Customer Reviews

The Heart of a Legend

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3 star:		(1)
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I have to admit that I never knew this wonderful legend of Billy the Kid and I was totally caught up in this outstanding read by author Amy Lignor. We begin the read with excitement as we meet Paulita Maxwell making her way to the wild territory of Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 1877. This is where she first meets William H. Bonney, better known to us as, "Billy the Kid," who comes to the aid of her and her brother and halts the attack of some renegade Indians. Immediately there seems to be a connection between the two. As the story continues on we are taken with Paulita a she storms the wild territory with her strong will and wit and we watch as the love between Paulita and Billy grow.

We are taken into the lives of the people there, read the battle that they have with evil, greedy, rich, powerful men who are bent on having total prominence, ownership and control over the land and the people of the area. However there are those who challenge these men and Billy joins forces with them. Billy through circumstances is labeled an outlaw, but is he truly the evil man that many of us have thought he was?

And Paulita struggles with her feelings and wonders who is this man that has captured her heart. Is he a cold-blooded killer or a man of honor?

The ending of his life is tragic and to me was truly heart-breaking but I have to tell you this work is one outstanding read. You will be totally consumed in this tender, yet stormy love story so intertwined and controlled by the actions of others that your emotions will run ramped and your heart will race. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend this work to others. Final words, don't miss this read; excellent and exceptional.

This was a book I received from the Goodreads "First Reads" program, which gets free copies of books into readers' hands so that they generate customer reviews on the various book websites. And I've got to say: I need to be a lot pickier about which books I agree to read.

"The Heart of a Legend" is a sort of historical romance novel, set in the American west (the New Mexico territory before states were recognized), following the historical figure of Billy the Kid as told essentially through the eyes of the woman he married.

To my mind, the novel was mediocre. The women were strong and able to stand up for themselves (which was a relief), but beyond that, little was fleshed out.

But what really pissed me off about this book was the lack of craft in the authorship. There were an untold number of grammar errors (usually missing commas, but often basic sentence structure errors), and references to knowledge present only outside the book. Don't read this book without also having wikipedia open so you can look up what's known about the actual history of Billy the Kid, and thus understand the references the characters all make.

2 of 5 stars.

I could taste the dust and the grit in this passionate, true to life novel. Inside of every man lies an outlaw hellbent on winning the heart of his truelove. I saw Billy Bonney not as a bloodthirsty murderer, but more of a person who had the power to protect those who could not protect themselves--he did what he knew was right in his heart. Amy's most vivid description of Billy's beautiful, untamed vixen had me falling in love with Paulita Maxwell myself. I felt the passion and the heat in the sizzling love scene between these two souls-- It was an exhilaration to the senses that can only be described as diamonds being splashed against blue velvet. This review should come as a voice crying out in the wilderness: "Sit up and take notice of Amy Lignor..." It is my opinion that she is well on her way to becoming one of the most beloved authors of all time.

When "Heart of a Legend" arrived, I devoured it like a box of chocolate-coated ginger. Lignor fascinated and touched me with her story, so I ended up Googling Billy the Kid and his love, Paulita, for at least an hour. Lingor's lyrical style reveals her own genuinely romantic heart and touches the reader's.

Lignor wanted to reach accurate intellectual and visceral conclusions before telling her tale, so she visited New Mexico to do research. Her vivid imagery springs from the hypnotic effect New Mexico had on her, as well as the fact that many of the buildings in the story remain intact.

She fell in love with New Mexico and moved there from the East, where she grew up.

So many phrases come to mind when I think of this convincing and historically accurate story. Here are a few of my favorites: "Such small wrists carrying so much weight. Wonder they don't break right off;" "Some men are right, Billy; he's just easy;" "She thanked the Lord for the man inside every part of her, and at the same time she said a silent prayer for a lifetime that would never be;" " . . . to the man who lost himself in dime novels about heroes and thieves. But, she thought, there's more poetry in Billy's soul than any classic . . .;" "staring at the woman that was the sweet voice in his head telling him every minute that he was worth it."

Lignorwrites with feeling and make the readers see the characters just as she does.

- Ann Seymour, author of "I've Always Loved You"

When Paulita Maxwell started her journey from Texas into the wild New Mexico Territory in 1877, with her brother Pete, her thoughts were on nothing more than being reunited with her family in Fort Sumner. While crossing New Mexico to get to their home, Paulita and Pete were attacked by a lone angry Indian. Help came in the form of a bullet shot by one William H. Bonney, the man who world soon be known to the rest of the world as outlaw "Billy the Kid". Billy's heroic actions, in saving the Maxwell siblings, are the start of a friendship between him and both Paulita and her brother.

As politics in Lincoln County spiral into an all out land war, Paulita finds her life becoming more and more intertwined with Billy's She is helplessly in love with the outlaw Billy has become; she believes he is nothing more than the scapegoat.. Paulita is faced with the heartbreak her love will cause her family, as her brother has cast aside his friendship with Billy due to Billy's criminal behavior. We witness Paulita grow from a young teen fresh out of finishing school into a strong woman in love and wife to an outlaw.

Billy the Kid is one of the Wild West's legendary outlaws whose life is still hotly debated about in modern times. His past is shrouded in mystery; and people still do not know for sure why he never left New Mexico for any long periods of time. Author Amy Lignor has taken the history of Paulita Maxwell, a woman who was named as Billy's girl in newspapers of the time, and written a story that gives a reason for some of Billy's actions.

I was excited to receive this book; as the wild-west, full of legendary figures, is a time of American history that I have loved since small. I didn't think I knew much about Billy the Kid, and was pleasantly surprised at what I found I did know while reading the book. It was easy to see the amount of research that went into this tale even before the extremely helpful afterword provided by the author. Her story includes many of the real men who were involved in the Lincoln County Wars, making this part of history step alive off the pages. The Heart of a Legend is a strong first novel; that shows readers a bit of history that has been glossed over due to the legendary status achieved by Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County land wars.