Mountain Dawn

by Kathleen Kane

She changed his life forever--with a gift of love...

BRIDGET
A feisty Irish beauty, she met life's hard knocks head on. Now her heart went out to a little girl who lost herself in silence after a shattering tragedy...

JACOB
In Bridget he saw hope for his beautiful daughter Jessica. But the lawman's own heart was entwined in fear-of loving again...

Bridget also longed to quell the unexpected fires that flared between them. For if Jacob knew of her tainted past, surely he would have a change of heart...Could they build a family from the threads of their lives? Or was their dream a whisper in the wind?

Genres: Romance, Historical

337 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Maureen Child was born 28 September 1951 in California, USA. She and her husband enjoy traveling, usually taking road trips with her parents. When she’s at home, she is kept busy with her two grown children and a somewhat confused golden retriever named Abbey. She is busy writing her next book.

Under her own name, Maureen Child writes short contemporary novels—books she loves to write because of their fast pace and condensed story telling, she is also writing funny, contemporary paranormal romances. Over the years, she’s written under lots of different names and she prefers the term ‘pseudonym’ to ‘alias’. As Ann Carberry, she wrote western historical romances. As Kathleen Kane, she wrote not only Americana romances, but western paranormal romances as well. As Sarah Hart, she wrote one really spectacular western paranormal that is still one of her favorites. And once, Ann Carberry even wrote a Victorian historical which she absolutely loved doing. She writes paranormal romance novels under the pesudonym of Regan Hastings. Now, a USA Today best selling author of more than ninety romance novels and novellas, she is a five time nominee for the prestigious Rita award from Romance Writers of America. One of her novels, A Pocketful Of Paradise, was made into a CBS-TV movie called The Soul Collector, starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis.

Reviews

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this author had done it better.

From the back cover:

She changed his life forever--with a gift of love...

Bridget
A fiesty Irish beauty, she met life's hard knocks head on. Now her heart went out to a little girl who lost herself in silence after a shattering tragedy...

Jacob
In Bridget he saw hope for his beautiful daughter Jessica. But the lawman's own heart was entwined in fear--of loving again...

Bridget also longed to quell the unexpected fires that flared between them. For if Jacob knew of her tainted past, surely he would have a changed of heart... Could they build a family from the threads of their lives? Or was their dream a whisper in the wind?

And my review:

I bought this book because I loved Catch a Fallen Angel and greatly enjoyed Dreamweaver by this author (who also writes as Maureen Child). I was hoping for a similar read. CATCH A FALLEN ANGEL and DREAMWEAVER were both wonderful historical romances with a paranormal twist.

Unfortunately, this book didn't have any paranormal in it to liven things up. Now that's not a big complaint, as my favorite genre is straightforward historical romance; I don't need a paranormal element to enjoy a good love story. However, if you've read as much historical romance as I have, you've probably read every element in this book before. The red-haired hot-tempered Irishwoman down on her luck and on the run from the law, a gold-rush boomtown, a tortured hero whose first wife was a shrew, the hero's lovely child who draws the characters together, and the one-dimensional evil villain who is intent on killing the heroine.

It's not that the story was cliche or formulamatic, it's simply that the spark I've come to expect from this author was lacking. The most compelling part of this story was watching Jessica blossom from haunted silence into a carefree little girl. The love story between Bridget and Jacob seemed to pale in comparison.

I found myself putting this book down a lot. Usually I can read a novel of this length in 2 - 3 days. This one took over a week to finish. Maybe I expected too much, given how much I've enjoyed this author's books in the past. To see what this talented author is capable of, pick up one of the other books I mentioned. They were keepers.

[Vickie Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong female with just the right amount of humor.

[mad4rombks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I read this.