Warrior

MacKenzie-Blackthorn #5

by Elizabeth Lowell

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER

Nevada Blackthorn, segundo of the Rocking M Ranch, was born of a warrior breed. The blood of his ancestors had given him strength. Years spent in Afghanistan's bitter struggle for freedom had taught him hard lessons. Nevada believed in survival--and nothing else.

Wildlife expert Eden Summers had come to the Rocking M in search of the cougars she loved, but she found something still more untamed. She found a man, a man who had within him an abiding gentleness that no other could see, that no other could touch. And she longed to lay a loving hand on his lonely heart and show him the peace that only the brave can know ....

WESTERN LOVERS: Men as tough and untamed as the land they call home.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Westerns, Historical Romance, Ebooks

188 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Individually and with co-author/husband Evan, Ann Maxwell has written over 60 novels and one work of non-fiction. There are 30 million copies of these books in print, as well as reprints in 30 foreign languages. Her novels range from science fiction to historical fiction, from romance to mystery. After working in contemporary and historical romance, she became an innovator in the genre of romantic suspense.

In 1982, Ann began publishing as Elizabeth Lowell. Under that name she has received numerous professional awards in the romance field, including a Lifetime Achievement award from the Romance Writers of America (1994).

Since July of 1992, she has had over 30 novels on the New York Times bestseller list. In 1998 she began writing suspense with a passionate twist, capturing a new audience and generation of readers. Her new romance novel Perfect Touch will be available in July of 2015.

To get a full list of titles as well as read excerpts from her novels, visit www.elizabethlowell.com.

Reviews

[Yolanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5
#RitaLowell
Escogí este libro porque me llamó la atención la sinopsis, porque a mi eso de que el prota pertenezca a una casta de guerreros, me llama.
Y la cosa ha sido que, argumento tiene poco, tan pronto eres testigo de cómo le hierve la sangre a este hombre, como estás siguiendo a un puma y sus cachorros por la montaña, unos cambios de tercio sin ton ni son, tremendos. Tan pronto está a punto de llevarte al éxtasis que se para para preguntarte si puede quitarte los calcetines y los zapatos.
La manera de escribir de la autora ha hecho que me perdiera en alguno momentos (no sé si ha sido la traducción, cómo está escrito o yo misma). Se pierde una en ese éxtasis incandescente que siente Nevada (siente un deseo intenso, al grado de no poder dormir, no puede humedecerse los labios con la lengua sin preguntarse como sabrá Eden....) La necesidad que domina a Nevada es una cosa tremenda y claro... no cree en el amor...lleva una lucha interna TREMENDA porque ve que la necesidad lo domina.
Me he perdido en el éxtasis pero me he reído lo más grande, por la manera de ser de Nevada y la manera de amarlo y querer salvarlo de Eden (la chica del cuento de hadas). Eden y Nevada se encuentran la primera vez y ya vas viendo los hervores de sangre de Nevada y el pre-éxtasis de Eden. Qué poco se imaginaba Eden los éxtasis que va a sentir repetidas veces, las lluvias de satisfacción en su delta dorado (nido dorado, suave promontorio) y ojo con la fantasmagórica ululación del viento en esas montañas.
Perdida en el éxtasis me he quedado, pero me he reído tanto!

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
We have a hero who blows hot & cold because of his man-pain since as usual men have cornered the market when it comes to pain. We have a heroine who always opens her arms whenever he comes back. Then of course as is the pattern with the series, all of the women end up pregnant and alone until their dear men come for them. There was something comforting in the predictability of this old-school series.

[Grrrrace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This suffered from the same flaw as Linda Howard's Mackenzie series (and I'm amused at the similarities between the two series): after a while, the heroes are kind of rehashes of other heroes in the series. In LH's case, the diffs between superspy heroes Zane (Mackenzie's Pleasure) and Chance (A Game of Chance) seemed minimal to the point where the difference seemed to come down to eye color and a slight difference in levels of bitterness. Ditto here: Hero Nevada Blackthorn is pretty much a carbon copy of his older brother Tennessee Blackthorne, hero of EL's Outlaw, except for eye color (ice-blue vs. ice green) and is even MORE damaged by war than his brother and equally determined not to let the heroine breach his emotional defenses.

Heroine Eden is a wildlife biologist who studies cougars, and the comparison of our our sleek, dangerous, cold-eyed hero to the big cats is endless. EL's high desert landscapes are, once again, the real star, of this book. I can't really remember much about the heroine other than her job and the fact that she hails from Alaska, brought up by "off-the-grid" parents and can handle herself in the wilderness pretty well. She has a tame half-wolf for protection because why not? She's an improbable virgin if I recall correctly, but whether from choice or trauma I can't recall (which is a little telling given that I read this book within the last couple of weeks and have forgotten most of the details). This one follows the usual pattern: shuttered hero is determined to withstand any emotional involvement with the heroine; thinks he can keep it to sex only, finds out he can't but by then she's gone off to have his secret baby, chases her down, HEA. A tasty enough confection, but not particularly filling.

