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The Outlaw Hearts
The Missouri-bound train that is carrying Jenny Leigh Colter to her new schoolmistress job is forced to stop in an Ozark valley by the notorious Luke Morgan, a handsome outlaw who tempts Jenny with promises of lawless passion.
371 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
6 people are currently reading
391 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Brandewyne
61 books175 followersBorn in Knoxville, Tennessee, Rebecca lived in Knoxville and then, later, Chattanooga for the first few years of her life. After that, she and her family moved to Kansas, where she grew up, spending her summers in Alabama, visiting both sets of her grandparents. She says she's just a country girl with a dash of big city sprinkled in for spice. But having traveled extensively in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the Caribbean, she moves easily between the publishing world of New York and her hometown.
Rebecca graduated cum laude with departmental honors from Wichita State University, earning a B.A. in journalism, minors in history and music (theory and composition), and an M.A. in communications [mass (broadcasting) and interpersonal (dyadic relationships):]. During the course of her education, she was fortunate enough to study at various times under, among several other distinguished instructors, three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and one of the foremost authorities in the field of interpersonal communication. Twice a recipient of the Victor Murdock Scholarship, Rebecca taught interpersonal communication at the university level before becoming a published writer.
She was twenty-one when she started work on her first novel, No Gentle Love. She finished the book a year later and sold it to Warner Books some months after her twenty-third birthday, making her, at that time, the youngest romance author in America, a record that stood for ten years before finally being broken. To date, Rebecca has written over thirty consecutive bestselling titles, including novels and novellas on the following lists: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Magazine & Bookseller, Ingram, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks, among many others.
Her books have been translated into a number of foreign languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish; and they have been published in over sixty countries worldwide. Many have been selections of the Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild. Hardback editions of several titles have been published by Severn House, and large-print editions of some books are also available from Macmillan Library Reference and Thorndike Press. Rebecca currently has millions of books in print in the United States alone.
From Affaire de Coeur magazine, she has won: the Classic Award for Classic Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Golden Quill Award for Best of the '80s Historical Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Bronze Pen (Wholesalers' Choice) Award, 1989; the Silver Pen (Readers' Choice) Award, 1988, 1987, and 1986; and a Gold Certificate for The Outlaw Hearts, 1987.
From Romantic Times magazine, she has won: the Reviewer's Choice Nominee for Best Historical Romantic Mystery, for The Ninefold Key, 2004; the Reviewer's Choice Certificate of Excellence for Victorian Historical Romance, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995; the KISS (Knight in Shining Silver) of the Month for Best Hero, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995, and for Swan Road, 1994; the Career Achievement Award for Futuristic Romance, 1991, for Passion Moon Rising and Beyond the Starlit Frost; the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Gothic, for Across a Starlit Sea, 1989, and for Upon a Moon-Dark Moor, 1988; the Historical Romance Novelist of the Year Award, 1987; and the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Western Romance, for The Outlaw Hearts, 1986. Rebecca has also been named one of Love's Leading Ladies and inducted into Romantic Times magazine's Hall of Fame.
http://www.brandewyne.com/castle/gall...
Rebecca graduated cum laude with departmental honors from Wichita State University, earning a B.A. in journalism, minors in history and music (theory and composition), and an M.A. in communications [mass (broadcasting) and interpersonal (dyadic relationships):]. During the course of her education, she was fortunate enough to study at various times under, among several other distinguished instructors, three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and one of the foremost authorities in the field of interpersonal communication. Twice a recipient of the Victor Murdock Scholarship, Rebecca taught interpersonal communication at the university level before becoming a published writer.
She was twenty-one when she started work on her first novel, No Gentle Love. She finished the book a year later and sold it to Warner Books some months after her twenty-third birthday, making her, at that time, the youngest romance author in America, a record that stood for ten years before finally being broken. To date, Rebecca has written over thirty consecutive bestselling titles, including novels and novellas on the following lists: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Magazine & Bookseller, Ingram, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks, among many others.
