Caroline Fyffe

This is a somewhat generic story of a restless cowboy Chase who comes to tell Jessie she's become a widow. Jessie panics because she is adopting a little girl and needs a husband for it to work. Of course, Chase comes to the rescue. This is all fine and good, but a couple of evil miners are also intent on harming Jessie. This and more contrivances keep Chase around, though Jessie gets a bit whiney about him leaving eventually, and there's a non-communication issue thrown in that is one of my least favorite tropes. It's not a bad read, but just okay.… (mehr)

I read and enjoyed Ms. Fyffe's McCutcheon series, so I decided to try her newer series. The premise is that five sisters living in Philadelphia learn that their estranged father has died and left them his prosperous cattle ranch and several other businesses if they live there for six months. This book centers on the second-to-oldest sister Belle who is determined to return to the East as soon as she can despite the handsome cowboy Blake Harding who owns half the ranch.
I disliked the idea that the five sisters and their father (who turns out to have been a swell guy) couldn't write a letter or visit to determine the truth of their relationship. It made the sisters seem like hypocrites when they felt sad about not knowing their father. And I didn't understand why the townspeople of Eden would take to them so easily when they treated their father so badly.
The romance was okay, but the plot about the villain trying to drive the sisters off seemed shaky. I'll try one more book and hope it gets better.… (mehr)