What do you think?
Rate this book
Maverick Heart: A Novel
Years after she is driven from England to the new world frontier, Lady Verity Talbot reencounters her lost love, the vengeful Miles Broderick, who is unaware that Verity desperately seeks their missing child.
From the Paperback edition.
From the Paperback edition.
386 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
40 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Joan Johnston
126 books751 followersJoan Johnston (born Little Rock, Arkansas) is a best-selling American author of over forty contemporary and historical romance novels.
Johnston was the third of seven children born to an Air Force sergeant and his music-teacher wife. She received a B.A. in theatre arts from Jacksonville University in 1970, then earning an M.A. in theatre from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1971. She received a law degree (with honors) at the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. For the next five years, Johnston worked as an attorney, serving with the Hunton & Williams firm in Richmond, Virginia, and with Squire, Sanders, & Dempsey in Miami. She has also worked as a newspaper editor and drama critic in San Antonio, Texas, and as a college professor at Southwest Texas Junior College, Barry University, and the University of Miami.
Johnston is a member of the Authors Guild, Novelists, Inc., Romance Writers of America, and Florida Romance Writers. She has two children and one grandchild, and divides her time between two homes, in Colorado and Florida.
Awards
* Paperbook Book Club of America's Book Rak Award (twice)
* Romantic Times' Best Western Historical Series Award (twice)
* Romantic Times' Best New Western Writer
* Romantic Times' Best Historical Series Award (twice)
* The Maggie (twice)
* Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist for The Disobedient Bride
Johnston was the third of seven children born to an Air Force sergeant and his music-teacher wife. She received a B.A. in theatre arts from Jacksonville University in 1970, then earning an M.A. in theatre from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1971. She received a law degree (with honors) at the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. For the next five years, Johnston worked as an attorney, serving with the Hunton & Williams firm in Richmond, Virginia, and with Squire, Sanders, & Dempsey in Miami. She has also worked as a newspaper editor and drama critic in San Antonio, Texas, and as a college professor at Southwest Texas Junior College, Barry University, and the University of Miami.
Johnston is a member of the Authors Guild, Novelists, Inc., Romance Writers of America, and Florida Romance Writers. She has two children and one grandchild, and divides her time between two homes, in Colorado and Florida.
Awards
* Paperbook Book Club of America's Book Rak Award (twice)
* Romantic Times' Best Western Historical Series Award (twice)
* Romantic Times' Best New Western Writer
* Romantic Times' Best Historical Series Award (twice)
* The Maggie (twice)
* Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist for The Disobedient Bride
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 20, 2022
DNF at 63%
This is the first HR I've read in a long while, and I'm sad I didn't even enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. Western usually isn't my favorite sub-genre, but I was willing to give this a chance because Nenia and I decided to BR it together. We'd been having a string of pretty great BRs, but oops, I DNFed this one!
It started off good, even though the secondary romance was giving me pause. It seemed to pull so much focus from the main story, which follows the second chance romance of Miles and Verity. When the narrative randomly started head hopping, I was even more put off, because that's one thing that can get me to DNF really fast. Still, I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened.
Then Miles happened. I liked him at first and felt sympathy for him, but he quickly turned into the wrong kind of asshole who was also a bit rapey. Instead of being obsessed with Verity, he became obsessed with the son they had together, who Miles just found out about. And he kept insinuating Verity was a whore, even when she tells him the truth and is super nice to him. I just wasn't loving their dynamic, and I couldn't help but compare it to Stormswept, which was the book that made me fall in love with second chance romance in the first place.
I had initially set this one aside in favor of another book with the hopes of coming back to it, but I'm not feeling any pull toward it at all.
This is the first HR I've read in a long while, and I'm sad I didn't even enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. Western usually isn't my favorite sub-genre, but I was willing to give this a chance because Nenia and I decided to BR it together. We'd been having a string of pretty great BRs, but oops, I DNFed this one!
It started off good, even though the secondary romance was giving me pause. It seemed to pull so much focus from the main story, which follows the second chance romance of Miles and Verity. When the narrative randomly started head hopping, I was even more put off, because that's one thing that can get me to DNF really fast. Still, I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened.
Then Miles happened. I liked him at first and felt sympathy for him, but he quickly turned into the wrong kind of asshole who was also a bit rapey. Instead of being obsessed with Verity, he became obsessed with the son they had together, who Miles just found out about. And he kept insinuating Verity was a whore, even when she tells him the truth and is super nice to him. I just wasn't loving their dynamic, and I couldn't help but compare it to Stormswept, which was the book that made me fall in love with second chance romance in the first place.