Her books have been translated into a number of foreign languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish; and they have been published in over sixty countries worldwide. Many have been selections of the Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild. Hardback editions of several titles have been published by Severn House, and large-print editions of some books are also available from Macmillan Library Reference and Thorndike Press. Rebecca currently has millions of books in print in the United States alone.
From Affaire de Coeur magazine, she has won: the Classic Award for Classic Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Golden Quill Award for Best of the '80s Historical Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Bronze Pen (Wholesalers' Choice) Award, 1989; the Silver Pen (Readers' Choice) Award, 1988, 1987, and 1986; and a Gold Certificate for The Outlaw Hearts, 1987.
From Romantic Times magazine, she has won: the Reviewer's Choice Nominee for Best Historical Romantic Mystery, for The Ninefold Key, 2004; the Reviewer's Choice Certificate of Excellence for Victorian Historical Romance, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995; the KISS (Knight in Shining Silver) of the Month for Best Hero, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995, and for Swan Road, 1994; the Career Achievement Award for Futuristic Romance, 1991, for Passion Moon Rising and Beyond the Starlit Frost; the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Gothic, for Across a Starlit Sea, 1989, and for Upon a Moon-Dark Moor, 1988; the Historical Romance Novelist of the Year Award, 1987; and the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Western Romance, for The Outlaw Hearts, 1986. Rebecca has also been named one of Love's Leading Ladies and inducted into Romantic Times magazine's Hall of Fame.
http://www.brandewyne.com/castle/gall...
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 19, 2024
I have mixed feelings about this, mostly to do with the framing of certain subjects/sorry this is about to be an essay of a review - TW: Rape, war, murder, PTSD
Jenny is a severally traumatized survivor post-Civil War, who after the annihilation of her family, decides to go live in a small mountain town as a school teacher. On the journey there, she meets Luke Morgan who is robbing her train (RDR2 fans, yes, I wish it was Arthur Morgan instead), who also happens to live in the town she's going to, and despite how UGLY she is (it's mentioned constantly) he's into her and decided the only way to get her silence (she sees his face on the train) is to marry her.
The writing is fine, a bit melodramatic, the descriptions of the mountain settings were lovely, and if you hate miscommunication, you don't have to worry about that here, because Luke and Jenny, despite barely speaking (at the start), know what each other is thinking at all times just from intuition I guess lmao. The conflict is external except for Jenny being able to move past her PTSD, which is fine but kind of boring - the whole point of a romance is two people learning how to love each other, and part of that is learning how to communicate. Jenny and Luke just seem to know what the other is thinking at all times, so there's no tension there as their romance grows.
(Quick edit: to add on to that, both Jenny and Luke have trust issues - Jenny truly believes she is unworthy of Luke’s attention because she’s been told she’s ugly her whole life/has trauma from civil war, and Luke’s wife cheated on him and abandoned him and his children. But there’s like no development given to that conflict - they just automatically are like “oh I’m over it now I know the other loves me”, which IMO misses the point of a romance story? Way more time should’ve been spent on their romance actually developing vs all the random historical events the author likes to go over).
But moving on to less fun things:
Firstly, I am not the kind of reader who has to approach everything from a moralistic lens, or decontextualizes story points/violence to put myself on some moral soapbox (@ a lot of folks on booktok) Depiction does NOT equal endorsement all the time in media.
I also understand that the North was not exactly this great hero that swept into the South, freed the slaves, and everyone went merrily on their way (despite my Northerner education on the subject) - there were many atrocities committed against civilians, many widows and children, by unscrupulous opportunists, as war tends to create, many who were Union soldiers. Many families were displaced and lost everything because of the war, and I don't expect a character whose home and family were destroyed in the war to look kindly on the North.
The author recounts many historical events in this book, most famously the raid on Lawerence, Kansas by Quantrill and his band of pro-slavery degenerates, and the author obviously does not condone the violence that happened there or violence in general - she makes a point of having the Morgan gang never kill anyone unless in self-defense, and she actually condemns the James-Younger gang (Jesse James) for how they murdered innocent people. These historical events are often narrated objectively and very factually for the most part. I don't know how to feel about a lot of that, because again from Jenny's POV, the Union was the enemy.