The entire series was pretty good but I liked the first two books the best. I wish Lowell had written a book about the Rocking M ranch founder, Case MacKenzie, but the closest we get is his brother Ty's story in the one historical novel in the series, Reckless Love, which was completely ridiculous but pretty entertaining. Overall, this was a fun western romance series with pretty good world/history building and an interconnecting group of MCs who were all fairly similar and indistinguishable after a while. Part of the problem might be my tendency to rush through series, so don't let my ambivalence deter you if you enjoy western romances: lots of good stuff in the series to like if you have a hankering for jerk alphas, self-sacrificing heroines, angst, good sexy heat, and gorgeous descriptions of western landscapes.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheesy, romantic love story. Sweet virginal heroine and brooding hero reminded me of Diana Palmer books which is a good thing!

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cheesy language. Based on very well treaded roads of romance plot. Predictiable.

[TINNGG · Rating 3 out of 5]

(eyes emo hipster on cover, notes author, and mutters "this aught to be good" sarcastically.)

So our H, who we will now refer to as Emo hipster, for reasons I can only guess were a bright sunny over the breakfast announcement that he'd decided what to do with his life, spent time in Afghanistan teaching the natives to fight a superpower. No mention of military or government agency background so...why? Whatever his reasons, he must not have been as good as he thought he was since people died, and there's mention of starving babies and other things. He's sitting at the only bar when the h comes in, looking for the owner of the general store. She assumes it's him. it ain't. A bar fight ensues after some drunks make overtures toward her. Thereafter, he spends the next several weeks hovering around her, telling her he doesn't wanna want her...and eventually, having unprotected sex with her. The last times...it was an all-nighter. Then he bravely ran away away... Because he didn't wanna deal with the feels you see. So he took off, knowing he could have left her a "gift". Such a hero...

Heroine is 22, has never done the deed, and well, she is strongly attracted to the dude who keeps dogging her footsteps. Is questionable whether it would have gone beyond "oh, pretty" if he hadn't been *there* all the time, including staying with her in the cabin for close to a week. I mean really; you can't blame her for feelings developed when someone she was attracted to was constantly underfoot. And after he panicked and ran... She hung around another week or two before finally leaving, mostly in hopes he'd come to his senses. She went home. Not home - university; home home...to Alaska...to hide.

He finally located his balls and hunted her down, figured out a swimmer got lucky, and asked her where she wanted to live after they got married. She told him no...because she didn't think he'd ask her if there wasn't a bun in the oven. I would have told him no on the principal that I didn't wanna deal with a whiny bitch while pg. Obviously I wasn't the heroine as I *guess* he convinced her to marry him.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites by Elizabeth Lowell. I know some deem her earlier work 'purple prose' but this kept me reading. It must be the tension and the slightly 'surreal' feeling, which I always love. I know the hero is flawed but I also know he's going to be faithful forever.

[Suzanne Urban · Rating 4 out of 5]

4th on the Mackenzie series. This story is about Nevada and Eden. This story has the best chemistry of the four books I have read.
4.8 on a 5.0 scale

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This can be both a standalone and part of a series. You can even read them out of order and still follow through.

Ms. Lowell has developed strong and likeable characters. She brings you allow with her story telling and you want to follow along eagerly to find out what happens.

She brings along past characters but doesn’t distract from the current story or characters. Some authors throw in previous characters to give the readers a sort of epilogue but do it at the expense of the current story and sometimes it distracts and doesn’t flow with the current story being told.

Eden & Nevada’s story is truly opposites attract but somewhere throughout the story you see they are completely opposite. We see that Nevada is caring towards women but standoffish with Eden. We find out why through the story.

There is mention of another brother, Utah who we have not heard of before. It would be really interesting if Ms. Lowell should ever revisit this series and add to this series.
As stated, this can be enjoyed as a standalone book.

[Tinieca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite of the series. By this point, it has been established that the MacKenzie and the Blackthorn males are stubborn and can only be wrangled by their women. But what happens when the Blackthorn is still war raw? Ten had time to heal but Nevada is still on the edge, who could handle a warrior who hasn't accepted his home?

The worst part is the series is incomplete. Utah is still in the cold. We need him home!

[MiMi]

Bought this book cause an author I really liked had this book on her Instagram and I liked the sample I read. I read 69%of it, finally got to the place that H and h are going to get down to business and I can't finish it. Fast love with no ground, hot and cold H that I couldn't relate to. Well it's just not doing it for me.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story

I am always struck by this author’s way with words. Her metaphors are wonderful and often make me pause for thought. Her love scenes can and do get pretty wordy and could stand to be pared down, but her plots, or non- plots play up human nature and serve to make us more aware of other points of view. I always view one of her books as a special pleasure-in-waiting.

