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Anything for Love
Venice Leiland, determined to overcome her spoiled, rich girl reputation, has come to the most remote spot in the Rockies to save a small mining town from financial ruin. The last person she expects to find is Noble "Slats" McCaneaghy, who disappeared from her life ten years ago after her father had rescued him from poverty.
He had been the hero of her childhood—always there to rescue her from her mischievous adventures. Now he is a devastatingly attractive man with a new mission in life. The arrival of the dark-haired beauty from his past stirs all his painful memories of forbidden desires and thwarted dreams, yet he still yearns to protect her even if he can't have her. But as Venice struggles with her own feelings of betrayal, she is helpless to resist him . . . or to deny the fiery passion that still smolders in a love that can never die.
He had been the hero of her childhood—always there to rescue her from her mischievous adventures. Now he is a devastatingly attractive man with a new mission in life. The arrival of the dark-haired beauty from his past stirs all his painful memories of forbidden desires and thwarted dreams, yet he still yearns to protect her even if he can't have her. But as Venice struggles with her own feelings of betrayal, she is helpless to resist him . . . or to deny the fiery passion that still smolders in a love that can never die.
377 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 1994
4 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Connie Brockway
61 books727 followersNew York Times and USAToday best selling author Connie Brockway has twice won the Romance Writers of America's Rita award for best historical romance as well as being an eight time finalist. After receiving a double major in art history and English from Macalester College, Connie entered grad school with an eye to acquiring her MFA in creative writing. Soon enough she jettisoned the idea of writing serious literature for what she considered (and still considers) the best gig in the world, writing romance.
Connie has received numerous starred reviews for her romances in Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal. Library Journal also named her Her 2004 romance, My Seduction, one of the year's top ten romances.
In November of 2011, THE OTHER GUY'S BRIDE (a sequel to the perennially popular AS YOU DESIRE) was Amazon's Montlake Publishing's launch title. Here next book, NO PLACE FOR A DAME will be published September, 2013. A regency set romance, it is also the sequel to ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT.Today Connie lives in Minnesota with her husband David, a family physician, and two spoiled mutts.
Connie has received numerous starred reviews for her romances in Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal. Library Journal also named her Her 2004 romance, My Seduction, one of the year's top ten romances.
In November of 2011, THE OTHER GUY'S BRIDE (a sequel to the perennially popular AS YOU DESIRE) was Amazon's Montlake Publishing's launch title. Here next book, NO PLACE FOR A DAME will be published September, 2013. A regency set romance, it is also the sequel to ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT.Today Connie lives in Minnesota with her husband David, a family physician, and two spoiled mutts.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 21, 2021
I read this for the #TBRChallenge, previous updates with my full thoughts, comments, and quotes can be found:
Reading Update: 20%
Reading Update: 40%
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Reading Update: 100%
This is one of Brockway's very early pubs and while I do think you can tell, there was still some of the Brockway magic. The hero is the softy and the one declaring his love and trying to get the heroine to marry him. He was rescued by her father from the slums of New York as a young Irish boy and then sent to Yale. The father decided that he didn't like that his daughter had a friendship with him and decided to pull his financial support and give the draft office the hero's name which causes the hero to fight in the American Civil War before then going back to school on his own dime. The hero ends up surveying for the Smithsonian and trying to get a law in place that would make land in Colorado into a National Park (what is now Yellowstone).
The heroine ends up in the same CO town as she's trying to prove to her father that she can run or be apart of their companies charitable foundation. The whole father pulling support to the hero wasn't exactly written crisply along with the heroine's motives toward proving herself and way she was going about it.
The small western town in CO in the late 1800s vibe is sort of there and some secondary characters, like the Gold Dust owner Katie add some personality. The highlight though is the relationship between the hero and heroine, they have some funny, cute, and sweet byplay. The hero is the softy here and has no problems declaring his love. The ending drags some with the heroine using her parent's love lost at the end marriage as the angst to keep them apart.
Reading Update: 20%
Reading Update: 40%
Reading Update: 60%
Reading Update: 100%
This is one of Brockway's very early pubs and while I do think you can tell, there was still some of the Brockway magic. The hero is the softy and the one declaring his love and trying to get the heroine to marry him. He was rescued by her father from the slums of New York as a young Irish boy and then sent to Yale. The father decided that he didn't like that his daughter had a friendship with him and decided to pull his financial support and give the draft office the hero's name which causes the hero to fight in the American Civil War before then going back to school on his own dime. The hero ends up surveying for the Smithsonian and trying to get a law in place that would make land in Colorado into a National Park (what is now Yellowstone).
The heroine ends up in the same CO town as she's trying to prove to her father that she can run or be apart of their companies charitable foundation. The whole father pulling support to the hero wasn't exactly written crisply along with the heroine's motives toward proving herself and way she was going about it.