But what I did find to be the most egregious was the portrayal of Jenny's two servants, formally enslaved Moses and Decline, and the overall framing of Antebellum South.
These two characters fit into what I believe would be described as "the happy slave" narrative, that if you don't know, is this still prevailing myth (see what's happening in Florida public schools right now) that actually a lot of slaves were happy! they loved their masters who protected and provided for them! they didn't need freedom! for more on that, I'd read Frederick Douglass's Narrative to learn more.
Moses and Decline, who become a couple pretty quickly in the book, are happy to serve Jenny and live with her and do acts of labor for free (I think they are hired servants later on in the book, but I don't think they are at the beginning). Even though they want to marry, they wait until Jenny does because they don't want to make her upset because she's a spinster. They are perfectly happy working all day, performing labor for Jenny, in a home they do not own, and not pursuing their dreams or wants. Moses, in a flashback, even makes a point of saying that he wanted to come back to the plantation after he was freed, because "the [family name] was always good to their slaves".
There are way more examples throughout the book, but the book ends with Moses and Decline living in Luke's old cabin on his property, while he and Jennyo move into their new, big, two-story house. Sound familiar? With public schools currently planning on teaching children that "slavery actually benefited slaves" (which I hope y'all understand no it fucking didn't), this felt very gross.
And it's also weird because while I can kind of get an idea of the author's view of violence (she's very against it), I cannot get a grasp on her feelings about slavery because she barely mentions it! It's discussed maybe off-handly every now and then, but that's it. I don't know what kind of acknowledgment I was looking for in this, but it came off to me as an active avoidance of the subject on the part of the author and left a very romanticized version of the antebellum South. For example, while she condemns Quantrill for the violence he and his men committed, she never condemns the fact that these guys were pro-slavery, and were specifically seeking out and murdering abolitionists in Lawerence.
I think it would be easy to just write this book off as “outdated” and “immoral” because this book challenged my views of the world and pissed me off at times, but I think that there’s stuff to be seen and learned here still, especially considering how the effects of the civil war are still very much felt today here in the US.
Jenny is a severally traumatized survivor post-Civil War, who after the annihilation of her family, decides to go live in a small mountain town as a school teacher. On the journey there, she meets Luke Morgan who is robbing her train (RDR2 fans, yes, I wish it was Arthur Morgan instead), who also happens to live in the town she's going to, and despite how UGLY she is (it's mentioned constantly) he's into her and decided the only way to get her silence (she sees his face on the train) is to marry her.
The writing is fine, a bit melodramatic, the descriptions of the mountain settings were lovely, and if you hate miscommunication, you don't have to worry about that here, because Luke and Jenny, despite barely speaking (at the start), know what each other is thinking at all times just from intuition I guess lmao. The conflict is external except for Jenny being able to move past her PTSD, which is fine but kind of boring - the whole point of a romance is two people learning how to love each other, and part of that is learning how to communicate. Jenny and Luke just seem to know what the other is thinking at all times, so there's no tension there as their romance grows.
(Quick edit: to add on to that, both Jenny and Luke have trust issues - Jenny truly believes she is unworthy of Luke’s attention because she’s been told she’s ugly her whole life/has trauma from civil war, and Luke’s wife cheated on him and abandoned him and his children. But there’s like no development given to that conflict - they just automatically are like “oh I’m over it now I know the other loves me”, which IMO misses the point of a romance story? Way more time should’ve been spent on their romance actually developing vs all the random historical events the author likes to go over).
But moving on to less fun things:
Firstly, I am not the kind of reader who has to approach everything from a moralistic lens, or decontextualizes story points/violence to put myself on some moral soapbox (@ a lot of folks on booktok) Depiction does NOT equal endorsement all the time in media.
I also understand that the North was not exactly this great hero that swept into the South, freed the slaves, and everyone went merrily on their way (despite my Northerner education on the subject) - there were many atrocities committed against civilians, many widows and children, by unscrupulous opportunists, as war tends to create, many who were Union soldiers. Many families were displaced and lost everything because of the war, and I don't expect a character whose home and family were destroyed in the war to look kindly on the North.
