TITLE: Outlaw Hearts AUTHOR: Rosanne Bittner
STARTED: November 27, 2009
FINISHED: December 6, 2009
PAGES: 505
GENRE: Romance
FIRST SENTENCE: Miranda tried to ignore the image of her father's still-fresh grave as she flicked the reins and goaded the draft horses into a slightly faster gait.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] One year after the Civil War has ended, 20-year-old Miranda Hayes finds herself a widow and an orphan. Knowing that she can't manage her father's farm on the Kansas plains after he is killed by marauding raiders, she decides to search for her brother, who has gone to try his luck in the Nevada gold mines. But on a trip to Kansas City one day, she is brought by fate into contact with the outlaw Jake Harkner, who is wanted in Missouri for murder, theft and rape. In the general store, where both have stopped for supplies, Jake is recognized and a shootout ensues, Miranda herself firing at him in self defense. He escapes, and in a semi-believable plot twist, winds up unconscious in Miranda's cabin. When she discovers him, drained of blood but still alive, it's clear that these two are headed for an unlikely though inevitable partnership, as Miranda seems to be the only person who can help Jake settle his troubled and violent past.
THOUGHTS: This book attempted to be Epic. I mean, the length of time and the breadth of the country it covers is rather daunting. So, it had the right scale, just not the right number of pages. If I had to describe it, it was like Diana Gabaldon decided to reduce the entire Outlander series into a single text. That doesn't mean the book was bad, it just felt a little disjointed and rushed.
I generally enjoyed reading Outlaw Hearts (Ya gotta love on authors who write Westerns. ); the plot was enjoyable, the writing included just enough description to please me, and the chemistry felt real. Something about the story, however, still felt amiss. I don't know if it was because the heroine was too good, the hero too brooding, or the side plots too large, but something was off just enough to make this book just a good read and not a great read.
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
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