With Open Arms: Song of the West / Her Mother's Keeper

by Nora Roberts

Available for the first time in over a decade, two classic novels of heartwarming romance from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts

Song of the West

The towering mountains and windswept plains called to her. But she'd never intended to stay forever - until Jake Tanner stirred her emotions like a summer tornado and made it impossible for her to leave. But no man was going to seduce Samantha Evans to give up her dreams. Even a cocky cowboy who made her blood go hot . . .

Her Mother's Keeper

She'd left town a starry-eyed innocent headed for the big city. Now Gwen Lacrosse returned home a savvy, sophisticated woman. But her mother's maddening new boarder enticed her as no one had before. Luke Powers was reputed to be an expert in both words and women - and soon he was turning Gwen's cool reason into something else entirely . . .

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Anthologies, Adult, Chick Lit

377 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Hideaway, Under Currents, Come Sundown, The Awakening, Legacy, and coming in November 2021 -- The Becoming -- the second book in The Dragon Heart Legacy. She is also the author of the futuristic suspense In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print.

Reviews

[J.W. Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first book a little more. Both were good not great. Both had great side characters. The females in both bothered me with their indecisiveness. The males were both yummy

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Song of the West - 2/5 - Another one of Nora's early books in which the Hero, Tanner has a brand of arrogance that is supposed to pass for charm, but actually makes him seem like a jackass. He's walks around the entire time saying, "I'm going to make love to you." or "I always get what I want, and I want you." Meanwhile, there's no chemistry between these two. And the heroine really does seem to find Tanner resistible. Their first kiss - out of the blue with no chemistry at all. So she understandably gets upset that he's just manhandled her. And he spends the entire book doing that - he grabs her, pulls her close and kisses her. Then she gets angry and tries to stomp off. Lather, rinse, repeat. So after two or three such episodes in which she gets absolutely furious and they don't really get along, she decides that she's in insta-love with him. WTF? Why? And then there's that miscommunication that has the overly stubborn running instead of simply asking the hero about it.

And after all this my biggest question is...How is a man supposed to "go sterilize some towels, lots of them" in relatively short period of time to prepare for the birth of a baby? Does he have a UV light? He could boil them and dry them, but that would take more than a few minutes. Weird...

Her Mother's Keeper - 1/5 - Ugh. Not a good story at all. We start out with an annoying heroine who leaps and bounds to all the wrong conclusions, feels the need to control her mother's life, is outright rude to people she doesn't know and is actually something of a whiny spoiled brat. The hero isn't much better. He spends a good portion of the book being a complete asshat. He seduces the heroine knowing that she thinks he's sleeping with her mother...yeah, try to follow that... He never bothers to correct her. He's mean to her, he humiliates her and laughs at her and doesn't seem to respect her all that much. And their first kiss? You call that romance? This guy blows hot and cold too. One moment he's talking about how it's going to be when they make love and the next she's begging for it and he's pushing her away. I couldn't figure out why she fell in love with the dick head. And maybe this would have been better if we even once got inside the hero's head so we could see that he was actually a decent guy, but we don't, so we think he's just an sort of charming but very arrogant asshole.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Open Arms by Nora Roberts
love that there are two books included.
Song of the West
Samantha is in Wyoming and she's caring for her sister, Sabrina.
Sabrina and Dan have a day to themselves and she reluctantly goes off with Jake-he owns half the land in the state.
Another time she goes out on horseback by herself and doesn't notice the storm. Jake ends up finding her where she's passed out and he's brought her back to his ranch, where he's there by himself.
Things heat up with lovemaking while stuck inside with themselves for company.
Love the detailed descriptions of the scenery.
Things don't go so well when the storm hits and it's time for the baby to be born, the truck won't start and the phone is out. Leave it to
Samantha to get things done...
.
Her Mother's Keeper
Gwen LaCross is there at her mothers's, Annabelle where she runs an inn. One of the men is Luke Powers and she's taken to him, the author.
Her mother was drawn to him and she is there to see what she sees in him cuz she knows it's wrong.
Louisiana bayou's hold a mystery and it brings her back in time. She works at Style in NYC where she's in charge of models and deadlines and Bradley is an artist and he wants her to sit for him.
She had broken up with Michael before she came to help her mother.
Falling into the water, while he saves the bucket of berries, and then the rain makes the clothes cling to her every curve. Tender love takes place and things move on from there.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2020
Samantha and Jake's romance was okay. I found it annoying that Jake was such a strong character compared to Samantha. In theory, she should have been a much stronger character than she was. She had a past chock full of accomplishments, but her biggest accomplishment in this book is that she would whimper along in love with Jake as he strutted manishly about his farm. I liked that Samantha was caring and sweet, but she lost a lot of respect for me when she decided that she couldn't just stay and talk with Jake about her feelings for him, but needed to run and get away (assuming, instead, that he was engaged to another woman).