The author recounts many historical events in this book, most famously the raid on Lawerence, Kansas by Quantrill and his band of pro-slavery degenerates, and the author obviously does not condone the violence that happened there or violence in general - she makes a point of having the Morgan gang never kill anyone unless in self-defense, and she actually condemns the James-Younger gang (Jesse James) for how they murdered innocent people. These historical events are often narrated objectively and very factually for the most part. I don't know how to feel about a lot of that, because again from Jenny's POV, the Union was the enemy.
But what I did find to be the most egregious was the portrayal of Jenny's two servants, formally enslaved Moses and Decline, and the overall framing of Antebellum South.
These two characters fit into what I believe would be described as "the happy slave" narrative, that if you don't know, is this still prevailing myth (see what's happening in Florida public schools right now) that actually a lot of slaves were happy! they loved their masters who protected and provided for them! they didn't need freedom! for more on that, I'd read Frederick Douglass's Narrative to learn more.
Moses and Decline, who become a couple pretty quickly in the book, are happy to serve Jenny and live with her and do acts of labor for free (I think they are hired servants later on in the book, but I don't think they are at the beginning). Even though they want to marry, they wait until Jenny does because they don't want to make her upset because she's a spinster. They are perfectly happy working all day, performing labor for Jenny, in a home they do not own, and not pursuing their dreams or wants. Moses, in a flashback, even makes a point of saying that he wanted to come back to the plantation after he was freed, because "the [family name] was always good to their slaves".
There are way more examples throughout the book, but the book ends with Moses and Decline living in Luke's old cabin on his property, while he and Jennyo move into their new, big, two-story house. Sound familiar? With public schools currently planning on teaching children that "slavery actually benefited slaves" (which I hope y'all understand no it fucking didn't), this felt very gross.
And it's also weird because while I can kind of get an idea of the author's view of violence (she's very against it), I cannot get a grasp on her feelings about slavery because she barely mentions it! It's discussed maybe off-handly every now and then, but that's it. I don't know what kind of acknowledgment I was looking for in this, but it came off to me as an active avoidance of the subject on the part of the author and left a very romanticized version of the antebellum South. For example, while she condemns Quantrill for the violence he and his men committed, she never condemns the fact that these guys were pro-slavery, and were specifically seeking out and murdering abolitionists in Lawerence.
I think it would be easy to just write this book off as “outdated” and “immoral” because this book challenged my views of the world and pissed me off at times, but I think that there’s stuff to be seen and learned here still, especially considering how the effects of the civil war are still very much felt today here in the US.
June 12, 2016
Post Civil War Story of Love’s Power to Heal
Set in Missouri in the years following the Civil War, beginning in 1870, this is the story of two people wounded in both spirit and body. Jenny Leigh Colter was a plain girl in a family of handsome men and beautiful women. It was a family she loved. But a brutal Yankee colonel took her sisters from her and the war took her brothers. Without funds and only her two former servants for companions, she answers an ad for a schoolteacher needed in the Ozarks.
On the way to her new position, the Morgan gang, former Confederate heroes who now make their as outlaws, robs Jenny’s train. However, one of them, Luke Morgan, returns all the money they took from those who served the South. Luke notices Jenny right away and her plainness does not repel him having been married to an unfaithful beauty, but he knows she has seen his face and can report him to the authorities. When he discovers she is the new teacher in town, he considers marrying her to prevent her testifying against him.
These two wounded souls help each other. It’s an endearing romance and a story of healing and hope. There are some great secondary characters, too, but be aware, the flashbacks to what happened in the war are vivid and brutal.
Set in Missouri in the years following the Civil War, beginning in 1870, this is the story of two people wounded in both spirit and body. Jenny Leigh Colter was a plain girl in a family of handsome men and beautiful women. It was a family she loved. But a brutal Yankee colonel took her sisters from her and the war took her brothers. Without funds and only her two former servants for companions, she answers an ad for a schoolteacher needed in the Ozarks.
