My Outlaw

by Linda Lael Miller

Seven-year-old Keighly Barrow never forgot the night she spied a boy her own age at her grandmother's Redemption, Nevada, mansion. He was staring at her from an antique mirror in the ballroom, standing among gaudily dressed women in an old-time western saloon. Keighly could only discover that his name was Darby Elder -- and that he lived a century ago. Twenty years later, engaged to be married, Keighly inherited her grandmother's house. Back before the ballroom mirror, she faces a handsome cowboy whose roguish air radiates trouble. Keighly senses the spirit of Darby Elder -- along with an electric charge of passion passing through the glass...and into her heart. But old news clips declare this outlaw son of a local madam would die in a shoot-out. Keighly's magical connection to Darby is too strong not to try and save his life or, if history will not bend, to love him as fiercely as the fleeting moments will allow.

Genres: Romance, Time Travel, Historical Romance, Historical, Westerns, Western Romance, Time Travel Romance

307 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West. Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a spacious property outside Spokane.
Linda traces the birth of her writing career to the day when a Northport teacher told her that the stories she was writing were good, that she just might have a future in writing. Later, when she decided to write novels, she endured her share of rejection before she sold Fletcher’s Woman in 1983 to Pocket Books. Since then, Linda has successfully published historicals, contemporaries, paranormals, mysteries and thrillers before coming home, in a literal sense, and concentrating on novels with a Western flavor. For her devotion to her craft, the Romance Writers of America awarded her their prestigious Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
Long a passionate Civil War buff, Linda has studied the era avidly for almost thirty years. She has read literally hundreds of books on the subject, explored numerous battlegrounds and made many visits to her favorite, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where she has witnessed re-enactments of the legendary clash between North and South. Linda explores that turbulent time in The Yankee Widow, a May 7, 2019 MIRA Books hardcover, also available in digital and audiobook formats.
Dedicated to helping others, “The First Lady of the West” personally financed fifteen years of her Linda Lael Miller Scholarships for Women, which she awarded to women 25 years and older who were seeking to improve their lot in life through education. She anticipates that her next charitable endeavors will benefit four-legged critters.
More information about Linda and her novels is available at www.lindalaelmiller.com, on Facebook and from Nancy Berland Public Relations, nancy@nancyberland.com, 405-206-4748.

Reviews

[Kristiej · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book quite a few years ago and though I forgot most of it, the memory of loving it stayed with me. The urge to reread it started a few months ago but I couldn’t remember the title or the author. But it started haunting me more and more until almost out of nowhere I remembered the title and I was off to the races.

It’s an unusual plot line. It’s both a western and a time travel with some soul mate vibes thrown in, all tropes I love. Keighly Barrow is our heroine and it starts out when she is still young, around ten and staying with her grandmother in a large, older and rather atmospheric house in a town named Redemption in Nevada. She’s playing in a ballroom one day and when she looks into an old mirror, she starts hearing old music and the room looking out kind of disappears and she’s looking at what seems to be a saloon and a young boy around her age is looking back at her. Despite their young ages she somehow seems drawn to him. Although she can tell he’s talking to her, she can’t hear what she’s saying. She has these sightings of him over the years and he grows as she grows and they manage to learn each other’s names by holding up notes with their names written on them. She learns his name is Darby Elder.

Years pass and she doesn’t visit her gram much and when she does, she doesn’t see him in the mirror but she never forgets him. As time passes, both her parents die as well as her grandmother but she’s never forgotten him though she’s built a life for herself in California and she’s engaged to a successful doctor. But when her grandmother dies, she inherits the old home and visits to sort out affairs and once again she sees Darby and knows there is a strong connection between them. She looks to see if she can find anything out about him and discovers he was killed young by an outlaw. But even more shocking, she finds out through a series of events that she was married to him at the time.

Making this short, she goes back in time, to the very year he died and falls deeply in love with him. There’s so much going on that’s too hard to explain and even to try and do so would give massive spoilers.

Upon reading this book, I can see why it’s haunted me all these years. I had a tough time coming up with a grade. While reading it again all these years later, I can see flaws but I loved it all over again. I don’t know how old many who read this review are but there was a movie made many years ago Somewhere in Time, with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeves where he lives in the present time, sees a portrait of her from many, many years ago and just knows they are meant to be together. It was made in 1980 and I loved that movie so much. My Outlaw has the same kind of vibe.

This book might not be for everyone but I’m so glad I read it and fell in love with it all over again. Though centuries apart, Keighly and Darby are each other’s soul mates.

[Yesmina · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a time travel romance: The time traveling did not make sense and the romance was too whimsical!

When FMC was a young child and sees through the ball room mirror of her granny'house a western saloon. More surprising, she sees a boy her age. Only she can see the boy and vice versa.
Despite growing up not hearing or touching each other, so little glimpses through the mirror they believed they are some how cosmically connected.

Years later, in the 90s, FMC is engaged but deeply unhappy, she only dreams of the boy in the mirror. So she goes to her now dead granny's house, sits like a lunatic in front of the mirror until finally she can see MMC who's in his era coming back from mexico to settle some unfinished business with his dying father.
Despite MMC being a bastard, he's incredibly socially respected and loved by his father and 2 legitimate older brothers.
Contrary to the title of the book, he never was an outlaw. Anyway, MMC has too much pride and so angry at the world he only wishes to have the woman on the other side of the mirror.

The lunatic FMC breaks up with her fiancé, goes to the cemetery spends a day searching for the grave of MMC. When she finds it, she understood that he has not much time to live. Searching for CONVINIENT info at the library she finds everything documented about his family as if they were presidents and she learns that she married MMC after all.
He died soon after. She lost their son to fever. She remarried his older brother and had 4 more kids(that she feels no sentiment towards unlike the dead son).
When she dies she wrote on her gravestone born 1967/ died 1910.

Lunatic FMC finds her wedding dress with still a faint sent of lavender. My clothes of last winter have the smell of the closet and her dress from fucking century before has lavender sent and still pearly white. Anyway.... lunatic FMC sits in front of the magic mirror wearing the dress until she sees him and pooof she faints and she's transported to his time.

First thing is first: no hello, no I'm glad to hear your voice for the first time, no WTFis happening, no let's talk, they jump straight to sex.

The morning after everybody heard their wild noises and everybody is scandalized despite them having sex in a brothel, she disappears. Why? I guess the magic mirror works in mysterious ways.
I can really go on to explain what happens next but I'm leaving it to the lunatic FMC to explain as she brilliantly did: "I sacrificed my past to have a future with you." Feeling challenged by the fabric of time? Well buckle-up there's so much to come.

Adding this "stimulating" "enjoyed it as much as I hated it" book to my Bingo Challenge for the square "A time Travel romance"

25⭕ ┃37⭕┃87┃13⭕┃68⭕┃40⭕┃32┃59┃76┃44
10⭕┃86┃4 ┃45⭕┃47⭕┃98┃50⭕┃14⭕┃85⭕┃75
88┃51┃ 9⭕┃2⭕┃42⭕┃29⭕┃ 24┃92⭕┃ 82┃1⭕
100┃34⭕┃17⭕┃96⭕┃43⭕┃49┃64⭕┃70⭕┃15⭕┃38⭕
84⭕┃31⭕┃ 62⭕┃7⭕┃21⭕┃73┃28⭕┃46⭕┃90⭕┃77
3⭕┃12⭕┃80⭕┃ 69⭕┃52⭕┃ 65⭕┃54⭕┃ 91⭕┃23⭕┃ 72⭕
18⭕┃95┃ 22┃99┃93┃74⭕┃41⭕┃8⭕┃35⭕┃ 58⭕
57⭕┃94┃ 16⭕┃56┃ 5⭕┃60⭕┃78⭕┃ 26┃81┃ 61⭕
97⭕┃48⭕┃ 79⭕┃67⭕┃ 53⭕┃30⭕┃ 6⭕┃36⭕┃89⭕┃ 33⭕
71⭕┃19⭕┃ 39⭕┃66⭕┃ 55⭕┃27⭕┃ 20⭕┃63⭕┃ 11⭕┃83

[Paranormal Romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

The man in the mirror is the reason why the heroine has returned to this tiny little town where nothing happens. The man in the mirror is the reason why no other man in the heroine's life could ever measure up. The man in the mirror is the cause of the heroine's pain and grief because she knows that it's impossible for them to be together. All her life, she's seem a vision of the past in her grandmothers house. Only she can see him and she see him very infrequently but she loves him still, no matter what her common sense tells her and no matter how her family pressures her to turn away.

The hero is a man on the run. Not from the law, although townsfolk have their gossip and opinions. No, he's on the run from his family, or those who consider themselves his family. In fact, it's his 2 half brothers who hunt him down and drag him back to his home town when all he wants to do it wander and be on his own. He holds deep resentment towards his father because of the way he treated his mother and no matter how many years have passed, he refuses to let it go. His mother was a whore but she was a beautiful person and Angus loved her so damn much he should have married her. When the hero gets word that his father is dying, he still feels no desire to reconnect. It's the news of his mothers death that finally drags him back and good thing too because something is about to happen that will change his life forever.

One night, while standing before the mirror, he sees the love of his life....and she falls straight into his arms. He's loved the woman in the mirror all his life but he never imagined he could be with her. Touch her. Taste her. They spend one night of passion in each others arms...and then she's gone in the morning. The pain of his loss brings him to his knees and the heroine's heart is similarly breaking. 2 weeks later, she finds herself in the past once again and she dares to hope this will be forever. Life between them is sweet and loving as they make their home on his fathers land and carry on as newlywed's. She doing his laundry and cooking his diner when he works the ranch. It's the happiest time in their lives.

The heroine however is haunted. She knows the future. She knows the hero is destined to die soon, being shot by a gunman leaving her and their son to exist without him. She's horrified to see this prophecy come true as the one the hero betrayed comes back for revenge. But instead of instant death, the heroine instead sees the hero shot before falling through the mirror and into the future. Once again on opposite side of time, they fall into despair, fighting desperately for a way to be reunited once again.

This was not a good summery of the plot, I know. It's hard to give a plot outline in a book where nothing and everything happens at once. Nothing much happens in regards to action or plot twists but rather it's very deep into human interaction and true, lasting emotions. And there were emotions and connections aplenty in this story. It was a different sort of plot in the way of the characters already being in love prior to the book. Their meeting was a congregation of many years of separation and impossible love so when they were able to be together they fell very easily into a relationship together. This was not about falling in love, this was about being in love. Never were their feelings in doubt. I was pleased with this change from typically romance novels. I found the characters to be enjoyable and honest. The heroine, a woman of the present sent to the past fit in very well with her new life because she was eager to please the hero and learn. And the hero, at first painted as a bitter and selfish man who didn't think much of his family, quickly turned into a family man and welcomed the new found relationships with his brothers and even his father. I got a bit confused towards the end as to just why the heroine was able to return but, hey, most of the books I read don't make a lot of sense so it's no biggie. I was in love with the comfort and peace of this novel and it made me jealous of the connection between the lead characters because it was something special.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this book. Time travel from the 1990s to the 1870s. Keighly had met Darby through a mirror when she was 7 years old and somehow they get together, lose each other, come back together. Loved it. Cried, smiled. Very sweet book. Would recommend this book.

[Kathryn Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

DARBY.

[Ems Loves to Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never really been one for westerns, but holy cow...I'd take a cowboy like Darby Elder any day!

[Ann Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, with time traveling lovers bridging the centuries.

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really liking time travel more and more. I loved this love story and what brotherly love is really about.

[Sandlynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Linda Lael Miller’s My Outlaw, published in 1997, is an old-school western romance with a fantasy/paranormal bent.

