An alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here.
Once a hunter of renegade wizards, Silas Vendine now finds himself on the wrong side of the mages' law with his illegal marriage to Lainie, who has her own forbidden and supposedly impossible magical powers. On the run from the law, Silas and Lainie are scraping by on what Lainie wins at cards and whatever odd jobs Silas can get from people who need his skills and don't ask too many questions.
When Lainie's luck with the cards turns sour, they are led to a meeting with one of the richest ranchers in the Wildings. Brin Coltor wants Silas and Lainie to undertake a dangerous mission into A'ayimat territory for him, and they can't afford to turn him down. But Coltor is hiding a few secrets of his own, that lead Silas and Lainie right into the trouble they've been trying to avoid.
Book 3 of Daughter of the Wildings. Contains language, violence, and mild to moderate sensual content.
Kyra Halland has always loved fantasy. She has also always loved a good love story. She combines those two loves by writing the kinds of romantic fantasy novels she loves to read, tales of magical worlds where complicated, honorable heroes and strong, smart, feminine heroines work together to save their world - or their own small corner of it - and each other.
The Daughter of the Wildings series is possibly my favourite reading at the moment. This is book 3, and the author's getting into her stride now. The characters are charming and heroic, the villains are exceedingly villainous (or just plain stupid), the setting is wonderfully detailed with a bit more revealed with every book, and the stories are just out and out good, rollicking fun.
The two main characters, Silas and Lainie, are (unusually for fantasy, but not for this author) a married couple. Theirs isn't a straightforward relationship, which allows for a bit of angsting along the way, but they still get along fine. I'm usually critical of books where the characters fall headlong into stereotypical gender roles, but here it works really well. Silas has a gentlemanly desire to protect Lainie from... well, everything, basically. She still blushes at any mention of sex.
Yet they still have total respect for each other's capabilities. So when they come to do business with a rich rancher, Lainie stands back and lets the more experienced Silas deal with it. And when they encounter the strange blue-skinned A'ayimat, he leaves it to Lainie, who has an affinity with their kind of magic. This kind of character detail is lovely.
The plot this time centres on the disappearance of the daughter of a the aforementioned rich rancher, kidnapped by the A'ayimat. Even though Silas and Lainie are manipulated into taking on the search, and even though they're quite sure that the rancher isn't telling them some important details, they need the money too much to refuse. And off we go into another fast-paced adventure, and it's not much of a spoiler to say that the rancher was hiding a lot. But then, he's not the only one. Knowing who to trust and who's telling the truth is a big part of the plot.
I've been looking forward to meeting the A'ayimat up close, and here we get right into the midst of them and their magic, which isn't quite like either Silas's or Lainie's. The subtle variation in magics is a big attraction for me in this world. Once again matters are resolved with both guns and magic, with heroism and luck, and a big dose of love to keep the evil at bay. And if perhaps our heroes manage to survive an improbable amount of beating up, gunshot wounds and arrows (sometimes all at once!), it would be churlish to complain (this is fantasy, after all).
Another charming and entertaining adventure in this series of good old-fashioned western fantasy tales. It's so much fun I can't give it less than five stars.
This was better than the previous one. I wish these books were longer though. Some much needed world building could go a long way here.
Especially since this sort of had the same plot as the first book. In the sense that someone wanted to use the power of some long forgotten entities in the core of the Earth.
We're introduced to another one in this book. Why are they there? It would be nice if they had a little more to them than utter destruction.
'The Rancher's Daughter' is the continuing story of married couple on the run Lainie and Silas, as they get into a bit of trouble after Lainie is cheated out of a big win.
I really looked forward to reading this because I've liked the characters from the start and the wonderful mix of fantasy and western is such a refreshing change to read. The suspenseful storyline is full of action, drama and romance. It's so easy to care about the main characters and empathise about the things they want but can't have. I can't wait for the next book!
Overall it's another wonderful adventure in the series. Highly recommended to fantasy fans!
Not much changed. Same basic story line. They take on a job. People they didn’t think were mages are mages. Silas gets injured. Laine saves the day. A tiny bit more of the corruption of the mage council is revealed. There’s so much potential here, there’s just not enough exposition and world building to keep my interest
Purchased the first three book box set from Amazon for $6.44 with the tax on February 9, 2023. Magical bounty hunters with greed superimposed on the old west. Good character development some well-developed evil villains.
There is a whole lot of deception in this story. That causes Lanie and Silas's path forward to take very unexpected turns. Money is a draw, but there is a price to pay. Even the most unobvious can be dangerous.
Lainie and Silas find themselves in financial dire straits that not even Lainie’s knack for cards seems to be able to pull them out of. After a particularly sour loss they find themselves in front of, Brin Coltor, one of the Wildings richest ranchers and he has a life changing offer for them. Find his daughter and return her safely to him and they will be rewarded beyond their wildest dreams. But the details that Coltor is forthcoming with are dubious at best and as they begin the search for his daughter it quickly becomes clear that they are heading into a situation that could cost both of them their lives.
Like the previous entries into this series The Rancher’s Daughter (TRD) is short and fast paced. But where the others had some slower moments that almost seemed to drag, TRD throws us into the action almost immediately and doesn’t let us go until the very end. I really enjoyed the little bit of insight we got into the A’ayimat, they have been an enigmatic presence on the outskirts of the story so far and the little tastes we have had until now had definitely piqued my curiosity. So, it was wonderful to have that part of the world building fleshed out a little more.
The further adventures of Silas and Lainie. Also introduces one of my favorite characters, wealthy rancher Brin Coltor. There are many books titled The Rancher's Daughter, but I think it's safe to say mine is the only one with an old blue shaman dude in it!