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Star of the West
Fleeing the betrayal of her fiance and a horrifying confrontation that ends in death, Star Grayson seeks refuge at a notorious brothel where she meets ruged Texan Kyle Hunter
331 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 12, 1987
About the author
Cordia Byers
18 books21 followersCatherine Blair (a.k.a. Cordia Byers) grew up in Texas, were she spent her high school years writing romances for her friends. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Cornell University and currently studies opiate addiction. No one else thinks that the pun between "heroin addiction" and "heroine addiction" is as funny as she does. Catherine is a member of the Romance Writers of America and lives with her husband in San Diego, California.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 3, 2013
Love on a Wagon Train Going West!
This is a realistic adventure set in the Old West…and a winsome love story.
Set in Natchez, Mississippi and Texas about 1855, it tells the story of Star Grayson whose fiancé betrayed her. He only wanted her money and her family’s estate of Jasmine Hill, and is willing to threaten her with a murder accusation if she will not marry him. Through the help of the Underground Railroad, she flees and seeks refuge with a kind madam in a bordello. There she meets Kyle Hunter, a handsome Texas rancher who believes she is one of “the girls.”
With the murder accusation hanging over her head, Star leaves Natchez, disguised as a slave, on a wagon train headed to Texas. Unfortunately, the man she never wants to see again, Kyle Hunter, is leading the wagon train. Soon Kyle figures out the slave named Annie is the beautiful girl he met in the bordello—the girl whose innocence he claimed.
Much happens in this tale as Byers exposes us to the harsh realities of the West: cholera, the constant threat of Indians and the treachery of those willing to lie or kill to steal another’s wealth. And Star briefly experiences the life of a slave. There is also a second romance here with the story of Star’s aunt and Kyle’s father who fell in love 20 years ago but did not marry (at least not each other). A lot of story that will keep you intrigued.
This is a realistic adventure set in the Old West…and a winsome love story.
Set in Natchez, Mississippi and Texas about 1855, it tells the story of Star Grayson whose fiancé betrayed her. He only wanted her money and her family’s estate of Jasmine Hill, and is willing to threaten her with a murder accusation if she will not marry him. Through the help of the Underground Railroad, she flees and seeks refuge with a kind madam in a bordello. There she meets Kyle Hunter, a handsome Texas rancher who believes she is one of “the girls.”
With the murder accusation hanging over her head, Star leaves Natchez, disguised as a slave, on a wagon train headed to Texas. Unfortunately, the man she never wants to see again, Kyle Hunter, is leading the wagon train. Soon Kyle figures out the slave named Annie is the beautiful girl he met in the bordello—the girl whose innocence he claimed.
Much happens in this tale as Byers exposes us to the harsh realities of the West: cholera, the constant threat of Indians and the treachery of those willing to lie or kill to steal another’s wealth. And Star briefly experiences the life of a slave. There is also a second romance here with the story of Star’s aunt and Kyle’s father who fell in love 20 years ago but did not marry (at least not each other). A lot of story that will keep you intrigued.
January 26, 2022
After reading several of Ms. Byers's books, I have to say that her two HR westerns, "Eden" and this novel, "Star of the West" are her best. I get the feeling she had a special place in her heart for 19thc Texas, and reading this kind of gives you one, too.
The story starts in Natchez, MS, where the h, Star Grayson, learns her fiance, Brett Tremayne has been having an affair with her widowed stepmother, Fiona, and they're plotting to get control of both Star's money and family plantation, Jasmine Hill. After confronting them, and mistakenly thinking Fiona died from a fall down the stairs, she's threatened by Brett, who says if she doesn't go ahead with their marriage he'll have her arrested for murder. Star manages to escape, with the help of her black maid Dulcie, and an elderly woman, Obioma, who's thought to be a witch. In reality, she's an herbal healer, who also helps slaves escape. She arranges for Star to be taken to "The Red Passion", the Natchez on the Hill brothel owned by Sugar Brown, a kindhearted biracial madam, who comes up with a scheme for Star to safely leave for Texas, where Clarice, Star's late father's sister, has lived for over 20 years. Using a walnut color mixture used to dye hair, Star dyes her face, neck and arms to look black (or at least half black, with her blue eyes) and arranges to travel on a wagon train with former prostitute Priscilla Ranson and her husband, Jake, posing as their slave, who'll help take care of their baby son. (Not a moment too soon, as Brett had wanted posters printed out, with Star's picture.)