The small western town in CO in the late 1800s vibe is sort of there and some secondary characters, like the Gold Dust owner Katie add some personality. The highlight though is the relationship between the hero and heroine, they have some funny, cute, and sweet byplay. The hero is the softy here and has no problems declaring his love. The ending drags some with the heroine using her parent's love lost at the end marriage as the angst to keep them apart.
March 19, 2023
noble & venice
prospecting and paleontology
fear of abandonment
adventures in the wilderness
hilarious banter as a former friend calls out a spoiled brat for her fake tears and nonsense. spoiled brat grows up by the end.
noble is unique — irish immigrant goes west with a college education. his accent realistically vacillates throughout, he puts on the brogue when he wants. real cute. truly can’t control himself when it comes to her.
uncle kind of an advocate
heroine in the mindset that love is not enough and hero doesn’t fall into proving his devotion nonsense, he grapples with her emotional reality to try to prove his case.
very young brockway 1994
some very unusual rough spots, couple of copy editing mistakes caused confusion on scene changes.
generally fun, i wanted to read it a lot.
feels wrong to get rid of it and i imagine i’ll want to reread at least once.
also costume shout out, i really dug the clothing choices all around— and it was never too much, it was just as much description as i wanted.
prospecting and paleontology
fear of abandonment
adventures in the wilderness
hilarious banter as a former friend calls out a spoiled brat for her fake tears and nonsense. spoiled brat grows up by the end.
noble is unique — irish immigrant goes west with a college education. his accent realistically vacillates throughout, he puts on the brogue when he wants. real cute. truly can’t control himself when it comes to her.
uncle kind of an advocate
heroine in the mindset that love is not enough and hero doesn’t fall into proving his devotion nonsense, he grapples with her emotional reality to try to prove his case.
very young brockway 1994
some very unusual rough spots, couple of copy editing mistakes caused confusion on scene changes.
generally fun, i wanted to read it a lot.
feels wrong to get rid of it and i imagine i’ll want to reread at least once.
also costume shout out, i really dug the clothing choices all around— and it was never too much, it was just as much description as i wanted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 10, 2012
(What is wrong with the guy on the cover's abs? They're missing!)
I enjoyed reading this book. It was fun, although some parts did drag a bit.
The heroine was quite annoying at times. She was overly idealistic in a way that really got on my nerves. The hero was lovely, though. I adore (the occasional) heroes that aren't born to privilege.
There were some errors, such as might and sight for mite and site, and lathe for lave (ouch!). With all the ebooks I've been reading, I thought I had become more insensitive to things like this, but apparently that only applies to ebooks.
Perhaps not the best of Connie Brockway's books, as it's an early one, but I was certainly glad to see that there were no English lords with titles to mangle.
I enjoyed reading this book. It was fun, although some parts did drag a bit.
The heroine was quite annoying at times. She was overly idealistic in a way that really got on my nerves. The hero was lovely, though. I adore (the occasional) heroes that aren't born to privilege.
There were some errors, such as might and sight for mite and site, and lathe for lave (ouch!). With all the ebooks I've been reading, I thought I had become more insensitive to things like this, but apparently that only applies to ebooks.
Perhaps not the best of Connie Brockway's books, as it's an early one, but I was certainly glad to see that there were no English lords with titles to mangle.
July 13, 2011
This is a simple historical romance. Easy to read.
The last person in the world wealthy beauty Venice Leiland expects to find on a trip to Salvage, Colorado is her childhood friend and protector, Noble McCaneaghy. Venice is determined to prove herself more than a spoiled rich girl and Noble is just as determined to put his bowery past behind him. Both are older, warier, but, they soon discover, when it comes to matters of the heart, no wiser.
The last person in the world wealthy beauty Venice Leiland expects to find on a trip to Salvage, Colorado is her childhood friend and protector, Noble McCaneaghy. Venice is determined to prove herself more than a spoiled rich girl and Noble is just as determined to put his bowery past behind him. Both are older, warier, but, they soon discover, when it comes to matters of the heart, no wiser.
August 8, 2011
I picked up this exact paperback from Goodwill, complete with the crazy cover. I think the pinks and purples and weird shirtless man got to me, as I couldn't concentrate. Just didn't work for me - very clearly a dated early effort.
December 31, 2007
Early effort, but shows the signs of greatness to come.
July 11, 2011
I got kind of tired of this book about 3/4 of the way through. Cute book, but meh.
June 22, 2011
Apparently an early effort by Ms Brockway. It was ok. Will check out others beefore I render final judgment.
May 23, 2016
DNF 70%
February 15, 2013
Lots o fun, real chrctrs, dialog, Rockies scnry. M/F lds, 2nds great
June 23, 2017
This I just found annoying. Don't judge brockway by this book. She gets a lot better.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews