Impassioned Stranger

Conley Brothers #2

by Shannah Biondine

Travis Conley looks a lot like his bounty-hunting brother. But Travis has no interest in tracking outlaws or seeking danger and excitement. He's got roots in Pueblo--running his own cattle spread, going to church every Sunday, courting a steady gal. His future is mapped out and life at Crockhead Rest is nice and orderly. Predictable, and Travis likes it that way.But his well-ordered existence veers sharply off course when a stranger arrives at his front gate. He knows the moment he catches his first glimpse of the exotice female beside a mountain of luggage and a yowling crate he's in big trouble. He'd advertised for a cook and housekeeper...but he'd been planning to hire a sedate, older matron. Not this curvaceous young thing, with dark eyes, a foreign accent and smile that has his cowboys entranced.Lucia Montessano hasn't come looking for trouble. It just seems to find her, maybe because she doesn't understand English well, let alone the peculiar customs and sayings on the frontier. When she learns she's come to the wrong ranch in reply to an ad for a mail-order bride, she doesn't collapse in defeat. She starts rethinking her options.The young cattle boss needs a new cook. She needs a husband. He's not very friendly and he's spoken for...but Travis Conley might still be the ideal candidate. He just doesn't realize it yet.This book has a lot of humor and Old West flavor, along with more serious themes about social and religious prejudice and the struggles of immigrants to find their place in the fabric of America. Picture a young Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida and you'd have the heroine. Picture any handsome young cowboy trying to build a future and you have the hero.

Genres: Westerns, Historical Romance

Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

Shannah Biondine is a native of Southern California. Shannah relocated with her husband and two children to Colorado in 2005 and now lives near the Arkansas River and Sangre De Cristo Mountains.

Shannah won an Eppie in 2002 for Best Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, and has had works final in the Aspen Gold, PRISM, and Dream Realm Awards.

Before turning to fiction, Shannah was a business writer and publisher's assistant for a national trade magazine. She now writes full time. Her interests include tarot, creative visualization, needlecrafts, astrology, and avid fiction reading.

Shannah's the author of numerous works of fiction, from traditional historical romance to paranormal romances, and two novellas of fantasy. She's published with LTDBooks, Double Dragon Publishing, and Whiskey Creek Press.