Customer Reviews

The Rustler (Stone Creek)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After severe lightning causes a terrifying cattle stampede that almost kills Wyatt Yarbro, he undergoes an unexpected change of heart about his cattle rustling career. Doubts he has aplenty but he knows his days are numbered if he continues this nomadic, criminal life. Returning to Stone Creek, where his brother is the town's Sheriff, he experiences just how much change will challenge him. Within a day of his arrival, he meets Miss Sarah Tamlin and is deputized by his brother who's out to round up Wyatt's former nefarious friends.

Sarah is just as shocked by Wyatt's effect on her emotions, but she also knows that she can't be part of his life because of her own secret which may be revealed sooner rather than later. For her ex-lover, Charles Elliott Langstreet, shows up with a young boy and threatens to take over the bank business she and her father have struggled to maintain through some staggering debt and hard times. Now that her father is showing signs of dementia, the burden is hers alone. Anxious about the future, she shows her gritty personality in her decision to do everything possible to keep Charles out of the picture.

Little does Wyatt imagine just how involved he's about to become with Sarah, especially after he helps thwart a bank robbery and participates in a shoot-out leading to three deaths.

Sarah, however, isn't so worried about her own skin that she can't be there for others in need. What will she do with Owen Langstreet, the young boy who is left with Sarah for several weeks? What can she do for a young woman, Kitty, turned whore whose daughter is about to come to Stone Creek as a teacher?

The Rustler is a captivating Western, romantic tale that contains more than enough romance and intrigue to grip the reader's interest in this page-turning, gritty but oh so loving story! It's a delightful story that makes the reader feel he or she were just as comfortable and tensely involved with the Stone Creek residents' lives. There's plenty more to enjoy about this dangerous, passionate account written by a very talented author!

Wonderfully done, Ms. Linda Lael Miller!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on September 15, 2008

Sarah Tamlin works at a bank with her
father who has flash backs from the civil
war. Ephriam Tamlin, going back in time,
dresses up in his Union Army Blue uniform.
Sarah needs to protect her father who the
founder, president and holder of majority
shares in the Stockman's Bank. If word were
to leak out that he's demented, he would
be dismissed. Sarah and her father wouldn't
have any money to live on. Ephriam Tamlin
had some bad loans when they had a drought.
He used his own money to cover several loans
to ranchers so they won't lose their land.

Wyatt Yarbo is an outlaw. He decided to
turn his life around. His brother Rhowdy
offered him a place to stay, if he would
leave his outlaw life behind for good.
Wyatt decided to visit his brother Rhowdy
who's a marshal in Stone Creek. Wyatt
arrived in town when the town was having
their yearly hay harvest. That's where he
met Sarah for the first time. Wyatt was
interested in Sarah with designs on marrying
her. His brother Rhowdy told him she's a
banker's daughter with a college education,
and wouldn't get involved with an outlaw.

I've been hooked on the Stone Creek series. I am
happy one of Rhowdy's (second book) brother's
Wyatt Yarbro, had a chance on his story.

The Rustler (Stone Creek) third in the series
could be read independently. I would recommend
reading The Man From Stone Creek and A Wanted
Man. Many of the characters in the first two in the
series played sufficient roles in The Rustler.

I highly recommend The Rustler! (Stone Creek)

Plot Summary: Wyatt Yarbro has been an outlaw his entire life, but when he miraculously survives a cattle stampede, he decides to follow his brother's example and turn over a new leaf. Upon arriving in town, Wyatt is smitten at first sight by Sarah Tamlin, the spinster daughter of the town's banker. Sarah's entire life is built upon lies, and she actually records them in a small notebook to keep track of her mendacities. She's not a bad person, but she has way too many secrets she needs to hide. They are quite a pair, since Wyatt barely has a dime to his name, and Sarah's in danger of losing her family's livelihood.

I've always wanted to read a story where the hero is dirt poor throughout the entire book, and I got my wish here, at least until the epilogue. All Wyatt ever had was his gun and a worn down horse he won at a card game. I just like the idea that the hero could be valued for who he is, and what he does, without having a pile of money backing him up.

Wyatt was definitely my favorite character in this story. It's hard not to like a man who will care for an abused dog, an abandoned child, and assist the elderly. He even blistered his own hands digging graves for some murdered cowhands, because no one else would do the job. It's almost hard to believe that Wyatt was ever an outlaw, because I can't picture him robbing and rustling from the innocent.

Sarah on the other hand, tried my patience a few times. I won't give away any spoilers, but at one point I was ready to write her off for being stupid, thoughtless, and cruel. The story meandered like a slow moving river for most of the book, and then in a rush, a flurry of action happens at the end. It felt like I was dumped over a waterfall, when I would have preferred to ride some whitewater rapids for a while. The sex was more than decent, but it was all too brief, and it was like waiting through a long, bland dinner to get your dessert.