Before this happens, Star is at the brothel for a few weeks, and is told to stay in her attic room during business hours, as protection from the clients, but when she gets restless one night and sneaks out for a stroll in the garden, she has a memorable encounter with the H, Kyle Hunter, who can't resist her innocent beauty (which he thinks is part of an act, since he assumes she's one of Sugar's girls) and seduces her, abruptly stopping when he discovers she was a virgin. Needless to say, they do not part on amicable terms, and soon she finds herself on the wagon train, doing her best to avoid the wagon master who turned out to be Kyle, while he tries to figure out why "Annie", the Ranson's slave girl, seems familiar.
It's possible this story might offend some people, with Star dying her skin (reminders of the old blackface routines) as well as talking slave dialect, but it serves a purpose beyond the disguise. As Annie, Star comes to realize how wrong the system she grew up with really was and how awful it is to be "owned" by somebody. When slaves on your own plantation are treated well, you can make the mistake of getting complacent and forget all the other plantations where that's not the case, not to mention that, no matter how well you treat your slaves, they're still legally your property, which is wrong no matter what. Star begins to realize this, and to also feel the humiliation of having to stay away at social gatherings, keep in the background, say "yes sir", "no ma'am", etc., and to always keep her "proper place". During a cholera breakout, she helps nurse the sick, and when the wagons want to break away from the train and go on ahead (Kyle refused to leave a sick family) it was made clear that Annie would not be welcome to join them, not because she was exposed to cholera, but because she was black! (They only accepted her as the Ranson's slave, but after Priscilla, Jake and their baby died, they didn't want her around.) Gives you quite a bit to think about.
(There's also a funny scene, where "Annie" is in a store at the Ft. Worth stop, to get medicine for Jake. When the racist clerk is rude to her, and gives her a lecture on the proper way to speak to a white man, she pretends to obey, but when leaving the store, she tells him to "go straight to hell" before she exits! He got quite a shock!)
I won't give a lot away, but it goes without saying that Kyle discovers who "Annie" really is and has fun getting her to finally admit it. Soon, they're in each other's arms again, but Kyle's reluctance to get involved (in part because he believes his late mother's words, that he had the same wild, selfish, irresponsible nature as his father) causes him to deny his love for Star and reject her love for him, attempting to persuade her that all they feel is passion.
While a hurt and angry Star does her best to avoid him, that isn't easy when she meets her Aunt Clarice (who recently lost her husband in a Comanche raid), and it's revealed that she was once romantically inv0lved with Kyle's father, Buck. (Kyle found him in a bar when the train made its Ft. Worth stop, and reluctantly let him join the train.) Soon, all four of them are living at Bar H, the Hunter family ranch, where Clarice and Star are working as cook and housekeeper, since Clarice's home was destroyed, and her cattle gone, and they both needed money to start over. Star told Clarice what happened in Natchez, and they plan to save up for a legal battle to clear her name.
I don't want to give too much away, I'll just say that so much of the conflict comes from either insecurities or wrong decisions. Losing her mother at a young age, having a father who kept her at a distance, especially after he remarried, and being used and made a fool of by Brett left Star feeling more alone and unloved than ever, which made Kyle's apparent rejection even more devastating. To make it worse, when things would get better and she'd want to tell him all about what happened back home, she couldn't bring herself to go through with it, afraid he wouldn't believe her or would be angry at her not being completely honest from the start.
On Kyle's part, his resemblance to his father had made his mother, Madge even more bitter, and she kept telling him never to even think of falling in love, let alone get married, because he'd be no better at it than Buck. She convinced him this was true, so he was afraid to get too close, convinced that if he married Star he'd only end up making her miserable, like Madge was.
As for Buck, he let his hellish marriage keep him away from the ranch for long periods of time, which should have been spent with his son, and left Madge more time to do more damage. Not wanting to hurt Kyle by telling him the whole story of his relationship with Madge, and disillusion him about the mother he loved, Buck kept the truth to himself, and kept Kyle thinking the worst of him.
And Clarice, who loved her husband, Joe and didn't want to hurt him, denied herself what could have been years of happiness with Buck, who she knew was the great love of her life. Wanting to do the right thing, and stay faithful to her husband, she was compelled to let him go, and Buck had to accept it.
All these decisions led to unhappiness, each in their own way, and had to be overcome. Meanwhile, there was the OW, Kyle's former mistress, Victoria, who married Harold Crawford to spite Kyle, but didn't hesitate to cause trouble when she met Star. And if you thought Brett was out of the picture, you couldn't have been more wrong!
I think I've said enough, so read the book and enjoy the entertainment.
The story starts in Natchez, MS, where the h, Star Grayson, learns her fiance, Brett Tremayne has been having an affair with her widowed stepmother, Fiona, and they're plotting to get control of both Star's money and family plantation, Jasmine Hill. After confronting them, and mistakenly thinking Fiona died from a fall down the stairs, she's threatened by Brett, who says if she doesn't go ahead with their marriage he'll have her arrested for murder. Star manages to escape, with the help of her black maid Dulcie, and an elderly woman, Obioma, who's thought to be a witch. In reality, she's an herbal healer, who also helps slaves escape. She arranges for Star to be taken to "The Red Passion", the Natchez on the Hill brothel owned by Sugar Brown, a kindhearted biracial madam, who comes up with a scheme for Star to safely leave for Texas, where Clarice, Star's late father's sister, has lived for over 20 years. Using a walnut color mixture used to dye hair, Star dyes her face, neck and arms to look black (or at least half black, with her blue eyes) and arranges to travel on a wagon train with former prostitute Priscilla Ranson and her husband, Jake, posing as their slave, who'll help take care of their baby son. (Not a moment too soon, as Brett had wanted posters printed out, with Star's picture.)
Before this happens, Star is at the brothel for a few weeks, and is told to stay in her attic room during business hours, as protection from the clients, but when she gets restless one night and sneaks out for a stroll in the garden, she has a memorable encounter with the H, Kyle Hunter, who can't resist her innocent beauty (which he thinks is part of an act, since he assumes she's one of Sugar's girls) and seduces her, abruptly stopping when he discovers she was a virgin. Needless to say, they do not part on amicable terms, and soon she finds herself on the wagon train, doing her best to avoid the wagon master who turned out to be Kyle, while he tries to figure out why "Annie", the Ranson's slave girl, seems familiar.
It's possible this story might offend some people, with Star dying her skin (reminders of the old blackface routines) as well as talking slave dialect, but it serves a purpose beyond the disguise. As Annie, Star comes to realize how wrong the system she grew up with really was and how awful it is to be "owned" by somebody. When slaves on your own plantation are treated well, you can make the mistake of getting complacent and forget all the other plantations where that's not the case, not to mention that, no matter how well you treat your slaves, they're still legally your property, which is wrong no matter what. Star begins to realize this, and to also feel the humiliation of having to stay away at social gatherings, keep in the background, say "yes sir", "no ma'am", etc., and to always keep her "proper place". During a cholera breakout, she helps nurse the sick, and when the wagons want to break away from the train and go on ahead (Kyle refused to leave a sick family) it was made clear that Annie would not be welcome to join them, not because she was exposed to cholera, but because she was black! (They only accepted her as the Ranson's slave, but after Priscilla, Jake and their baby died, they didn't want her around.) Gives you quite a bit to think about.
(There's also a funny scene, where "Annie" is in a store at the Ft. Worth stop, to get medicine for Jake. When the racist clerk is rude to her, and gives her a lecture on the proper way to speak to a white man, she pretends to obey, but when leaving the store, she tells him to "go straight to hell" before she exits! He got quite a shock!)
I won't give a lot away, but it goes without saying that Kyle discovers who "Annie" really is and has fun getting her to finally admit it. Soon, they're in each other's arms again, but Kyle's reluctance to get involved (in part because he believes his late mother's words, that he had the same wild, selfish, irresponsible nature as his father) causes him to deny his love for Star and reject her love for him, attempting to persuade her that all they feel is passion.
