26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Just plain disappointing., May 28, 2000
Let me just say - I love Western romances. Usually they have heroines who are spunky, heroes who are tortured but adorable, and storylines fraught with drama without being overly intense. This story was sadly lacking a great hero, and as a result it was terribly disappointing.
Low Down, aka Louise Downe, has led a rough life. She's an orphaned woman who has been living on her own since she was a kid, and has been doing this without compromising her values. She is the only person in a mining town in Colorado willing to tend a bunch of sick men, and if she hadn't they'd have all died of the pox. Thus, when they offer her anything she wants as a reward, and she says she wants a baby, one of them must marry her to give her her wish. However, because Low Down has been tending for their sick butts and mining for quite a while, she's a mess when all this happens, and no one wants to marry her, least of all the guy she gets hitched to.
Max, the guy that marries Low Down, is actually a visiting rancher who has led a pretty good life and wants to return to it ASAP, not marry the haggardly Low Down. Plus Max is a little ...[mad] because he was supposed to marry this manipulative, vapid woman back home named Philadelphia. So, Max loves Philly (for some ungodly reason), but he felt honor-bound to marry Low Down.
My problems with this storyline were many. First, Loise/Low Down has been tending to these men for a while but yet none of them gives her the benefit of the doubt. Everyone, including the hero, assumes she's a hag. This does not endear the hero to the reader at all -- apparently in this world it's more important that you look cute than that you are a kind, compassionate, honorable person. Second, Max is so upset for so long with his marriage to Louise that I ended up not liking him. He insists on seeing only her faults, and misses all of her wonderful qualities, and he does this *so often* that I questioned his judgment. Third, Max showed horrid judgment by falling for the manipulative Philadelphia in the first place. How could he not have seen that she is all show and no substance? Finally, it takes the book so long to get to the time when Max does start realizing how wonderful Louise is, and when he does so the book zooms past this revelation to the mystery/suspense angle, that it's hard to really believe in the supposed love story. Max had been such a jerk for so long - thinking the worst of Louise and not protecting her from an initially suspicious family and a mean ex-fiance - that I wanted him to have a moment of clarity, and then to repent, and to have to work for Louise's affections. Instead, the book glosses over this aspect of the story, and left me wanting.
Maybe what went wrong with this book was that the author made the heroine so eminently likable and compassionate that anyone who wasn't able to pick up on this seemed either mean or stupid. I kept thinking - if she's so great, and he's so great, why can't he *see* how great she is? It's too bad that this is what happened, because this is how the hero came off in the end, and I ended up not liking the book as a result.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SILVER LINING is a story full of heart., March 11, 2000
Low Down is prospecting for gold when a small pox outbreak hits the camp. She rolls up her sleeves and cares for all the miners, bullying them into surviving, loaning them the sheer force of her will until they can't do anything but survive. Full of gratitude they promise to give her whatever her heart desires. A piano? A house? No, Low Down's secret heart's desire is a baby -- someone who will allow her to love them, and will love her in return. What she didn't ask for was a husband, but that's just what the prospector's give her. A reluctant husband to be a father to her baby.
Max McCord doesn't know what to make of the whiskey swilling, cussing woman he finds himself tied to. She saved his life, and now marrying her has ruined it. He sees his dreams, the life he planned disappear. What on earth does he do now?
Marrying Max begins Low Down's transformation into Louise, the woman she's always kept hidden from the world. Their marriage sets all kinds of trouble into motion, but the relationship they forge soon proves strong enough to handle each and every one of them. The only question that remains by the end of the book, is will these two strong people allow themselves to let down their defenses and let love flourish?
Maggie Osborne is a powerful storyteller and Silver Lining was truly a heart-warming read.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 1/2 Stars--Another great gritty heroine with a heart!, January 31, 2000
I wanted so hard to give this a full five stars, because Osborne is just such a good writer. Your eyes skim smoothly through the prose, you stop and laugh out loud here, you stop to wipe a tear from your eyes there, your heart gets all warm all over. She has such a gift, Osborne does, and her greatest being that of creating unconventional heroines in hard-luck situations who have amazing backbone and integrity, even when life stomps them down a few times. You just have to love her tough gals!Unfortunately, Osborne's villains do tend to be on the cardboard side--sociopaths with no redeeming qualities. Yeah, I like my good guys to be good, and my bad guys to be bad, but I like some subtlety, too. That's my main quibble with SILVER LINING--which is nevertheless a terrific read and one I recommend to all lovers of Western romance, or just plain romance in general. Low Down will win your heart, no question!My other quibbles--a very shopworn cliche plot situation at the end of the book which is beneath a writer of Osborne's true talent. And a hero that is just not really an equal match for Low Down. (Same problem in The Promise of Jenny Jones). I'd like to see Osborne's next one give us a hero who is as gritty and tough and deep down wonderful and well-drawn as the heroines she crafts.But I'll BUY that next Osborne, just as I've bought all the preceding ones. The woman can write. The woman can make heroines that make me want to hug them and make them my best friends. It's a gift, I tell you. : )BTW..if your heart doesn't just break over the things that happen with the spoon on the book's cover, you need to check that ticker of yours. And if you don't laugh out loud several times over the early scenes with the miners and Low Downe and the preacher, or later on about the "dawdling" (inside joke for the novel's readers), you're just plain "daid" inside, ma'am. *Mir*
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