Julia O'Shea is fast reaching the limit of her patience-she's exhausted by running the biggest newspaper in Calgary and caring for her young son alone. Her pragmatic solution? To advertise for a husband.
But her plans go out the window when Ryan Reid-the man who loved and left her ten years ago-comes back to town. Julia can't hide her attraction to the bad-boy-turned-surgeon, especially when he swears he's reformed. And Ryan is determined to be the answer to her prayers....
USA TODAY bestselling and award winning author Kate Bridges loves writing western historical romance and YA fiction. For research, she loves to travel to such faraway places as the Yukon, the Rocky Mountains, and London, England. Published worldwide, she’s been honored with Reviewers’ Choice awards and Top Picks on reader websites. When she’s away from her computer, you might find Kate with her family, canoeing the lakes or hiking the trails in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
(read in french, under the title « Retrouvailles interdites »)
I have to confess something : I really, reaaaallyyyyyy had trouble to get hooked at the beginning of the book. It just... doesn't makes you want to continue. Ryan makes an a****le of himself, Julia is both difficult to understand and undecided... And everything is veeeeeryyyy sloooooow.
But past the first third of the novel, the boring convenience prospects are replaced by the raging fire already spoken about here and there, which becomes the main subject of the story, alongside romance. From there, it's hard to put the book down : the clock is ticking, danger is real, Kate Bridge's pen finally hooks us, we smell the train's dust, the smoke, and feel the stress of those mounties forced to improvise themselves firefighters. Julia's job, until then closer to western tabloid, becomes true journalism. And the suspense grows stronger towards the end, which the author truly takes time to develop.
Fianlly, it was great, maybe not full of plot-twists, and veeery sloooow to start, but it has a good atmosphere and the tension is very well transcribed.
The western romances really are rare in France (even the American releases are far more discreet than before) so, like Julia, don't rely on your first impression and give a chance to « The Commander ». You probably won't regret it.
Es una historia maravillosa despues de un amor que no tuvo el final ambos protagonistas tienen la oportunidad de volver a retomar esa relación conociendo detalles del otro que en el pasado no tuvieron oportunidad de descubrir de todas las historias de esta autora que he leído esta es mi favorita.
This was a good quick read. I enjoyed the romance story & hearing about them fighting the fire. I felt bad for the hero for most of the book because it seemed like everyone was against him, but I was glad at the end to see him get all the happiness he wanted & deserved.
Historical romance about a woman who runs a newspaper for a town. She is also trying to raise a young son alone. Then Ryan comes back to town after a 10 year absence.