While a hurt and angry Star does her best to avoid him, that isn't easy when she meets her Aunt Clarice (who recently lost her husband in a Comanche raid), and it's revealed that she was once romantically inv0lved with Kyle's father, Buck. (Kyle found him in a bar when the train made its Ft. Worth stop, and reluctantly let him join the train.) Soon, all four of them are living at Bar H, the Hunter family ranch, where Clarice and Star are working as cook and housekeeper, since Clarice's home was destroyed, and her cattle gone, and they both needed money to start over. Star told Clarice what happened in Natchez, and they plan to save up for a legal battle to clear her name.
I don't want to give too much away, I'll just say that so much of the conflict comes from either insecurities or wrong decisions. Losing her mother at a young age, having a father who kept her at a distance, especially after he remarried, and being used and made a fool of by Brett left Star feeling more alone and unloved than ever, which made Kyle's apparent rejection even more devastating. To make it worse, when things would get better and she'd want to tell him all about what happened back home, she couldn't bring herself to go through with it, afraid he wouldn't believe her or would be angry at her not being completely honest from the start.
On Kyle's part, his resemblance to his father had made his mother, Madge even more bitter, and she kept telling him never to even think of falling in love, let alone get married, because he'd be no better at it than Buck. She convinced him this was true, so he was afraid to get too close, convinced that if he married Star he'd only end up making her miserable, like Madge was.
As for Buck, he let his hellish marriage keep him away from the ranch for long periods of time, which should have been spent with his son, and left Madge more time to do more damage. Not wanting to hurt Kyle by telling him the whole story of his relationship with Madge, and disillusion him about the mother he loved, Buck kept the truth to himself, and kept Kyle thinking the worst of him.
And Clarice, who loved her husband, Joe and didn't want to hurt him, denied herself what could have been years of happiness with Buck, who she knew was the great love of her life. Wanting to do the right thing, and stay faithful to her husband, she was compelled to let him go, and Buck had to accept it.
All these decisions led to unhappiness, each in their own way, and had to be overcome. Meanwhile, there was the OW, Kyle's former mistress, Victoria, who married Harold Crawford to spite Kyle, but didn't hesitate to cause trouble when she met Star. And if you thought Brett was out of the picture, you couldn't have been more wrong!
I think I've said enough, so read the book and enjoy the entertainment.
August 22, 2015
Star of the West is an older romance that takes place on a plantation in Mississippi, on a wagon train and then a ranch in Texas.
On the positive side, the relationship between the secondary characters was rather sweet.
3/5 stars
On the positive side, the relationship between the secondary characters was rather sweet.
3/5 stars
May 19, 2024
Was loving the story until about 3/4 of the story where he was thinking of purging his desire of Star by sleeping with Victoria like what the fuck, did his life resolve around sex only? Wouldn’t he think to consider the truth behind her crime as this was the woman he was supposedly in love with. This was my third book by Cordia Byers and I swear her writing and her characterisation gritted my teeth.
March 21, 2023
Star of the West (1987) is a fairly light typical Western romance that starts off in a unique way. The heroine who flees her Mississippi home under dire circumstances, disguises herself as a slave, staining her skin brown and acting in a subservient manner as she joins a wagon train heading to Texas. The hunky hot hero is the wagon master and you know what happens next...
December 2, 2025
The H never really pursued her. The h always seemed to fall into his life effortlessly, as if served to him on a platter. She tried to escape him once, but circumstances kept pulling her back, again and again. Just when he thought he had finally managed to forget her, she would return.
He did love her, but commitment terrified him. His parents’ failed marriage had left deep scars, making him crave her presence while refusing to promise her a future. He wanted her—just not the responsibility that came with loving her fully. That part, admittedly, felt dull and predictable.
The h herself was tolerable, but the decision to dye her body dark so no one would recognize her felt excessive and unnecessary.
He did love her, but commitment terrified him. His parents’ failed marriage had left deep scars, making him crave her presence while refusing to promise her a future. He wanted her—just not the responsibility that came with loving her fully. That part, admittedly, felt dull and predictable.
The h herself was tolerable, but the decision to dye her body dark so no one would recognize her felt excessive and unnecessary.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews