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Branded Hearts
No Place For A Lady
A dark family secret and a dangerous destiny hold Ann McCastle to the unforgiving western frontier. A beautiful and tempestuous saloon keeper, she has dreams of vengeance to keep her strong until Ian McShane ride into town. An enigmatic half-Sioux ex-cavalryman, he brazenly claims her as his bride -- igniing Ann's anger, her desire...and a firestorm of passion and peril that threatens to consume them both.
A dark family secret and a dangerous destiny hold Ann McCastle to the unforgiving western frontier. A beautiful and tempestuous saloon keeper, she has dreams of vengeance to keep her strong until Ian McShane ride into town. An enigmatic half-Sioux ex-cavalryman, he brazenly claims her as his bride -- igniing Ann's anger, her desire...and a firestorm of passion and peril that threatens to consume them both.
432 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1995
About the author
Shannon Drake
53 books575 followersHeather Graham Pozzessere
aka Heather Graham, Shannon Drake
Heather Graham was born on March 15, 1953 and grew up in Dade County, Florida, and attended the University of South Florida at Tampa, majoring in theater arts and touring Europe and parts of Asia and Africa as part of her studies. After college, she acted in dinner theaters, modeled, waitressed, and tended bar. She married Hershey Dennis Possezzere, and after the birth of her third child, she was determined to devote her efforts to her writing: her dream. She sold her first book in 1982.
Today, this author's success is reflected not just by reader response and the over 20 million copies of her books in print, but in many other ways. In addition to being a New York Times bestselling author, Heather has received numerous awards for her novels, including over 20 trade awards from magazines such as Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur, bestseller awards from B. Dalton, Waldenbooks, and BookRak, and several Reviewers' Choice and People's Choice awards.
Heather has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, Romantically Speaking, a TV talk show that aired nationwide on the Romance Classics cable channel, and CBS Sunday News. She has been quoted in People and USA Today, been profiled in The Nation, and featured in Good Housekeeping. Her books have been selections for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. She has been published across the world in more than 15 languages and has published over 70 titles, including anthologies and short stories.
Now, she had five children. Somehow, this prolific author manages to juggle it all - family, career, and marriage - while reaching a level of success to which few can aspire.
aka Heather Graham, Shannon Drake
Heather Graham was born on March 15, 1953 and grew up in Dade County, Florida, and attended the University of South Florida at Tampa, majoring in theater arts and touring Europe and parts of Asia and Africa as part of her studies. After college, she acted in dinner theaters, modeled, waitressed, and tended bar. She married Hershey Dennis Possezzere, and after the birth of her third child, she was determined to devote her efforts to her writing: her dream. She sold her first book in 1982.
Today, this author's success is reflected not just by reader response and the over 20 million copies of her books in print, but in many other ways. In addition to being a New York Times bestselling author, Heather has received numerous awards for her novels, including over 20 trade awards from magazines such as Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur, bestseller awards from B. Dalton, Waldenbooks, and BookRak, and several Reviewers' Choice and People's Choice awards.
Heather has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, Romantically Speaking, a TV talk show that aired nationwide on the Romance Classics cable channel, and CBS Sunday News. She has been quoted in People and USA Today, been profiled in The Nation, and featured in Good Housekeeping. Her books have been selections for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. She has been published across the world in more than 15 languages and has published over 70 titles, including anthologies and short stories.
Now, she had five children. Somehow, this prolific author manages to juggle it all - family, career, and marriage - while reaching a level of success to which few can aspire.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 28, 2013
Great Story from the Old West
I am a huge fan of Heather Graham (aka Shannon Drake) and her Western romances. This is one of them, a post Civil War tale of the Wild West.
Why would Ian, an ex-Rebel officer and half Sioux Indian, think Ann McCastle was a virgin when she was running a saloon and bordello on the Colorado frontier? Well, he wouldn't...and she has no intention of informing him he is wrong when he was being so stubborn and acting like he knows it all. But no matter her experience, he was willing to marry her—no, he demanded she marry him—when he bought the controlling interest in her establishment. Since they both had grievances against a local bad man (though neither would disclose what those grievances were), and the marriage would make the bad guy really unhappy, why not marry? So they do. And then, as they say, we're off to the races.
Ian's a handsome warrior type who is just what McCastle's saloon needs. He cares more deeply for Ann than he wants to admit. Of course, Ann runs more than a saloon and bordello out of McCastle's but she isn't willing to tell Ian, nor is she willing to confess she has begun to love him.
You'll love the characters in this one, including a noble Pawnee Indian named Cloud Walker, a French chef, a sympathetic bartender, three ladies of the night with hearts of gold who are loyal to Ann, and a piano player who keeps all her secrets! Ah..the Wild West! I think you'll enjoy this one. There's lots of mystery and great chemistry between the two leads as Graham weaves a wonderful tale. But ignore the picture inside the cover that shows the dark haired Ian with blond hair, and the blond-haired Ann with dark hair. How did they get that so wrong?
Note: Heather Graham will be on my blog in July (2013).
I am a huge fan of Heather Graham (aka Shannon Drake) and her Western romances. This is one of them, a post Civil War tale of the Wild West.
Why would Ian, an ex-Rebel officer and half Sioux Indian, think Ann McCastle was a virgin when she was running a saloon and bordello on the Colorado frontier? Well, he wouldn't...and she has no intention of informing him he is wrong when he was being so stubborn and acting like he knows it all. But no matter her experience, he was willing to marry her—no, he demanded she marry him—when he bought the controlling interest in her establishment. Since they both had grievances against a local bad man (though neither would disclose what those grievances were), and the marriage would make the bad guy really unhappy, why not marry? So they do. And then, as they say, we're off to the races.
Ian's a handsome warrior type who is just what McCastle's saloon needs. He cares more deeply for Ann than he wants to admit. Of course, Ann runs more than a saloon and bordello out of McCastle's but she isn't willing to tell Ian, nor is she willing to confess she has begun to love him.
You'll love the characters in this one, including a noble Pawnee Indian named Cloud Walker, a French chef, a sympathetic bartender, three ladies of the night with hearts of gold who are loyal to Ann, and a piano player who keeps all her secrets! Ah..the Wild West! I think you'll enjoy this one. There's lots of mystery and great chemistry between the two leads as Graham weaves a wonderful tale. But ignore the picture inside the cover that shows the dark haired Ian with blond hair, and the blond-haired Ann with dark hair. How did they get that so wrong?
Note: Heather Graham will be on my blog in July (2013).
November 13, 2015
Now typically, Shannon Drake novels piss me off because they're so rapey and the hero's are WAY too alpha. This was something of a change...it still had elements of a typical Shannon Drake novel, but it was better. Our Hero, Ian, is definitely alpha. He's controlling, physically dominant and quick to anger - but he never really underestimates the heroine...he never looks at her as less than an intelligent and strong woman. He may think she's a whore (she owns a brothel) but for all that he tries to control her, you get the sense that he knows he's met his match. Shannon Drake usually does some good heroines, their biggest fault being that they forgive rape so quickly. This wasn't really a case of rape - forced seduction, yes. Rape, not so much. And these two are a matched pair - both out for vengeance against the villain, but both trying to hide their reasons and their past. And their inability to let their guards down, despite their growing feelings for one another is what drives the novel. This is a very good story. If only all of her books were like this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2026
Ok I had to sit down to write this one.
I started this Shannon Drake romance paperback because I picked it up from the Value Village for $2.49 and thought it would be interesting to read a 1990s romance book with ripped bodices, etc. I have only ever really read "romantasy" or more modern Emily Henry type romances, and haven't gotten into this older, more vintage part of the genre. I was shocked, therefore, to find that almost every sex scene in this book is a rape fantasy. The premise is that a virginal brothel owner is forced to marry a stranger who rides into town, and is forced multiple times to have sex with her new husband. I personally didn't find these scenes particularly hot, but they did read like kink scenes I have witnessed/read over the years for people who are into cnc. There's no shade here; what made me more fascinated was thinking about why, in a genre written by women and for women, there was so much violence tied up in sexual scenes meant to entertain. I found this deeply interesting but also deeply dense to move through.
There were also other parts of the text that sent me for a loop. For example, the main love interest is one-quarter Sioux, and there is extensive discussion of Indigenous physical features, stereotypes, etc. It is clear this is part of the character's sex appeal, which is obviously racist and tokenizing. I guess what was also pretty wild was that this love interest was a "Rebel" solider, also known as a soldier who fought with the South in the American civil war. The text is full of philosophical musings about the culpability of those that fought for the South who were not themselves slave owners, and who were in some ways, not white. The main villain in the book, it turns out, is a blood lusting killer who also fought for the North in the civil war.
In this way, Drake plays with ethics in an extremely edgy way which at times made me convinced she was completely out of her depth and simply gesturing to deeper insights the genre might deliver us with, overall. I think there are parts of this book that are more than a little irresponsible, but at the same time I was taken with its freshness and radical nature in other ways. I guess this is what older romance novels are like, but I can't say on the whole I liked it so much as I was scandalized by it.
I started this Shannon Drake romance paperback because I picked it up from the Value Village for $2.49 and thought it would be interesting to read a 1990s romance book with ripped bodices, etc. I have only ever really read "romantasy" or more modern Emily Henry type romances, and haven't gotten into this older, more vintage part of the genre. I was shocked, therefore, to find that almost every sex scene in this book is a rape fantasy. The premise is that a virginal brothel owner is forced to marry a stranger who rides into town, and is forced multiple times to have sex with her new husband. I personally didn't find these scenes particularly hot, but they did read like kink scenes I have witnessed/read over the years for people who are into cnc. There's no shade here; what made me more fascinated was thinking about why, in a genre written by women and for women, there was so much violence tied up in sexual scenes meant to entertain. I found this deeply interesting but also deeply dense to move through.
There were also other parts of the text that sent me for a loop. For example, the main love interest is one-quarter Sioux, and there is extensive discussion of Indigenous physical features, stereotypes, etc. It is clear this is part of the character's sex appeal, which is obviously racist and tokenizing. I guess what was also pretty wild was that this love interest was a "Rebel" solider, also known as a soldier who fought with the South in the American civil war. The text is full of philosophical musings about the culpability of those that fought for the South who were not themselves slave owners, and who were in some ways, not white. The main villain in the book, it turns out, is a blood lusting killer who also fought for the North in the civil war.
In this way, Drake plays with ethics in an extremely edgy way which at times made me convinced she was completely out of her depth and simply gesturing to deeper insights the genre might deliver us with, overall. I think there are parts of this book that are more than a little irresponsible, but at the same time I was taken with its freshness and radical nature in other ways. I guess this is what older romance novels are like, but I can't say on the whole I liked it so much as I was scandalized by it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 18, 2022
Good story about life in the west after the Civil War. Quick wrap up at the end.
Read
April 8, 2024Dnf
April 25, 2015
Some books catch you and just won't let you go this book caused me a sleepless night. Shannon Drake hit the mark with this one and it won't be finding its way back to the bookstore. I searched for this book forever I had read it once when I was younger but couldn't remember the name. Now that I found it again I'm never letting it go.
June 10, 2013
Ann and Ian are a funny couple. It was a fast paced novel, but completely focused on each character and you love them. It was funny and I enjoyed reading it, finished it in a day but this is must read by Shannon Drake.
March 16, 2013
Not one of her best, but very typical. Still enjoyable. Would recommend it to anyone who likes Heather Graham novels, but not someone who has never read her before.
August 30, 2013
Branded Hearts, is the reason I fell in love with Heather Graham/Shannon Drake novels:)
June 28, 2014
Good story but wanted a bigger connection
April 15, 2023
A historical Western romance filled with passion.
July 20, 2016
Read while in jail. Actual rating: 3.5
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews