Customer Reviews

Cheyenne Wife (Harlequin Historical)

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Lily St. Claire comes from a gentle life of priviledge, spending most of her life in fashionable academies learning the proper social etiquette needed to be a society wife. After she learns that her wealthy father is going to travel west for adventure, Lily decides that she simply must go with him - she dreams of spending time with the father she barely knows and building their dreams in Santa Fe. She isn't prepared for the hardships she faces on the trail, her father's untimely death, the well-kept secret he tells her, or being deserted at a fort by her wagon party. Worst of all, she has accrued a debt at the fort, and the men of the fort insist she pay it back - one way or another.

North Walker, a half-Cheyenne horse trader, knows that Lily St. Claire is trouble from the moment he saw her, but that doesn't stop him from "buying" her once she's in trouble. He wants her to teach his young sister the manners and customs of the East, and once she completes this task, he'll be more than happy to take her back East and be rid of Lily once and for all! The west is filled with danger and is no place for a lady like Lily...but when it comes time to take her back East, can North really let her go?

This book really had a good premise, and I believed that I would enjoy it immensely. Although it was an okay book, it's not one that I would read again. The book lags considerably in the middle, and it's quite boring in the middle - I was debating over whether I could actually bring myself to finish this book. For much of the book, the only setting is North's remote cabin or the immediate surrounding area, and I just got bored of it. There was not much to keep my interest! The book picked up in the end, but by that time it was too late to save it, and it felt like everything was crammed into the last 50 pages. There were loose ends left at the end, which disturbed me, as I like everything to end up nice and tidy at the end of a book. The book also read more like an Intrigue novel, which I suppose isn't too surprising since this historical series is the forerunner of the "Colorado Confidential" in the Harlequin Intrigue series. Unfortunately, I don't care much for Intrigue novels...

Despite the title, there is little "Cheyenne" in the book. The Cheyenne village pops up once in a great while, but it's never a major theme. North seemed almost completely divorced from his Cheyenne roots, which was disappointing, especially since he presumably spent at least part of his life growing up in a Cheyenne village. Although the stereotypes Lily has of Native Americans at first are historical, I didn't like her harping on them. Altogether, this book was okay, but it's not something that I will read again.

The storyline is good and it reads fast.