[Kathy Sue Stumpf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another awesome book in this series. I'm disappointed that the series ended with this book though, because it was set up for Utah's story to be next, but it never happened, so why include anything about him at all in this one? To bad the series ended as it did. I would still recommend this book, and will keep it to read again.

[Erika Whittington · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first romance novel

I first read this book in high school I've probably read it ten times it gets better every time I do

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oldie. These got a little repetitive. Same story, different couples.

[Jacquie Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Love all of her books. The story of a hardened warrior who didn't v think he could love and the woman who made him see that he could.

[Dietrich West-Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice easy read. Plus a twist where they talk about what being a soldier can do to you.
Nice characters and nice slightly different plot twist.

[Judy Tarver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book in this series.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly - baby is probably my fave from the story! the wolf was just adorable and hilarious, and I loved the relationship/bond/trust that baby and Eden shared

[Andrea González De la Cerda]

“La voz de Edén era igual que su sonrisa, cálida sin ser coqueta. El tono era ronco, como si
llevara horas sin hablar. Nevada se preguntó si sonreiría igual al despertar y si su sabor sería al
menos la mitad de dulce que su sonrisa. ” “Su voz era como el verso, rauda y llena de vida.” “Edén olía a luz de sol y su aliento, un soplo de calidez, lo cubrió.”“todo en él la intrigaba desde que lo había visto por primera vez” “A la luz desvaneciente del día, los ojos de la chica eran casi verdes,
casi dorados, casi ámbar, casi gris azul, era un centellar de colores que le observaban como si, el transcurso de cada estación, de cada época, viviera en el fondo de aquellos ojos. La calidez de sus manos sobre su piel tuvo el efecto sanador del verano. Deseó inclinarse y apoderarse de su boca, de su cuerpo.” “. Soy un guerrero y no un caballero de armadura brillante y te deseo más que todos los hombres juntos que están en la cantina.”“Su voz, el aroma, el recuerdo táctil de la tentadora calidez de Edén habían perseguido a Nevada desde entonces cuando estaba despierto. Lo habrían perseguido también en sueño” “nadie sale de la vida vivo” “La vida nos presenta
cosas inesperadas, Nevada. Por eso la risa es vital y muy real. Además, la vida siempre busca vida. Por eso el amor es vital y real. No es un cuento de hadas, es la realidad.” “era una llama que ardía en aquella vasta oscuridad helada” “El sonido de la risa de Edén hizo que Nevada volviera la cabeza por instinto, atraído por la
Vida que bullía en ella”“Estás sola en medio de una tormenta con un hombre que se estremece cada vez que te lames los labios. Y me tienes confianza. Eso, damita, es malditamente estúpido.”“«Eres una tonta, Edén Summers. Una dulce tonta, pero tonta al fin. Eres demasiado confiada»” “Nevada escuchó la calidez en la risa de Edén y, en silencio, decidió que era más bella que el canto salvaje de un lobo. Luchó contra el impulso de abrazarla, de inclinarse para probar sus labios cuyas tentadoras curvas lo perseguían en todo momento”“Edén levantó la vista. Los ojos de Nevada estaban muy claros y las pestañas que los rodeaban parecían trozos de medianoche” “En los ojos de Nevada había algo que hacía que la sangre le fluyera alocadamente por el cuerpo, dejando un caos a su paso.” “era una sonrisa como el Amanecer, que transmitía
Calidez” “Edén lo perseguía como un eco en un cañón solitario que tocaba lugares ocultos a los que ni siquiera el sol llegaba. Nevada sabía que no se tranquilizaría hasta que se asegurara de que Edén estaba bien.” “Su vello negro brillaba y le lamía el torso como si fueran llamas oscuras. Edén tuvo un extraño sentimiento, una añoranza que jamás había experimentado.” “Era un dulce tornado. Su risa me hacía pensar en las brillantes amapolas.” “el amor nunca es inútil ni se malgasta” “Y nunca me besaron como tú donde el cielo, el infierno y el arco iris arden” “Se aferró a Edén como si creyera que podían quitársela en cualquier momento” “Nevada nací para ti, y tú naciste para mí. Lo quiero todo contigo, el cielo, el infierno y el arco iris que arde entre los dos”“Vendería mi alma con tal de no desearte, Edén, pero hace mucho que el diablo se la llevó así que, te deseo con el calor del infierno.” “Soy tuya sin tu cariño, me desees o no” “El hombre es el animal que ríe, ama y vive. No se trata sólo de sobrevivir, Nevada. Es vivir.” “El amor jamás se desperdicia pero puede herir como ninguna otra cosa.” “Te deseo toda y de todas las maneras posibles.” “Aceptaré todo lo que quieras darme, de la manera que sea, sin recriminaciones ni arrepentimientos. Eso es el amor, Nevada y te amaré hasta que me muera”“Edén dejó de respirar porque no había visto nada más bello que la sonrisa de su guerrero.” “Eres mi vida, mi alma, todo lo que deseé y que temí que nunca tendría. Chica de los cuentos de hadas, te amo.”