I had initially set this one aside in favor of another book with the hopes of coming back to it, but I'm not feeling any pull toward it at all.
July 14, 2022
This was a different type of romance for me. I have never read Joan Johnston before, but I would be interested in reading another by her. I liked the writing style and the story was interesting. Miles and Verity were young and in love and were viciously separated by Miles' nemesis, Chester. Chester made Verity marry him even though she was engaged to Miles because he threatened to kill Miles. Verity is understandably scared of this because he already killed Miles' brother and scarred Miles in a carriage accident. In order to protect Miles, Verity tells him that she does not want him anymore because his face is hideous. Miles is heartbroken and Verity hears that he travels to America. Nine months later, Verity gives birth to a son, Randall, who Chester instantly realizes is not his son because of his black hair (Both Verity and Chester have blonde hair, but guess who has black hair?!). Chester slaps her moments after birth and never goes to Verity's bed again.
Approximately 20 years later.. Chester is dead and has left nearly nothing for his heir, Randall, and his wife. Except the Mulestone Ranch in Wyoming. Verity, Rand, and Freddie (Rand's fiancee) travel to the foreign land to the only place left to them. As they traveled with guides, they got in the middle of a buffalo stampede and Rand and Freddie were separated. Verity was saved from the buffalo from a cowboy, who is none other than her long lost lover Miles! Verity sees Rand get shot by a Sioux and then both he and Freddie are chased by a band of Sioux warriors.
Verity is pleased to see Miles, but is worried about her son. She begs Miles to help her and he says he will if she will marry him. She learns that he is the one who gave Chester all of the bad tips for investments (through an intermediary) and basically bankrupted them. She comes to find out that she does not actually own the Mulestone Ranch at all, but Miles does. He did all of this as revenge for the hurt she caused him, never realizing that she did it to help him. She agrees to marry him so that he will help her find her (his) son, but she hopes that he will come to lover her again.
I really liked the plot to the book. However, I felt that the story was split between the two romances: Miles and Verity and Rand and Freddie. I think both stories were good and each deserved a book on their own.
Approximately 20 years later.. Chester is dead and has left nearly nothing for his heir, Randall, and his wife. Except the Mulestone Ranch in Wyoming. Verity, Rand, and Freddie (Rand's fiancee) travel to the foreign land to the only place left to them. As they traveled with guides, they got in the middle of a buffalo stampede and Rand and Freddie were separated. Verity was saved from the buffalo from a cowboy, who is none other than her long lost lover Miles! Verity sees Rand get shot by a Sioux and then both he and Freddie are chased by a band of Sioux warriors.
Verity is pleased to see Miles, but is worried about her son. She begs Miles to help her and he says he will if she will marry him. She learns that he is the one who gave Chester all of the bad tips for investments (through an intermediary) and basically bankrupted them. She comes to find out that she does not actually own the Mulestone Ranch at all, but Miles does. He did all of this as revenge for the hurt she caused him, never realizing that she did it to help him. She agrees to marry him so that he will help her find her (his) son, but she hopes that he will come to lover her again.
I really liked the plot to the book. However, I felt that the story was split between the two romances: Miles and Verity and Rand and Freddie. I think both stories were good and each deserved a book on their own.
July 22, 2018
Great book 👍👍
library
July 30, 20215
February 19, 2015
Well Done!
Joan Johnston has always been one of my favorite authors. I have been a bit slow getting to some of her works,but I enjoy each one I get a chance to read. This one, dealing with two generations was skillfully written. It has to be tricky writing two stories in one book...but she did it well. Thank you Joan for the stories well told.
Joan Johnston has always been one of my favorite authors. I have been a bit slow getting to some of her works,but I enjoy each one I get a chance to read. This one, dealing with two generations was skillfully written. It has to be tricky writing two stories in one book...but she did it well. Thank you Joan for the stories well told.
August 29, 2010
Pub 1995.
December 7, 2014
Sequel to The Inheritance. Typical Johnston fare. Witty in places.
June 30, 2013
Another romance novel with a story that moved along swiftly and ended well.
Read
June 11, 2016Used - Good (Some spine creases; Signs of shelf wear)
Want to read
August 30, 2009have
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews