The Last Good Man [Kindle Edition]

Kathleen Eagle (Author)

Book Description

"A poignant, satisfying romance." -Library Journal

"Compelling."-Booklist

"A good man is hard to find, but a romance by Eagle is a good place to start." -Kirkus Reviews

Gorgeous, famous Savannah Stephens is back, and no one in her hometown, Sunbonnet, Wyoming, really knows why. Especially not Clay Keogh, the good-hearted rancher who has loved her from afar since they were kids. Savannah's young daughter looks just like Savannah's first love: local bad boy Kole Kills Crow, Clay's half-brother. Has Savannah come home to start a new relationship with Kole?Whatever her secrets, it's clear that she's deeply troubled and needs a shoulder to lean on. Clay is there for her, and she soon realizes that he's a very special man. But until she can bring herself to share the painful truth about her fall from stardom, the emotional distance between her and Clay may separate them forever.

About the Author: Bestselling author Kathleen Eagle retired from a seventeen-year teaching career on a North Dakota Indian reservation to become a full-time novelist. The Lakota Sioux heritage of her husband and their three children has inspired many of her stories. Among her honors, she has received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times, the Midwest Fiction Writer of the Year Award, and Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA Award. Library Journal named THE NIGHT REMEMBERS one of the five best romances of the year. Kathleen takes great pleasure in reading letters from readers who tell her that her books have tugged at their heartstrings, entertained, inspired, and even enlightened them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The familiar "will she or won't she" theme is given a serious twist in Eagle's latest (after What The Heart Knows), combining a solid western/romance plot with more complex, contemporary issues. Salt of the earth Clay Keogh, rancher and farmer, has heard the smalltown whispers: gorgeous Savannah Stephens is back in Sunbonnet, Wyo. The famous model is surrounded by mystery, especially because her small daughter looks exactly like Savannah's first love, the romantic and dangerous Indian activist Kole Catches Crow. Clay, Savannah's childhood friend and Kole's half-brother, has always been in the shadow of his romantic and dangerous sibling, and he's also always carried a torch for Savannah. Desperate to break through her serious depression, he offers her a marriage of security. Though Savannah accepts those terms, she slowly realizes that she wants to forge a real marriage with Clay. That is, if she can deal with his ex-wife, Roxie, and her kids and Clay's tough mother, Patty. Savannah has happiness within her reach, but she harbors a painful secret that she's afraid to admit to her adoring husband, and he, in turn, remains afraid that she'll decide to take up her old life. Eagle draws her main characters with substance and her supporting characters with verve. Savannah's daughter, Claudia, is a charmer who plays a surprising role in the narrative, and while Kole is something of a red herring, he's an effective story facilitator. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When beautiful model Savannah Stephens comes back to Sunbonnet, WY, to care for the woman who raised her, she brings a six-year-old daughter, a brave if wounded spirit, and the need to heal. But Savannah's return also brings a mystery: who is the father of her daughter, and why has Savannah come home? The answers are slow in coming, but longtime friend Clay Keogh is determined to helpDand he is there with his love when Savannah needs him the most. In this hard-hitting, down-to-earth romance, Eagle turns her considerable skills to the very real issues of breast cancer, reconstructive surgery, and the emotional aftermath. Readers are given not just a poignant, satisfying romance but a realistic yet hopeful look at a situation that many women will face. Eagle (What the Heart Knows) is a highly regarded writer of emotionally involving romances who lives in the Minneapolis area.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 641 KB
• Print Length: 260 pages
• Publisher: Bell Bridge Books (March 20, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007MSTUY0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,456 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars one of Eagle's best May 9, 2012

By Judith Arnold

Format:Kindle Edition

I've long been a Kathleen Eagle fan, and The Last Good Man is one of her best. Savannah returns to her small Wyoming hometown, looking for a place to heal, or maybe a place to hide. But she can't hide in a town where everyone remembers her, especially Clay, who'd long carried a torch for her. And she learns that sometimes, the best way to heal is to stop hiding. Eagle fashions a love story that's mature, believable and deeply felt.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Mrs.Eagle July 24, 2000

