Reviewer: Casee Star Bright by Catherine Anderson
Series: Kendrick/Coulter/Harrigan #9
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: January 6, 2009
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 438
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Series Rating:
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Anderson presents an emotionally compelling story about the hard as nails, fiercely loyal Harrigan family...
Faking her own death to escape her murderous husband, Rainie Hall takes refuge in the rural community of Crystal Falls, Oregon, where she starts work as a bookkeeper on a horse ranch run by rugged, dangerously good-looking Parker Harrigan. Parker's word is his honor, and he can't tolerate liars. When he realizes that Rainie hasn't been truthful with him, he's furious, then concerned. Clearly she's a woman in trouble and if she'll trust him, he'll do right by her. But as their attraction blossoms into a deep and thrilling passion, Rainie fears that her mere presence could jeopardize everything the Harrigan family holds dear...
This review was originally posted on Mar 17, 2009.
I’ve always enjoyed Catherine Anderson’s books. They are always family oriented stories that just bring me a happy feelin’. This book starts off with Rainie Hall fakin’ her own death, so it basically grabs you from the beginnin’. Rainie knows that her husband plans on killin’ her on the cruise that he’s disguised as a vacation for the two of them, so she makes her own plans to disappear.
Landin’ in Crystal Falls, Oregon, Lainie finds a job as Parker Harrigan’s ranch workin’ as a bookkeeper. She sees right away that her boss is someone that values the truth more than anythin’ and is terrified of what will happen when he finds out that she’s not who he thinks she is. Her fears turn out to be well founded. Parker does not accept her lies very well. When he realizes that she has left an abusive relationship, he can’t get rid of her like he planned to. In fact, with each passin’ day, he finds himself more and more attractive to the elusive Rainie.
Rainie doesn’t find it easy to trust, especially a man. Yet she finds that she’s slowly beginnin’ to trust him as the days go by and Parker befriends her without expectin’ anything else. Still, she’s scared that she’ll make as bad of a choice as she did marryin’ her husband, Peter. Not to mention that she knows that he’s lookin’ for her and won’t give up until he finds her.
The best part of this book was seein’ Rainie discover herself again. It took a long time for her to accept that she wasn’t at fault for her disastrous marriage. It takes time, but she realizes that Parker isn’t anythin’ like Peter. Not only will he never hurt her, but he helps her take her self-confidence back, somethin’ that she thought could never happen. The romance unfolded slowly between these two, which worked. I think the book was more about Rainie findin’ her self-confidence and gettin’ her self-worth back than it was about romance. In order to get in a relationship with Parker, she had to get past her demons and learn to trust a man.
There was one thing in this book that drove me bat-shit crazy. Parker drops his “g’s”. It was so annoying and would take me out of the book which made me insane. It’s not that he was an uneducated hick, he just embraces his roots more than most. Still, I couldn’t effing stand it.
3.75 out of 5