[Sheila Melo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hero Makes the Book

"She's the wrong woman in the wrong place at the wrong time...and she's headed right for me."

THE STORY: Nevada Blackthorn has come to live on the Rocking M after years of covert operations in Afghanistan. He has managed to find some peace, but he remains emotionally withdrawn as a way of protecting himself from pain. Nevada managed to survive but he doesn't really believe in love for himself. Eden Summers is a wildlife biologist who has come to the area to study cougars. Eden recognizes in Nevada a wild creature and draws upon her knowledge to bring him closer to her.

OPINION: I love these old Elizabeth Lowell books. First published in the early 1990 as a category romance, WARRIOR is a story that almost has the quality of a fairy tale. It has a sense of unreality about it that makes it extremely appealing to me. Nevada and Eden are mirror images of one another. Both have endured great pain but Eden chose to embrace the light and love of life while Nevada has denied both. I especially like that both of these characters are strong and yet Nevada is emotional. He has a soft heart as babies and the women of the Rocking M know. Nevada's character makes the book for me. I like Eden but I love Nevada and can read this book again and again simply because of him.

WORTH MENTIONING: This book reminds me of the disappointment that Lowell never wrote the story of Utah Blackthorn. One reason I gave up on Elizabeth Lowell books was that she has a tendency to abandon a series with books left to be written. So read this book but don't bother to look for Utah's story.

FINAL DECISION: I rate this book highly because I absolutely adore Nevada who is so damaged by his past that he has built a wall around himself to protect himself and I love the story of him and the woman who shows him the light in the world again.

CONNECTED BOOKS: WARRIOR is the fourth book in the contemporary Rocking M series aka the MacKenzie-Blackthorn series. There is also a prequel historical book as well. It is not necessary to read the prior books in the series although there are recurring characters that make appearances.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.

[Erinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I think this one was the best one in the entire series. But it still followed the basic plotline of the the others. It makes the story a little less interesting when almost every single one of these women is either 22 or 23, almost every single one of them is a virgin and the one that isn't might as well be, and they all manage to get pregnant after the first go around. Anyway, that being said I really liked Nevada and Eden, even though some of the things they said to each other made me wince out of sheer embarrassment because why you would tell a dude you love him after two weeks of knowing him is beyond me but whatever. I liked the thing these two had going and I liked them as characters which is really the only reason why I'm giving this book four stars instead of three like I did with the contemporary companions of this series.

[Jez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what to say about this. I would give it a true rating of about 3.5. It was somewhat dated, since this is an older book, but at the same time not in a distracting way which says a lot for the story. I knew this wasn't any sort of suspense going in but I still felt it a little lacking. And I also felt a little bit of a "woo woo" to the story. We're given this underlying current of maybe they both have some woo woo/special powers to communicate with animals. And the family has some sort of warrior abilities. I don't know its just all a little weird. And yet, despite that I did enjoy the book. And I am willing to give this author another try before I form an opinion of her.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did like the book, but I was disappointed with the amount of pages that were devoted to Nevada going to see Eden. I would have liked more than 2 pages! I think I would have felt like the book wrapped up better. Otherwise it was a good book, and now I'll have to go back and read the rest of the series!

[C K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series (Granite Man, Fire and Rain, Warrior, Outlaw) on the people of Rocking M ranch is fantanstic! TThis is an author that I have read a lot of and have added her books to my 'keeper' book shelf. Most I have read at least twice and some even more than that. Always in depth characters that anyone can identify with on some level.

[Lesli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book years ago, but continually find myself draw to the men and women of the Rocking M Ranch. This is the story of Nevada Blackthorn and Eden Summers. Originally published as one of the Silhouette Desire books, Warrior is enjoyable without being tiring.

[Jujubee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this based upon a "list" of great romances. I guess it's a little dated in the storyline (a hero who's a little too alpha and a heroine that could have a lot more knowledge of the world) but overall pretty good read.

[Ollie Z Book Minx · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty good for the first half but then massive eye roll syndrome takes hold and disbelief suspension cannot be sustained... It could've been stronger with a slight rearrangement of a couple scenes.

Terrible euphemisms abound as well :)

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so sad at the two main characters' plight. Too much to have to deal with...

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nevada Blackthorn and Eden Summers