Tag: James Gang Publishing

Review: Redeemed by Sandy James

Posted February 12, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Sold into prostitution, Sara Fuller robs a client and flees to her brother in White Pines, Montana.

Anxiously awaiting his mail order bride, rancher Caleb Young is delighted when a beautiful woman steps off the stagecoach. A series of misassumptions soon finds the two taking their marriage vows.

When Sara discovers she isn’t Caleb’s intended bride, she hides her scandalous past and sets out to prove she can be a good wife. Caleb adores Sara but suspects her of hiding something very important. Despite Sara’s secrets, their love grows and a child is conceived.

When Caleb’s real bride arrives, their troubles begin, only to be compounded by the appearance of the man Sara robbed. Now the two lovers must discover whether their love is strong enough to survive the forces threatening to tear them apart.

Sara works as a whore at The Palace but she hates the life and the men and wants nothing more to do with any of it. She finally manages to get away but only because she steals one of her customers payroll – and that of all of his employees.

Sara heads off to White Pines where her brother Ty is living with his new wife Cassie. He had found her at The Palace not long before but hadn’t had the money to buy her from the Madame – Crazy Kate. Caleb is waiting at the train station for his mail order bride. A minister from St. Louis had been in White Pines and he had told Caleb that there were many women in St. Louis who would be willing to get married. Caleb had received word that the minister was sending a bride for him so when Sara steps off the stagecoach, and after they both have some serious misunderstandings, Caleb believes that Sara is his bride. They get married almost immediately and soon settle in to a life together.

Sara, at first, is torn about her decision not to tell Caleb about her past. She just wants to forget it and move on. Neither her brother, Ty, nor Caleb’s brother, Gideon, are happy about the marriage but they eventually come to love Sara. When Sara finds out she’s pregnant she’s shocked (as she believed she couldn’t get pregnant) but so happy that she’s with a wonderful man and that they can raise their child in loving home that they now share. When the man that Sara stole the bankroll from shows up and not only names her as a thief and a whore but also mentions that he might well be the father of Sara’s baby all hell breaks loose and the love that Sara shared with Caleb might not be strong enough to keep the couple together.

This third book in the Safe Havens series is a keeper. When I picked up the book I knew it would be good but the time just flew by as I was sucked into the life of Sara Fuller and Caleb Young. I wanted so badly for Sara and Caleb to find the love they deserved.

James has written a story that’s emotional and sometimes downright heartbreaking. It was sexy as well as Caleb was one big hunk of a hero. He certainly was an ass at times, I’ll give you that, but he was the kind of man that learned from his mistakes and didn’t get mired down in his own pity party.

I absolutely loved Sara and the constant strength she showed throughout the story. Yes, I would have liked to have had her come clean about her past right from the start but understood why she was hesitant to do so. I’m not sure Caleb would have given her the chance she deserved and obviously she got that sense as well. The life she had led before heading to White Pines was shocking and horrifying and I was so happy to see she escaped it all. She was one tough cookie and I very much enjoyed reading about her story.

Overall a really great book and one I definitely recommend.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Sandy James


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Guest Review: Saving Grace by Sandy James

Posted June 21, 2013 by Judith in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Saving Grace by Sandy JamesReviewer: Judith
Saving Grace (Safe Havens, #1) by Sandy James
Series: Safe Havens #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 30th 2013
Genres: Historical Romance, Westerns
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five-stars
Series Rating: five-stars

Grace Riley is on the run—from her past and from her fears. The victim of a violent rape at the hands of a rich politician’s son, she must “disappear” to escape his constant attempts to recapture her. Moving from cattle drive to cattle drive as a cook, she avoids her tormentor for nearly twenty years. When she discovers that the brother she gave up for adoption after their mother died in childbirth was orphaned at an early age, she is frantic to verify that he’s safe. She tracks him to a cattle ranch in Montana.

Widower Adam Morgan owns the Twin Springs ranch, but finds himself falling into a life of loneliness. Although he enjoys spending time with his grown daughter and the two men he rescued when they were living on the streets, he longs to meet a woman he can love. Living in the Montana territory where men greatly outnumber women makes finding a new wife difficult. Weary of working cattle, he is ready to make some changes in his life.

Grace falls ill on her journey, but she manages to make it to the Twin Springs ranch where her brother is supposed to be living. Adam takes her in, concerned for her health and the reason she’s searching for one of his adopted sons. Their chemistry is immediate and intense, but can Grace heal from her past of pain and fear? When her secrets are finally revealed, can Adam forgive her deceptions and learn to love again?

If a consistent quality to this author’s work is to be found, and there are many–by the way–, I would have to say that she packs so many aspects of a situation into one story. I think that is especially true in this novel that is set in the 19th century American “Old West” and which features a woman who has been raped, birthed a child when she was only a child herself, experienced the grief of giving her child away, finding out later that her son has been thrust into a terrible situation because of the death of his adoptive parents, and so and so on. Grace Riley is one of those women that built the American West with grit and persistence, determination to win over innumerable odds, carried always a heart full of love and loyalty for family but who never lost sight of the goal of surviving intact. She is smart and wiley, keeping a few steps ahead of her obsessed rapist and still protecting her carefully guarded secrets, accepting that the “normal” expectations of marriage and family will probably never be hers.

Adam Morgan is the kind of Western hero we all dream about knowing. He’s a man of deep sensibilities, honest and steady in his dealings with his friends, a fitting role model for the two boys he “adopted” after finding them eating out of garbage cans in Denver in their early years. Jake, Grace’s son, has now married a gentle and sweet-natured girl and they are expecting their first child. And it is in that setting that Grace makes herself known to Jake as his “sister” who couldn’t care for them after losing their parents.

This novel is filled with grit and gumption, anxiety and anger, fear and faithfulness, loss and loving. It is the consummate story of what real life was like for a young girl who was “sold” by her father to pay gambling debts and the seeming wreck of her life in the years to follow. It is also a wide-screen kind of view of the harsh nature of life in the American West especially for women without support or the “protection” of a husband. Grace’s brother was her savior more times than she could count as she continually flees for her life and sanity from the man who ruined her life.

Those of us who have come to appreciate Sandy James’ writing style, her creativity in shaping story lines and her craft in putting it all together to make a full-fledged novel are going to recognize that this is one of those novels that just sort of leaves you dazed when the last word has been read. It certainly was that way for me. There is no fudging on the emotion, the deep wounds that life has dealt this extraordinary woman, the kindness and loyalty of a man like Adam, the good that this woman still insists on leaving in her wake regardless of where she may be. Everyone is blessed by her, yet her own pain never seems to be addressed and that is Grace’s lesson to learn . . . how to share her pain with others, learning to trust, opening her heart to love and the full range of feeling and experience that an authentic love can bring into her life.  Life  has not taught her well, or perhaps has taught her too well that there is no grace for Grace.  Yet, somehow it is waiting for her if she will but take the risk.  For someone like Grace that is asking a lot.  But from time to time, the risk is truly a blessing in disguise.

Don’t miss this one. It is well worth reading. In fact, I think it is one of Sandy’s Best and that’s really saying something. I give it a rating of 5 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place

This book is available from James Gang Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

five-stars


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