Customer Reviews

The Bounty Hunter's Bride

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After Of Men and Angels, I knew this author wouldn't disappoint me.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dani and Beau's story. The author took a few turns that surprised me, and as a writer that's always a plus. I like it when the story heads a direction I didn't expect.

Victoria writes about children well, a skill in itself. I felt as though I knew the secondary characters, too, especially Josh and Adie.

I liked that the tale was a little gritty, because the details made the setting and characters realistic in a time period I love.

The Bounty Hunter's Bride by

http://www.victoriabylin.com

Dani Baxter arrives out West to discover the man for whom she is a mail-order bride has died, leaving his orphaned children in the care of his brother. But Beau Morgan doesn't think he wants a family; he wants revenge on the man who killed his wife.

Dealing with love and loss, the balance between justice and revenge, and understanding how God's hand can be amidst the heartache creates a compelling read all on their own. When one adds Vicki's special talent for creating whole characters with whom the reader can relate, her ability to tell a great story, and the message of how the Lord heals the wounded heart, you gain a story that is satisfying from beginning to end.

Daniela Baxter has left Wisconsin and come to Castle Rock, Colorado to marry Patrick Morgan and become a mother for his three young girls, Emma, Ellie and Esther. She arrives to be greeted by a scruffy dirty man who tells her Patrick is dead. She still wants to be a mother to the girls but it seems this scruffy man is Beau Morgan, Patrick's older brother. He is the one named in the will as the girls guardian. The girls instantly take to Dani and she loves them but will it be enough to prove she can raise the girls and run a dairy farm?
Beau Morgan stopped to see his brother as he was chasing down Clay Johnson, only Patrick is dead and he is now the caretaker of three girls and a small dairy farm. When Dani comes knocking on the door and stirring up his plans, he almost wishes he could be a different man. But he's a man with one mission: vengeance. Clay Johsnon killed his wife Lucy five years ago and Beau cannot have peace until Clay is dead. Will Beau choose his hate for Clay over a possible love for Dani and his three nieces?
Victoria also gives us Clay's view of things which adds a great point of view. We also meet Pastor Joshua Blue and his wife Adie. In a later series, Swan's Nest, we see their story in book 1, The Maverick Preacher. This book is fiction and yet so many truths are in it.

This book surprised me. I got it from the library and didn't like the cover very much. My first impression was that it would be a hokey romance story. Well, as a friend said to me, "You can't judge a book by it's cover," I was definitely wrong. I liked the story very much. The plot worked out a bit differently from what I'm used to in these historical romances and I liked it. I don't want to give away the ending so I won't say any more than that. I thought it was very well written. The conversations were 'real' and the actions of the characters are believable. I am eager to read more by this author.

Loved the book! Yes, it is a simple story romance but when I read this kind of book that's what i expect. Just a quick, fun, feel good story that you don't want to put down. Done in a tasteful christian atmosphere.

I've loved Victoria Bylin's Harlequin Historicals, partly because they have a thread of spirituality. Writing for Love Inspired Historical gives her the opportunity to weave a stronger faith element into the story which only strengthens the depth of the characters and the story line.

The Bounty Hunter's Bride is a wonderful story of redemption and of the healing power of love--love between a man and a woman and God's love for us.

This one is going on my keeper shelf to re-read while I wait for the next one.

Sharon Gillenwater

I just loved this book. It's a sweet, tender, and inspirational love story set in the old west. It was truly heartwarming to read a book like this and I highly recommend it.

It is a great romance. I've enjoyed it very much!
I highly recommend you to read it - It is a page-turner !!!

Victoria Bylin write male characters who are believable. In The Bounty Hunter's Bride, a warm and touching historical romance, I thought I could smell the stink coming off hero Beau Morgan when he came off the range into town badly in need of a bath.

Dani Baxter gets off a train in the Colorado Rocky Mountains expecting to meet the finace she's been writing too, but he's not there. She hires a buggy and goes out to his ranch only to find he died five day before and the fate of the three little girls she's come to love via her letters is now in the hands of a man full of vengence. Beau Morgan is her fiance's brother and a bounty hunter who's too full of hate for the man who killed his wife to let himself love again, even though he begins to realize his attraction for Dani.

An maternal aunt hires Pinkerton detectives to check Beau Morgan out and challenges whether he's fit to have custody of his brother's daughters. So, Beau proposes to Dany, but only as a marriage of convenience. The marriage will be in name only to keep them out of the reach of this aunt who is quick to hit as a way of disciplining chilfen.

As Beau chases the man who killed his wife down a canyon, a flash flood almost kills him and his horse. Then the outlaw aims his rifle at Beau and gets the drop on him, and Beau is sure he's going to die before he can marry Dani.

Leaving the Christian angle out of it, this book was so simplistic in style as compared to other Harlequins I read where the prose did NOT insult my intelligence. All throughout, I had to wonder if Bylin is a genuine Christian and such a simple style is common in this sub-subgenre, or if this book was written by someone figuring it's what Christians like to read. It had a phony, pablum feel to it, as if it was calculatedly written to appeal to what some focus group decided Christians like. A puzzlement, and I don't think I'll stop mulling over the authenticity anytime soon.

2 stars because I like the mail-order bride concept and the difficulties and disappointments inherent within, but so much of the book was the same thoughts of revenge & faith (or lack thereof) repeated over and over and over in short, non sequitur sentences. The characters were flat and limited to only a few characteristics (hair color, eyes) that were also repeated ad nauseum. The characters were adjectives, not people.