Black Tree Moon

Latimer Moon #2

by Kathleen Eagle

SOUTH DAKOTA'S BLACK HILLS, WHERE FIRES RAGED—AND WHERE ONE WOMAN HAD A FIRE FIGHTER BURNING UP

Race Latimer: One of the Forest Service's elite smoke jumpers. Part owner of the Plugged Nickel casino. Half Chippewa Indian. Full-time hell-raiser.

Hannah Quinn: Head of self-help program for downtrodden women. Churchgoer. Pint-size blonde with a heart too big for the secret she had to keep.

Race Latimer had always drifted from town to town, fire to fire—woman to woman. But suddenly a goody-two-shoes preacher's daughter had him hotter than he'd ever been. Yet the last thing any fire fighter needed was to get burned off duty ....

AMERICAN HEROES: Men who give all they've got for their country, their work—the women they love.

Genres: Romance

250 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Kathleen Eagle published her first book, a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award winner, with Silhouette Books in 1984. Since then she has published more than 40 books, including historical and contemporary, series and single title, earning her nearly every award in the industry. Her books have consistently appeared on regional and national bestseller lists, including the USA Today list and the New York Times extended bestseller list.

Born in Virginia and raised "on the road" as an Air Force brat, Ms Eagle earned degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Northern State University. She taught at Standing Rock High School in North Dakota for 17 years.

Eagle's work is often singled out by book reviewers for its exceptional quality and appeal. THE NIGHT REMEMBERS was a Chicago Tribune Notable Book. SUNRISE SONG, THE NIGHT REMEMBERS, THE LAST TRUE COWBOY, and WHAT THE HEART KNOWS made the Library Journal "Five Best Romances of the Year" list. BookPage listed WHAT THE HEART KNOWS among its "Top Six Romance Picks" for 1999. THE LAST GOOD MAN was a finalist for the 2000 Minnesota Book Award for Popular Fiction--the only Romance so honored thus far. YOU NEVER CAN TELL was named to RWA's "Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year" list. She is an RWA RITA award winner.

Kathleen Eagle lives in Minnesota with her husband, who is Lakota Sioux. The Eagles have three children and three grandchildren.

Reviews

[Stevie Holcomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable, easy romance read. At least I didn't put it down, and how can you really complain about a love story? But honestly, took me 3 days and had yet another boring, "good" heroine and the "bad boy" type. I remember reading one of these that had a charming, funny hero that was described as handsome but not gorgeous. THAT I liked, real.

I had bought a box full of Silhoutte's from eBay years ago because one heroine had the same name I do (which is unusual) and periodically I cleanse my palate with a fluffy romance. Now onto something more meaty, I think.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and well-written but Race felt a little more generic than Eagle's heroes usually do, and Hannah wasn't particularly interesting.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, and every summer when the fire season starts it's time to bring it out and read it again. Hannah works as a counselor in a women's center in Deadwood, SD. She doesn't know, when she and her women picket a bar in protest to all the gambling that is making havoc of their lives, that the owner happens to be her neighbor.

If ever there were two opposites, it's Hannah and Race. Hannah is the orphaned daughter of missionaries, for whom right and wrong are very clear. Race is the illegitimate son of one of the women in her center, the owner of a bar/casino, and a smoke jumper. Right and wrong are much more flexible to him.

They share the same part of a lake, and while innocently playing in the water - he swims, she doesn't, he gambles, she doesn't - they slowly get to know each other. Their courtship is utterly charming, playing in the lake, bringing over food, even a dinner out and an evening under the stars where nothing happens. Not that he doesn't try. She finds that under the devil- may- care exterior is a fascinating man. He finds that her principles are more than skin-deep. In spite of those principles, or maybe because of them, he is drawn to her over and over again.

The fire season takes him away, and while they are apart they discover what has been happening between the two of them. Then, when he's miles away, the fire moves toward Deadwood - and Hannah's cabin.

Another winner for Kathleen Eagle. A book to treasure and read over and over again. And I sure hope Kindle gets a copy of it because this is another book I'm reading to pieces.

[rebel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean, I was gonna give it two stars just for the heck of it, but then the hero fingers the heroine while they're trapped in a canoe in the middle of a lake while the forest (and their cabins) burns down around them on all sides, and like, my suspension of disbelief only goes so far.