By libera bain

Format:Hardcover

In response to the reviewer who thinks Savanah is pitiful, fortunately you haven"t walked in her shoes. Kathleen Eagle has done it again. This story of Savanah, a beautiful model with breast canser will help us all to empathise with victims of cancer. It is also a great love story between Savanah and Clay. My description of the story will not do it justice. The varied relationships are handeled so well you feel as though you have visited with real people. Do yourself and every friend or sister you know and highly reccomend this book. The only problem with Kathleens books are they leave you wanting the same degree of talent and you find most other writers are lacking. If you haven"t read her other books, pick up "SUNRISE SONG" be ready to be higly entertained educated,(without preaching), and totally blown away.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Storytelling, Compelling Characters May 18, 2012

By Janga

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Kathleen Eagle is a superb storyteller who creates compelling, complex characters, and The Last Good Man is one of her best books. It has lost none of its power in the dozen years since it was first published. Eagle's gift for characterization can be seen in the secondary characters such as Clay's mother, his ex-wife, Savannah's aunt, and Savannah's hairdresser friend--credible mixes of strengths and weaknesses with pieces of the lives that make them who they are revealed. Even characters who never actually appear in the book such as Kole Kills Crow and Savannah's New York friend Heather emerge as real, believable personalities. Claudia may seem improbably mature to some readers, but anyone who has ever watched a small child of a single parent caught in physical or mental illness will recognize the fierce protectiveness and caretaking that can become part of the child's nature.

Clay is wonderful, one of my all-time favorite heroes. Hardworking, competent, sexy, and nurturing with an always tender touch for the wounded and needy, human or animal, he is the man the title evokes. But he is no impossible dream. He can be angry and impatient, he can make foolish choices, and he can find it difficult to articulate his feelings. Eagle reveals enough about his past for the reader to understand that his need to take care of others is an essential and innate part of the person Clay is. Like many natural givers, Clay must learn to accept the gifts of others.

Savannah, despite her illness, is a difficult character to like for the first part of the book. She is totally self-absorbed, even to the point of avoiding her responsibilities to her child.... But as the reader learns more about her and realizes why appearance is so important to her, why the changes cancer surgery have wrought in her body have so devastated her, and why she is convinced that she holds death within her, she becomes more sympathetic. Watching her grow and take responsibility for herself and others becomes a joy.

Kathleen Eagle is a gifted, intelligent writer. I highly recommend her books. If you are an Eagle fan, you know her books are definitely worth a reread. If you've never read her, The Last Good Man is a great place to start. I suggest you also look for You Never Can Tell, the story of Kole Kills Crow and Savannah's friend, New York journalist Heather Reardon, which Bell Bridge Books also plans to reissue. And I'm hoping for reissues including electronic editions of my favorites by Eagle--Reason to Believe and What the Heart Knows. Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Lovestory by A Wonderful Author July 13, 2000

By avidbookreader

Format:Hardcover

The Last Good Man by Kathleen Eagle is a beautiful lovestory that deals with a serious issue. Savannah and Clay Keogh will stay with me for a long time as I felt they were real people, living their lives along with mine in Sunbonnet! This book is excellent. Characters were well developed...I hated it for it to end. Ms. Eagle, you are simply wonderful!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not one of her best October 30, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I look forward to every new Kathleen Eagle Novel. Her writing is superb and her stories are always so captivating that I can't wait to find out what will happen next. One of the things I've loved best about her books is that her characters don't play mind games with each other. However, this book had the tone of a historical Harlequin romance. Both characters had to constantly guess about the other's feelings and actions. What will he/she think about this? How do they really feel? Does she care that I spent the night at my ex-wife's house? There wasn't enough love or emotion between the characters for my taste. Even at the end, after having been married for many months and coming to terms with their relationship Clay still was unsure whether his wife wanted to stay with him or return to her fast-paced New York life.

I much prefer the stories where the characters are both aware of their own feelings, and want to share them with the other. That they don't still have doubts about their relationship even when the story ends.

It's worth picking up from the library, but I don't recommend buying it. It's not like "This Time Forever," "Reason to Believe," "Sunrise Song," or even "What the Heart Knows" - it's not one I would care to read again.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite book May 9, 2012

By West coast book reader

Format:Kindle Edition

I'm so glad this book is available for my Kindle. I love Kathleen Eagle's love stories, always powerful, always emotional, but this one is my favorite. Now I can read it again and again. Thank you!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable characters, enjoyable story, enjoyable book May 28, 2012

By cupcake TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

There is something so quietly compelling about The Last Good Man, by Kathleen Eagle, that I struggle with writing this review. I don't know how to describe it, other than to say that The Last Good Man is one good book.

Savannah Stephens has returned home to Sunbonnet, Wyoming, from which she escaped after high school, intent on a modeling career. She achieved it, landing in a catalog similar to Victoria's Secret. But when she comes home, she is several years removed from the limelight ... and she brings a young daughter with her.

Clay Keogh, Savannah's best friend from childhood, didn't quite stay in Sunbonnet. He joined the military, eschewing his dream of being a veterinarian, but he's been back long enough to have married and divorced. When he hears Savannah is in town, he is nervous and anticipates seeing her. Their first meeting exceeds every expectation he had: He touched his lips to hers, tentative only for an instant. His hunger was as unmistakable as hers. His arms closed around her slight shoulders, hers around his lean waist. He smelled of horsehide and leather, and tasted of whiskey, felt as solid as the Rockies, and kissed like no man she'd ever known, including a younger Clay Keogh. She stood on tiptoe to kiss him back, trade him her breath for his, her tongue for his. "Savannah ..."

We discover that Savannah is hiding more than one secret, one of them more shocking than the other. Her friendship with Clay, which included some sexual experimentation in their teens (always to her satisfaction, only once to his, and even then ...), was eclipsed by her crush on Clay's older half-brother, Kole, the part-Indian father of Savannah's daughter.... We also learn that Clay, in addition to running his family's ranch, has a weakness for horses no one else wants - horses that are imperfect or suffering.

And it is that particular symbolism that is a tad heavy handed in an otherwise good book. We get it. Clay feels sorry for sick, broken or incapacitated horses - horses no one else wants. Then there is Savannah, sick, broken and emotionally incapacitated. Yet Kathleen Eagle also shows us that Clay loves Savannah, has loved her since they were children. They are best friends, yes, but it's more than that on his part. Is it on hers?

There are some sex scenes, and while none are graphic, they are hot. Clay knows what Savannah wants as far as sexual intimacy is concerned, even if she isn't always ready to reciprocate.

A lot happens in The Last Good Man, but none of it is cataclysmic or volcanic. Instead, it's grounded in realism and truth, which makes us enjoy the characters all the more, and not just Clay and Savannah, but also Claudia, Savannah's daughter, and Patty, Clay's father. But this book is about Savannah more than anything else. She's a survivor, but she has a long way to go before she can give Clay what he wants and deserves, and what she wants and deserves as well.

It turns out that, in The Last Good Man, at least, you can go home again. It helps if you've got a good man waiting for you.

Thanks to NetGalley for the preview.

This review also appears on cupcake's book cupboard. @VivaAmaRisata Read more ›

More About the Author

Kathleen Eagle published her first book, a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award winner, with Silhouette Books in 1984. Since then she has published more than 40 books, including historical and contemporary, series and single title, earning her nearly every award in the industry. Her books have consistently appeared on regional and national bestseller lists, including the USA Today list and the New York Times extended bestseller list.

Born in Virginia and raised "on the road" as an Air Force brat, Ms Eagle earned degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Northern State University. She taught at Standing Rock High School in North Dakota for 17 years.

Eagle's work is often singled out by book reviewers for its exceptional quality and appeal. THE NIGHT REMEMBERS was a Chicago Tribune Notable Book. SUNRISE SONG, THE NIGHT REMEMBERS, THE LAST TRUE COWBOY, and WHAT THE HEART KNOWS made the Library Journal "Five Best Romances of the Year" list. BookPage listed WHAT THE HEART KNOWS among its "Top Six Romance Picks" for 1999. THE LAST GOOD MAN was a finalist for the 2000 Minnesota Book Award for Popular Fiction--the only Romance so honored thus far. YOU NEVER CAN TELL was named to RWA's "Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year" list. She is an RWA RITA award winner.

Kathleen Eagle lives in Minnesota with her husband, who is Lakota Sioux. The Eagles have three children and three grandchildren.

Visit www.kathleeneagle.com for her latest news and http://ridingwiththetopdown.wordpress.com/ to blog with Kathleen and 8 fellow writers.

If you're a reviewer, visit NetGalley to request a digital galley for her latest book from Bell Bridge Books.