Love Me Tonight [Mass Market Paperback]

Nan Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

A beautiful young widow, Helen Burke Courtney has nothing left after the Civil War except her rundown coastal Alabama farm and her pride, but the arrival of Union Army Captain Kurt Northway and his young son changes her life forever.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Love Spell; First Thus edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0505525135
• ISBN-13: 978-0505525130
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,037,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ok but not great post Civil War novel, November 28, 2004

By 

IRRS (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Me Tonight (Mass Market Paperback)

Helen Courtney needs someone to help her manage her farm, get in a crop and hopefully let her keep from selling the old family homestead. Kurt Northway needs a way to earn money to pay for his return journey to his home state of Maryland. So the Confederate widow hires the Yankee captain to work for her all summer.
This is a very character driven story of two lonely people falling in love, along with how Kurt's young son learns to trust and love the father he has never really known.

I enjoyed this more than the last book of Ryan's that I tried but there were still
some problems.

Likes: that Kurt has a legitimate reason to be in the South, without money and
in need of it to return home. That Charlie (the son) acts like a five year old. He's
not too precocious and he doesn't use lisping or baby talk. That Helen doesn't
immediately melt into Kurt's arms or stand around staring at him in a lust daze.
That Ryan seems to have done her Farming 101 research.

Problems: The townspeople near Helen at first ostracize her (all summer long
for four months) for hiring a Yankee, beat him up then *suddenly* the whole town
has a guilty conscience and shows up apologizing profusely and willing to
help rebuild Helen's farm after a terrible hurricane. That Ryan tells a lot more
than she shows and uses a simplistic writing style that worked for me at first
but quickly got tiresome. That the villain and his villainess are cardboard
and slightly OTT in skankiness.

One thing that could go either way is that Ryan has written a very hot story
with lots of simmering tension. Only the tension simmers for half the darn
book and gets just slightly old after a while. There are three very nice
secondary characters Jolly, a neighbor who befriends Charlie and starts
to draw him out of his shell and Helen's best friend Em and her beau
Coop. We get to see a lot of Jolly but not enough of Em and Coop's
romance.

I also wondered about the fact that very few people in this
town just outside of Mobile seemed to have suffered much deprivation
from the war. Yes, lives were lost and some of the houses are headed
into decline from lack of manpower to keep them up but no one seems
to have had any raids, confiscations or looting. Helen still has all her
china, crystal and silver. Wasn't Mobile invaded and occupied by
Union forces during the war? It just seemed odd to me.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Low on steamy romance, but a great casual read ..., June 5, 2004

By 

Gina Bovara "It's a dry heat!" (Chandler, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Me Tonight (Topaz historical romances) (Paperback)

If you're looking for hot, page-turning romance - look elsewhere ... this book has a predictable storyline that is great for a casual summer read. Classic case of boy-meets-girl, but I really liked how Capt Kurt Northway is not obsessed with sexual motives.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, March 6, 2008

By 

T. Sinclair "Tsinclair" (Bahamas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Me Tonight (Mass Market Paperback)

The story was ok, but it was boring because they did not get into the nitty griity until the last chapter . hot scenes were not there just a lot of beating around the bush . would not recommend . not Nan Ryan's usual style. Please write some new books .