On the way to her new position, the Morgan gang, former Confederate heroes who now make their as outlaws, robs Jenny’s train. However, one of them, Luke Morgan, returns all the money they took from those who served the South. Luke notices Jenny right away and her plainness does not repel him having been married to an unfaithful beauty, but he knows she has seen his face and can report him to the authorities. When he discovers she is the new teacher in town, he considers marrying her to prevent her testifying against him.
These two wounded souls help each other. It’s an endearing romance and a story of healing and hope. There are some great secondary characters, too, but be aware, the flashbacks to what happened in the war are vivid and brutal.
August 28, 2011
I can't see the forest for the trees.
The forest is the plot and the trees are overly dramatic prose and racist terms.
My lilly-white-new-age ass can't take it, man.
The forest is the plot and the trees are overly dramatic prose and racist terms.
My lilly-white-new-age ass can't take it, man.
January 2, 2009
After surviving a truly horrific attack in her home after the Civil War, Miss Jenny Colter takes a teaching position in the small yet closeknit town of Tumbling Creek, Missouri. She's with her two Negro servants, Moses and Delcine, when the train she is on is held up by the infamous Morgan gang. Two of the brothers, Raiford and Luke are going through the passengers, stealing their belongings, when Jenny is overcome by the violence that Luke and Raiford use in order to subdue the conductor, and she takes off into the woods with Luke hot on her trail. After a brief tussle and a few gropes, he reluctantly lets her go, instantly smitten by her brave defiance of him, but afterwards he realizes to his horror that his bandana had slipped from his face during their brief skirmish and Jenny had gotten a good look at his face. Luckily for him, her destination of Tumbling Creek happens to be the Morgan brother's hometown and surrounded by his kin, he knows she will be unable to bring him to justice, but just in case, he devises a bunch of ways to keep her quiet, least of which, stealing into her hotel room to impart a friendly warning. He tells himself he is just keeping an eye on her while he is ruthlessly surrounding her within the friendly embrace of his family but Jenny has touched the deepest recesses of his lonely heart and for her, he is willing to give up his life of crime. He hopes to turn over a new leaf and go into politics and while on the campaign trail, Jenny sees a horrible ghost from her past and it's up to Luke and his two children to help save his beloved outlaw heart.
This book starts off with us, the reader, being chosen to bear witness to the undying love that our hero and heroine hold for each other that still resonates within the Ozark Mountains. It's a very private moment that we are intruding upon, but if I had stumbled upon two spirits getting it on before me, I would have stared, too. Our guide in this book, known as the Old-Timer, gifts us with this story through his eyes.
My first impression: Not as inflammatory as Huck Finn, but I still felt uncomfortable reading Moses and Delcine talk to each other. Not only that, I had to slow down my reading to try and figure out what the heck they were saying to each other. The "N" word is sprinkled about as well.
Jenny is a plain, freckled young woman who lost all her family during the war and after it. She's crippled and thinks noone could want her, which is just as well because after what she witnessed, she doesn't particularly want to be with a man. Enter Luke. No bodice of hers is safe from his demanding lust and though he starts off as a typical bodice ripping alpha male, complete with the obligatory scene of the bodice ripping male slapping his heroine in the face, (done to calm down her hysterics) he soon becomes a very sweet, gallant and caring hero, notwithstanding the whole threatening her life at knifepoint bit. I really liked him. True, he starts off a little grabby and a little rough with her, but he soon realises he needs to employ a much softer touch with his Jennilee, soon to be his Outlaw Heart.
This book has a gentle pace and I can easily see people dropping out before the finish line, but don't do that. This is a really lovely story and has an interesting look into the South and the sprawling Old West post Civil War. The infamous outlaws from the time era that this book encompasses (1870-1875) receive a few honorable mentions and I thought that was fun. It also gives us several gimpses into the savagery committed from both sides of the war though this book is decidedly skewed from the South's perspective, which was not so fun. Jenny sings a Southern song during a party and after I read the words from the song, alls I have to say is wow. Bitter much?
There is plenty of romance between Luke and Jenny, though a lot of screen time is shared with the quirky characters from the town of Tumbling Creek, plus Luke's family and his two children and the children that Jenny teaches. Also, this book goes off on a couple of different tangents. Luke reminiscing about his part in the infamous Lawrence Massacre in Lawrence, Kansas and Jenny, when she finally chooses to tell her story about the truly horrific day she lost her family. That story was BAD. Truly horrific. Though it makes me wonder how the Old-Timer knew that story. *shrug*
All in all, this was a very lovely story. Luke and Jenny were a great couple, but the use of the Old-Timer as the storyteller kind of gave me a standoffish feeling. It was as if I was reading this story through a filter. Eh. Just a minor complaint. 4.5 stars.
This book starts off with us, the reader, being chosen to bear witness to the undying love that our hero and heroine hold for each other that still resonates within the Ozark Mountains. It's a very private moment that we are intruding upon, but if I had stumbled upon two spirits getting it on before me, I would have stared, too. Our guide in this book, known as the Old-Timer, gifts us with this story through his eyes.
My first impression: Not as inflammatory as Huck Finn, but I still felt uncomfortable reading Moses and Delcine talk to each other. Not only that, I had to slow down my reading to try and figure out what the heck they were saying to each other. The "N" word is sprinkled about as well.
Jenny is a plain, freckled young woman who lost all her family during the war and after it. She's crippled and thinks noone could want her, which is just as well because after what she witnessed, she doesn't particularly want to be with a man. Enter Luke. No bodice of hers is safe from his demanding lust and though he starts off as a typical bodice ripping alpha male, complete with the obligatory scene of the bodice ripping male slapping his heroine in the face, (done to calm down her hysterics) he soon becomes a very sweet, gallant and caring hero, notwithstanding the whole threatening her life at knifepoint bit. I really liked him. True, he starts off a little grabby and a little rough with her, but he soon realises he needs to employ a much softer touch with his Jennilee, soon to be his Outlaw Heart.
This book has a gentle pace and I can easily see people dropping out before the finish line, but don't do that. This is a really lovely story and has an interesting look into the South and the sprawling Old West post Civil War. The infamous outlaws from the time era that this book encompasses (1870-1875) receive a few honorable mentions and I thought that was fun. It also gives us several gimpses into the savagery committed from both sides of the war though this book is decidedly skewed from the South's perspective, which was not so fun. Jenny sings a Southern song during a party and after I read the words from the song, alls I have to say is wow. Bitter much?
There is plenty of romance between Luke and Jenny, though a lot of screen time is shared with the quirky characters from the town of Tumbling Creek, plus Luke's family and his two children and the children that Jenny teaches. Also, this book goes off on a couple of different tangents. Luke reminiscing about his part in the infamous Lawrence Massacre in Lawrence, Kansas and Jenny, when she finally chooses to tell her story about the truly horrific day she lost her family. That story was BAD. Truly horrific. Though it makes me wonder how the Old-Timer knew that story. *shrug*
All in all, this was a very lovely story. Luke and Jenny were a great couple, but the use of the Old-Timer as the storyteller kind of gave me a standoffish feeling. It was as if I was reading this story through a filter. Eh. Just a minor complaint. 4.5 stars.
August 30, 2010
(3.5 stars)
1870. Jenny Carter has been through hell – left for dead with the rest of her family brutally murdered and their Georgia plantation burned to the ground. Crippled for life, tortured by nightmares and virtually penniless and with no prospects for a husband on the horizon, Jenny takes a position as teacher in the remote Missouri town of Tumbling Creek. Along the way to her new home, her train is stopped and robbed by the notorious Morgan Brothers gang and Jenny accidentally gets a look at the face of one of the robbers and she’s in for quite a surprise when she arrives in Tumbling Creek and comes face to face with that robber – Luke Morgan. Luke tells her she’s wasting her time turning him in, with his huge family he’s got alibis a-plenty, but he’s still a bit worried and wonders if it wouldn’t hurt getting her to marry him as a wife can’t testify against her husband (yes, my eyes were rolling at this one).
Neither here nor there, this is a romance so you know there’s this undeniable attraction between the two, and Luke can’t help lusting after Jenny despite her plain appearance and unattractive limp from her injury as he sees the *beautiful* woman on the inside. Luke has his own emotional baggage from the past and Jenny turns out to be just the woman to heal it and set him back on the straight path in life. The plot takes many twists and turns as our pair battle the town gossips, the baddies (and they are sooooo bad indeed) and Jenny’s suppressed memories of what really happened to her family.
Is this not the most awful cover ever?
Yes, I know it sounds like the usual romance stuff, but there’s a few twists in this that bring it up a notch or two. I really liked having a plainer heroine, as well as a hero who cares more about what’s on the inside. I liked the interactions with Luke’s large family and most especially the way Jenny was able to heal the emotional wounds of Luke’s two children and in the process perhaps heal her own as well. There’s quite a nail-biting finish topped off with a very enigmatic HEA that will leave you wondering what really happened. Despite the appearance of the covers (thank gawd I didn’t get cover #2), the sex scenes are rather few and far between, although when you do get them the purple prose is plentiful and fairly standard for 80′s romances. All in all a quick, enjoyable read and the only quibbles I had was how the entire town (minister, sheriff et al) could look the other way and accept a notorious band of robbers into the bosom of the community and for that I’m knocking off a half star – 3.5/5 stars rounded up to four.
1870. Jenny Carter has been through hell – left for dead with the rest of her family brutally murdered and their Georgia plantation burned to the ground. Crippled for life, tortured by nightmares and virtually penniless and with no prospects for a husband on the horizon, Jenny takes a position as teacher in the remote Missouri town of Tumbling Creek. Along the way to her new home, her train is stopped and robbed by the notorious Morgan Brothers gang and Jenny accidentally gets a look at the face of one of the robbers and she’s in for quite a surprise when she arrives in Tumbling Creek and comes face to face with that robber – Luke Morgan. Luke tells her she’s wasting her time turning him in, with his huge family he’s got alibis a-plenty, but he’s still a bit worried and wonders if it wouldn’t hurt getting her to marry him as a wife can’t testify against her husband (yes, my eyes were rolling at this one).
Neither here nor there, this is a romance so you know there’s this undeniable attraction between the two, and Luke can’t help lusting after Jenny despite her plain appearance and unattractive limp from her injury as he sees the *beautiful* woman on the inside. Luke has his own emotional baggage from the past and Jenny turns out to be just the woman to heal it and set him back on the straight path in life. The plot takes many twists and turns as our pair battle the town gossips, the baddies (and they are sooooo bad indeed) and Jenny’s suppressed memories of what really happened to her family.
Is this not the most awful cover ever?
Yes, I know it sounds like the usual romance stuff, but there’s a few twists in this that bring it up a notch or two. I really liked having a plainer heroine, as well as a hero who cares more about what’s on the inside. I liked the interactions with Luke’s large family and most especially the way Jenny was able to heal the emotional wounds of Luke’s two children and in the process perhaps heal her own as well. There’s quite a nail-biting finish topped off with a very enigmatic HEA that will leave you wondering what really happened. Despite the appearance of the covers (thank gawd I didn’t get cover #2), the sex scenes are rather few and far between, although when you do get them the purple prose is plentiful and fairly standard for 80′s romances. All in all a quick, enjoyable read and the only quibbles I had was how the entire town (minister, sheriff et al) could look the other way and accept a notorious band of robbers into the bosom of the community and for that I’m knocking off a half star – 3.5/5 stars rounded up to four.
September 29, 2020
Brandewyne weaves a love story set in the early 1870s Ozarks in this moving tale of redemption. Jenny Colter and Luke Morgan, both emotionally and physically wounded by the Civil War, meet and quickly fall in love. That they will be together is never in question: the bigger issue is whether they can overcome the threats of the past, both external and internal. By this novel, Brandewyne was a better writer, creating stronger, more three-dimensional protagonists. Historical accuracy had never been a problem for her in earlier novels; with "The Outlaw Hearts," the author brought the story up to the level of the setting. Brandewyne also took chances with chronology, interrupting her narrative for three important back stories to play out. The only problematic part in the book is what hits a 21st century reader hard and is really sad: the unpleasantly stereotypical dialect that she uses for the African American characters.
November 13, 2021
This was a re-read for me. I've been re-visiting some of the historical romances that I read ages ago. I remembered this one for how sweet the hero Luke is to the heroine, Jenny (who he calls Jennilee). Luke and Jenny meet when Luke and his brothers rob the train she is on traveling, with two former slaves, from her home in Georgia to Missouri to take a job as a school teacher. Luke and Jenny have an interaction on the train and he realizes she's been through a traumatic experience. He also realizes later that Jenny saw his face. That's a problem because so far no one has been able to identify Luke and his brothers to the authorities. As it would happen Jenny ends up in Luke's hometown (where he and his brothers are treated like heroes) so Luke is able to keep an eye on her.
The story takes place after the Civil War. There is some problematic language used, but accurate for the time period. Luke flat out asks Jenny, if she was raped and she tells him "no". Still the trauma that Jenny faced with her family is very graphic although I will say the author handles it without putting the reader front and center while the tragedy is taking place. Still very sensitive readers may find it hard to read.
I loved Luke and Jenny's love story the second time as much as I did the first.
I also don't hear too many people reading Rebecca Brandewyne these days, this book put her on my radar as an author to check out. Although I believe I only ever read two more of her books. I know one of those was, "Dirt Devil", which is next on my list to re-read.
The story takes place after the Civil War. There is some problematic language used, but accurate for the time period. Luke flat out asks Jenny, if she was raped and she tells him "no". Still the trauma that Jenny faced with her family is very graphic although I will say the author handles it without putting the reader front and center while the tragedy is taking place. Still very sensitive readers may find it hard to read.
I loved Luke and Jenny's love story the second time as much as I did the first.
I also don't hear too many people reading Rebecca Brandewyne these days, this book put her on my radar as an author to check out. Although I believe I only ever read two more of her books. I know one of those was, "Dirt Devil", which is next on my list to re-read.
April 28, 2019
Not far into the story, the reader understands that something terrible has happened to the heroine, Jenny Leigh Colter, five years in the past. Now Jenny is trying to start over as a school teacher in Missouri. While on the train to her job, the train is robbed and Jenny accidently sees the face of one of the robbers. Timid and fearful, Jenny is thankful that she will never see the robbers again. However, she soon sees Luke Morgan and his brothers in the town where she is settling. People know that they are robbers but do not report them because they, and their parents, are solid citizens of the area.
The men are wanted in five states for various crimes. Oddly enough, Luke was studying to be a lawyer before he turned to crime. Luke has an interesting backstory; he was married before but his beautiful wife left him and ran off with another man. Luke was left with two young children.
Luke and Jenny are instantly attracted to each other but his career choice keep them apart. This is an original take on an outlaw family of sons. Once I got involved, I found it hard to put down. 4.5 stars
The men are wanted in five states for various crimes. Oddly enough, Luke was studying to be a lawyer before he turned to crime. Luke has an interesting backstory; he was married before but his beautiful wife left him and ran off with another man. Luke was left with two young children.
Luke and Jenny are instantly attracted to each other but his career choice keep them apart. This is an original take on an outlaw family of sons. Once I got involved, I found it hard to put down. 4.5 stars
November 22, 2020
I read this a long time ago and I remembered loving it.
Um, No.
While I love the idea of a plain heroine, the BIPOC characters are risable.
Um, No.
While I love the idea of a plain heroine, the BIPOC characters are risable.
July 26, 2022
Luke and Jennilee are super sweet to each other.
not-for-me
July 13, 2025Plain crippled h trope.
March 17, 2025
Good story (though not an easy read) of two emotionally damaged people who learn to let go of the past and its bad memories (trauma from PTSD for her, hurt and bitterness from his wife's betrayal for him), though it's no easy task.
Worth checking out, especially for the h, who you'll want to have the HEA she deserves!
Worth checking out, especially for the h, who you'll want to have the HEA she deserves!
Read
October 12, 2011Gotta read it again, it was a long time ago!
April 13, 2012
Quoique l'histoire soit très bien écrite et interessant, j'ai pas réussi à la trouver excellente... Bien sans plus.
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