In the little town of stone creek with its hot dreadful weather doesn't stop anyone in the little town from being outside Wyatt tames horses for transportation along with his brothers who also tame them it was a tradition passed down from their ancestors. Even though Wyatt lives in a cell with wooded beds and a small room it doesn't stop him from rustling or trying to woo Sarah tamlin. In stone Creek it's not about where you come from or if you have a horse it's about the love and care you put in your work and in your personality.
The Rustler by author Linda-Miller is about a rustler name Wyatt Yarbo who lives a complicated hardworking life as a rustler. He falls in love with young Sarah tamlin who works at a bank with her father and takes care of him while he is mentally sick. One day while the trouble makers come back shooting Wyatt also a deputy comes and rescues Sarah's life. Sarah's secrets are carefully revealed, and the relationship between Sarah and Wyatt sizzles in a series of different emotions and complications. Sarah's old friend Charles drops by visiting with his son Owen who he has no need for and treats him poorly by calling him names and leaving him alone while he Charles goes off on business trips. Sarah then invites Owen to stay with her for a while so that Charles can go off on a business trip for a month.
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There are many interesting characters in the book such as Sarah Tamlin the beautiful young local banker who has a sassy yet intelligent attitude. Or Wyatt who loves his job and works hard every day to get where he is at. There's also Doc Marshall the local doctor who is good friends with Wyatt and Sarah and always helps people out. Charles father of Owen who is a mean cruel man spending his time abandoning his sweet son Owen on so called "business trips" for a long period of time.
I recommend this book to adventurous kids who love to be taken back to the past and feel as if you are witnessing something fun! To big fans of cow boy movies and books and to anyone out there that loves to read because the rustler will take you places you never imagine and you'll experience an opportunity of a lifetime to read about the interesting book. If you're bored and have nothing to do then pick up the book the rustler by Linda Miller you can purchase it at any book store or library around you're neighbor hood.

I thought this to be a great book. I have read most all LLM books and this one fits right in with the others. If you like LLM you will like this book. I love the way she makes you fall in love with not only the characters but the critters too:) There is usually a dog to love and you feel their love for the horses as well. A typical LLM book.

What a wonderful read! How great to find an author that just gets better and better after every book. So many good authors seem to 'phone it in ' after a few books, but not this lady. Each book is better than the last, many thanks to the author for a great book!

I occasionally read a western, and have been doing so since my early teens when I discovered Zane Grey in my grandfather's bookshelf. They were all written by males, and they all provided a heavy dose of masculine self-reliance in the face of adversity. Men were men and women...well, sometimes a horse is a better companion. You know the formula. So, I bought this novel with some misgivings, since it was written by a woman.

And I was pleasantly surprised. The men were still MEN, and the women, especially the heroine, Sarah, added a rich depth to the story, making it more realistic, and less of a pure genre story. (I am no longer much interested in horses, and I can no longer imagine that a cowboy would be either, given a choice.) The novel definitely held my interest and I read it over a couple of days -- when I should have been doing something else.

Only two issues kept it from getting five stars. The first is trivial, and the author may have seen it as necessary for the plot: Sarah's inability to recognize danger to the bank she worked in, even when it was rubbed in her face. Her "they were just customers and you had no right to treat them that way" attitude about obvious-to-everyone-else bad men got a little old.

The second issue is the sex. Now, I know I shouldn't be complaining about part of the "rich depth" (see above) this female author added to the story, but I just have to. And it's not about the sex, itself, it's about the "expertise" of the sex. Wyatt (The Rustler) has technique a French nobleman would die for. Without going into that technique here, it was completely unbelievable, given his background. We have no reason to believe that Wyatt has ever had sex with anyone but the occasional prostitute, when his outlaw ways allowed a few moments peace for that. You don't learn how to do what he did with Sarah -- after they were married -- from prostitutes. You learn how to selfishly take, not give, and you certainly don't learn what a woman likes. Not in my opinion anyway.

Maybe the author thought she needed that for women crossing over from romance novels. Again, in my opinion, the sex could have been hot for both parties without the "expertise." After all, Sarah wasn't portrayed as having much experience either.

You will love every minute you spend with this book. Linda Lael Miller never lets you down. As usual, you will try very hard to read slowly to make it last but alas, it's hard to put down.

This series just keeps getting better and better. I can't wait for the next one!

In 1907 Southern Arizona Territory, Wyatt Yarbro envies his younger brother Rowdy, an outlaw like him, who somehow has become the marshal of Stone Creek and married to the schoolmarm (see A WANTED MAN). Wyatt has just spent two hard years in a Texas prison and his current cattle rustling stint is a failure. Seeing the light he decides to start over in the town that reformed his sibling by making him the law.

In Stone Creek, Rowdy welcomes Wyatt; to his amazement his sister-in-law Lark does too. Wyatt decides that prim and proper Sarah Tamlin is his redemption as the woman to keep him straight. He initially is unaware of her darkest secret and obsession; to raise her son taken from her when she was an unmarried sixteen years old. While he helps her try to retrieve Owen from his wealthy influential father, his recent rustling past comes to Stone Creek.

The latest Stone Creek early twentieth century western romance is a terrific thriller as another Yarbro outlaw turns hero due to the love of a good woman. Readers will feel they have been transported to 1907 southwest as Linda Lael Miller provides vivid details on life in Stone Creek. THE RUSTLER is a delightful historical starring two wonderful lead characters and the return of key Stone Creek players.

Harriet Klausner