, she never expected Sam to have another woman in his life and 2 kids in tow, Lucy and Daisy. The delightul characters of 2 very adorable girls smacked me right on head. I love Angie for her strong characters, but much is left to be desired with the book. The author did not explain how Lucy and Daisy come into the custody of Sam.

This book is not a keeper. I prefer I Do, I Do, I Do much better.