Speaking of running away, Gwen lets her feelings run away with her when it comes to Luke. Which would be fine, except she thinks that Luke is having an affair with her mother. And instead of treating that supposed relationship with respect, she treats it with disdain (for there is a twelve year age difference between Luke and her mother). And then she makes out with Luke at literally every opportunity (which Luke encourages, because, hey, he's a man). But I find it very skeevey that she is willing to make out with the guy that she thinks is boinking her mother. And, again, she tries to run away from her feelings instead of telling Luke how she feels about him.

[S. Spelbring · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a set of two short stories: Song of the West and Her Mother's Keeper, collectively called With Open Arms.

I willingly admit that I liked Song of the West more than Her Mother's Keeper. I have a couple reasons for this. One, I was raised on a farm, rode horses, and worked around cattle most of my life. I identified with the characters and the setting. The story was believable, I liked it.

Her Mother's Keeper... well I couldn't get into it like I did with Song of the West. One of the main characters is a writer, and as a writer, I liked him. But her...she was a terrible daughter. The main premise (spoilers!) is that the man lets her believe that he is involved with her mother, yet she has no willpower to stop kissing him even though she believes he's with her mother. Yeah. Couldn't wrap my head around that one.

Anyway, I liked Song of the West, wasn't impressed with Her Mother's Keeper. I received this book from a co-worker as a gift, otherwise I'm not sure I would have gone out and purchased it on my own.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both stories are quick fun romances. Song of the West is much better at taking you to a different place, you can really picture the landscape of the mountains from the writing. Her Mother's Keeper takes place in Louisiana but there are only a few things that place it there, for the most part, I feel it could happen anywhere. This is an older book, so yes they were fun romances to read, but there were a few parts in both books that don't hold up now in the "me too" movement. But if you can ignore those few quick instances you can have a little fun and get lost for a bit in the love!

[Debbie Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess there's bound to be a couple of duds in there with over 500 books under your belt. With Open Arms was enjoyable enough. Her Mother's Keeper, however, was terrible! I think this guy is sleeping with my mother and gave come to stop him, but I'm going to make out with him every single time I get near. What!? And Nora regularly makes her characters fall in love quickly, but this one was ridiculous. I'm glad it was a short story because I wouldn't have been able to stumble through it otherwise.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is dated and I absolutely loved it. The first book involved a pushy rancher and the second, a know-it-all author. Both books were pretty much clean but I loved the sexual tension and banter. So fun!

[Denise Link · Rating 3 out of 5]

These two stories show their age.

[Beatriz Velez Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Son dos relatos. El primero me encantó. El segundo para nada....

[Olga Fleites · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would rate this book 4.5.

[Jenni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Example of outdated consent.

As in she says no, and he kisses her anyway.

[Angela]

0

[Meryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her books and she doesn't disappoint on this one.

[Lucia D'Amore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy but lovely. Makes me want to be at the cottage!

[Tammy S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 what you expect from Nora Roberta. Fast beach escape read. Two short stories.

[Donna Covell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick short stories, very predictable

[Christina Henderson]

11

[Kathy Church · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Stories

[Tracy Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both stories in this book were great reads! I found myself easily turning the pages wanting to read more and more!

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, quick stories. I liked the first one better than the second.

[Jaime Lyerly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope can't read this 80's book with modern sensibilities. Hated all of what I read, and I can't make myself read more of it.

[Amena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I love you to the edge of madness...." best line ever!!!! Enjoyed this book!!

[Sue Perkinson Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

2 really good stories

[BooksAmL · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been hearing about this book from a family friend for a while, she knew i loved reading and that i have read Nora Roberts before so she decided to give me the book as a gift. She is a person that reads a lot of romance but very picky with what book she will read, so i decided to give it a chance and read it.
The book is just amazing and it does not have only one book in it full of romance but two.Unfortunately i have read the book few years ago so now i had to look "thru" it so i can remember, so i have decide to make the review different this time, i will talk about what i felt about the two books and give as minimal details as possible.
Of course the moment i start reading i knew it will be a another great book of Nora Roberts. Both books have an nice plot that will make you believe that true love can overcome everything if the both decided to fight. For example the second book has one of the most common obstacle that they have to overcome (and even saw that in the comments for this book here on goodreads, that some opinions are that maybe the women was to young for the character she had been pair with). Also love the mother relationship in the second book, she will be supporting her all the way.
Ok i have not said to much about the first book because is a shorter story but trust me is worth reading. Both they are if you like romance this will be just for your taste.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is another compilation of two of Nora Roberts' early Silhouette novels. In typical Nora Roberts fashion, the characters are great and the settings vibrantly created and described. The first story takes place on a ranch in Wyoming and the second on the Bayou in Louisiana. I'd read the first story before, but didn't remember anything about it, and hadn't read the second story. As seems characteristic of many of her early books, part of the conflict in these stories stems from the fact that the main character seems either unwilling to admit her feelings or makes negative assumptions about the thoughts and feelings of her love interest. The fact that they never talk about it leads to misunderstandings and confusion, though all is resolved by the end. I still really enjoyed the characters and the stories in these early books, but I must say that I liked it when she, later, started deviating from this pattern.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! A Nora that takes place in Wyoming!! I love it....though I think the hero is kind of stereotypical and not realistic. But it WAS apparently written in the early 80s so maybe younger men did talk like that...I was only 5, so I wouldn't remember. But I can't ever remember someone calling a woman "Little Lady" or any of the other cliches. That aside, it was a fun read. The second book in this volume was pretty good, too, though it didn't quite speak to me in the same way. I could relate to the characters, but there's something about being able to picture the place clearly, having lived there. (the second book was completely different and unrelated and did NOT take place in Wyoming)
They were both really quick reads though, so great for mindless fluff.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book is set in Wyoming, which is always a sure-fire way to get my interest. One knows ahead of time that it will include a horse and a dog. The second book is set in Louisiana Bayou country, which I'm not as crazy about. I found this one difficult to get through. The heroine was a bit young for the hero, and not very mature. The dialogue in both books has its moments, but for the most part I found them a bit pedestrian, probably because I'm used to so much more from Ms. Roberts. On the other hand, both books were originally published in the 1980's and so are relatively early efforts.

[DM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED IT!!!!!! The 1st story, Jake and Samantha's, was a delight! I liked the contrast between Samantha and her twin, Sabrina's characters... A wonderful read for anyone who likes cowboys and romance! :) The 2nd story was amazing!!!! I really enjoyed this one!! Refreshing to see a new dynamic in a NR book, that of mother and daughter. Also, at first when I was reading it I thought the age gap between the leads was too much... But perhaps love and age shouldn't matter? :D I hope NR continues writing such beautiful romantic stories...

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Open Arms: Song of the West / Her Mother's Keeper by Nora Roberts
o Song of the West – A retired gymnast isn’t sure she is cut out to help her pregnant twin on a ranch, but the next door neighbor is doing his best to convince her! Happy Reading!
o Her Mother's Keeper by Nora Roberts - She thinks her mom is carrying on with a no good writer, so she flies home to investigate and save her mother from her horrible taste in men. But her mama seems to have better luck scoping out potential son-in-laws lol. Happy Reading!