Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Real Sexy Cowboy Romance!, July 4, 2008
Jeanette Kenny captivated western romance fans with her debut "One Real Cowboy;" by showing the loving, handsome and strong side to a cowboy. She has done it once more with even more flare in "One Real Man!"
A few years back, handsome Gil Yancy ran away from his rich family and an arranged marriage to become a cowboy. One night in a brothel he meets the prettiest thing he's ever seen. Little does he realize that Josie is desperate and afraid and has been abused by the brothel owner, Ross Parnell. She must escape before he hurts her further. Gil has never been the lovin' and leav'em type and wakes up feeling a bit guilty, until he finds out his head is not hurting from too much drink and good loving, but a knock in the head with a frying pan. To make matters worse, he discovers he has been robbed of all he owns. He wants revenge on the sweet little Josie, but at the same time, cannot seem to keep the lady thief off his mind. He roams the west, a rich easterner learning to be a cowboy, with a part of his mind always on Josie. Then he receives an urgent letter from his friend Everett Andrews who needs Gil's help at his ranch and offers him part of his land and also asks that he take care of his wife and daughter. Knowing his family is probably looking for him, Gil decides to take up Everett's offer, thinking Rocky Point Ranch would be a good place to hide while discovering the west and continuing to run from his family.
Gil shows up at Rocky Point Ranch only to discover that his sweet little thief Josie is Everett's widow and that her daughter, Sarah Ann, sure has a striking resemblance to his sister back east. The revenge he has longed for seems to have fallen into his lap, but he soon discovers that Josie and her daughter really need his help and that his passion and desire for Josie, together with his growing attachment to her daughter Sarah Ann, outweigh his long awaited revenge. He discovers there are other landowners after Josie and the ranch, even the town sheriff wants to court her, and there is also a local family that is trying to take Sarah Ann away from Josie. But more important, the evil Ross Parnell is searching for Josie for revenge much more dangerous than Gil ever thought of. Can Gil prove to Josie that he can be a cowboy, her true love, and help and protect her from the problems and evil that stalks her, while at the same time somehow get her to open up and confide in him the secrets and mysteries she is holding back?
In this hard to put down story, all mysteries and secrets build to an exciting conclusion. Just as Gil's family find him, many of Josie's secrets are revealed, and all of the bad guys seem to converge on Rocky Point and Josie at the same time. Will Gil admit his true feelings and do the right thing by Josie and Sarah Ann, protect and keep them safe, while proving to his family that life in the west on Rocky Point Ranch with his new little family is more important than wealth and privilege in the east? But most of all, can he prove to Josie that he is her One Real Man?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Real Man, June 2, 2008
Gil Yancy prides himself on making sound decisions. When his friend Everett offers him a choice to buy into Everett's working ranch, Gil takes him up on the offer. Arriving at the ranch weeks later, Gil wonders at the quietness and when he sees a housekeeper cleaning a cabin he questions her as to where the owner or his wife might be. When the woman turns around, Gil sees red. Evidently the lady of the evening that robbed him blind twelve years ago is now employed on his friend's ranch. Gil can't WAIT to tell Everett or his wife about her and he gloats as he tells her this fact.
Josephine Andrews is at once dismayed and secretly astonished to come face to face with the only man to make her feel loved after twelve long years. Knowing that she does owe him for taking his money so long ago, Josie can't help but be scared because Gil actually gave her something worth more than money. When Gil demands to see Everett's wife at the ranch house, Josie does what he demands. She dresses and comes down to meet her company. Evidently Everett, her deceased husband, didn't tell Gil everything before Gil bought part of their ranch. Josie has to put up with him in order for the ranch to succeed and in her deepest heart of hearts, she desires him as if twelve years were just yesterday.
Gil and Josie come to an understanding, sort of. Gil can't help wanting to make Josie pay for past mistakes and Josie can't help loving him in spite of it. Add in a tiny waif with blonde hair and Gil's heart is lost forever. But, in order for these two lovers to lead their lives, they must get rid of a foul neighbor intent on doing Josie and her daughter harm. Gil vows no one will hurt them, and he means it.
One Real Man is a fitting title to this wonderful book. Gil was such a man. He was real, faults and all, and while his gambling and love of taking chances almost made him unreliable, his ability to control that one area of his life more than made up for the feelings he invoked. Josie was a woman who knew what was important in life and while she regretted taking from Gil so long ago, she still felt that what Gil gave her in return was more than anything she could ever repay him. Their finding each other after so long was just one aspect of why One Real Man was a great novel.
Janette Kenny has a new fan. I have already gotten her previous release, One Real Cowboy, to read and plan on waiting and watching for more new books as they are released. One Real Man released in March and I suggest reading this truly outstanding western romance.
Talia
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One real man. One word -- awesome, April 1, 2008
Janette Kenny's ONE REAL MAN is a western historical romance full of fiery humor and passion that will delight readers from beginning to end. Janette Kenny weaves historical detail and the depths of human emotions into the very heart fabric of her narrative style and her characters' romance.
Gil Yancy, a gambler and secondary character from ONE REAL COWBOY, heads to Wyoming thinking he is about to start a new life and put his past behind him after buying a share of a parcel of land. Gil is about to start a new life --- but his past is about to haunt him when he runs smack into the feisty spitfire Josephine Andrews, a woman he met in a Kansas brothel who hit him over the head and stole his money and disappeared. Forced together by Josie's husband's business transaction, will Gil and Josie see beyond betrayal? Josie has kept her Kansas past a secret, starting a new safe life in Wyoming, or at least a life she thinks is safe until Gil walks onto Rocky Point Ranch. Can she dare trust this cowboy? If Gil speaks a word about her past to her uppity neighbors, all her plans to create a guest ranch for women will be ruined. Does Josie dare reveal her secrets to the very man who might rob her of her heart and her most precious possessions? Gil has put aside gambling and his past mistakes, hoping that his new business venture will prove his father's low expectations wrong. Now that his worst nightmare stands before him, defiant and proud, and ready to complicate his goals, will his passion for this former calico queen be his undoing or the one risky bet who brings all the dreams of his heart within his grasp?
The heroine and hero of ONE REAL MAN are outstanding! The fiery and defiant Josie is full of grit. She is a woman of action and yet underneath she is a wounded soul, tender and steadfast in her loyalty to family. Handsome, sexy, and tough, Gil is the quintessential cowboy and romance hero. His friendship with Everett Andrews, Josie's husband, reveals a western and male code of honor that underlies his actions to others. In Gil's character, Janette Kenny reveals the real man behind the western myth, a man torn by loyalties and a desire to carve out a new prosperous life in the backdrop of past personal and national misfortune. One Real Man is filled with humor and suspense as the reader knows certain facts before the characters and delights in watching the characters discover the truth and sees their reaction. The written narrative style reminds one of the beauty of oral stories so common in the western setting. ONE REAL MAN is just so much fun to read to another person, both for the reader and the listener. As the plot thickens and the characters interact and reveal their pasts, the tone changes and a rich emotional depth emerges.
ONE REAL MAN makes the western period of American history come alive. The reader feels the geography of the west as the Wyoming wind and dust make tactile her landscape. The Panic of 1893, the worst economic crisis to date in American history, undergirds the history preceding the opening of ONE REAL MAN, giving a realistic urgency to the financial motives of the characters. In the background the reader feels the influence of The Pullman Railway strike which halted all traffic to the west. ONE REAL MAN reveals some of the hard issues historical women faced such as brothels and abuse and in doing so, creates a thematic structure where real love emerges as connection that respects and truly cherishes the beloved. Gil emerges as a real man and a wonderful romance hero --- one who respects, loves, and truly cherishes a woman for all she is. ONE REAL MAN is simply awesome! Janette Kenny is a rising star in the western historical romance genre!
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