This story focuses on 30 year old Keighly Barrow, a sculptress and gallery owner living in L.A. in the late 1990’s who is engaged to a surgeon. Despite these ties, Keighly still feels drawn to her grandmother’s old, grand, dilapidated house in Redemption, Nevada. As a child, she would often stand in the ballroom of the house and from time to time see a young boy about her own age in the wall length mirror. The boy was dressed in western clothing from the late 1800’s and stood in an old saloon where cowboys drank and ladies in garish colors danced and entertained. Not only did she see the boy, but he saw her. Even though they couldn’t speak to each other, they managed basic communications through signs and she was able to learn that the boy’s name was Darby Elder. Over the years, as Keighly grew, she saw the boy less and less especially after she went off to boarding school. However, she never forgot Darby and felt a special connection that she couldn’t relinquish. Years later, Keighly inherits the house from her grandmother. Although her fiancé wants her to sell it, she finds she can’t, especially when she suddenly sees Darby in the mirror again – a full grown man. This puts the adult Keighly on a mission to find out who Darby was and what happened to him. With the help of the town librarian and a distant ancestor of Darby’s, Keighly learns more than she bargained for, 1) that somehow Keighly becomes Darby’s wife and2) that Darby dies that very year, leaving a pregnant Keighly behind with his estranged family in the late 1880’s.

Although I found the plot of My Outlaw incredibly busy and I wasn’t always on the same page as the heroine, I was interested enough in the story to see how the author would resolve everything. Instead of a “simple” time-travel plot, the two lead characters end up bouncing back and forth between the two centuries in ways that weren’t totally consistent. (Even though time travel is not a reality, if you have it in your story, it should follow some rules.) Furthermore, I found it hard to believe that the characters were able to avoid suspicion as to who they were and how they ended up in the wrong century! To be honest, besides the time travel, the 1880’s plot – in particular – just appeared to be a straight western and the fact that a strange woman just showed up one day barely registered.

Another little thing that put me off is Keighly’s attitude towards her former fiancé, who she seemed to see as just someone to sire the children she badly wanted regardless of the fact that she didn’t really love him. And then, the moment she’s in the arms of her true lover in the 1800’s, she immediately decides that she’s pregnant. She just senses it without any verification. This is the one part of the story that felt very old-school to me since many romances in the day focused on children equaling happiness for a woman. The upside to this book is that the author didn’t make the heroine’s former significant other out to be a bad guy and, in fact, he’s allowed to be a hero as well and acquire his own heroine. In fact, other than the most obvious baddies, most of all the other important characters were fully formed human beings.

Anyway, everyone had their happy ending, but I think the plot took a very convoluted route on the way to finish. I would give this book a B-/C.

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had been looking forward to reading this once for a while, since I first read a preview of it in another book. While I really liked Darby Elder and the connection between him and Keighley, the story was overlaid with such a strong melancholy I didn't enjoy it so much. Keighley and Darby had been seeing each other through the mirror at her grandmother's house and his mother's whorehouse since they were children. But when she goes back in time she knows he will die, her future child Garrett will die and she'll end up in a loveless marriage with his brother, Simon. A lot of the time travel stuff didn't make sense to me i.e that she'd already been back once before this time in the time loop, etc and her sense of an inevitable horrible fate, of inescapable life was crushing. However, Darby was wonderful and his family and time were fun; also Keighley's friends in the present were nice. Quite a good read once you get past the melancholia.

[Linda Sidney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opps..I have fallen in Love with Darby Elder 💗Cowboy, Badboy, Goodboy: Lover

Be Still My Beating Heart! I loved every word and every character in Linda Lael Miller's book...My Outlaw. I fell into this book; and no B.S., I felt I was fading into the Darby Elder's time in our history. LOL

NO dislikes...Linda L.M. is a master of her craft. Thank you.

I recommend L.L.M's book "My Outlaw" to any person, anywhere in the world... who embraces USA historical romantic time travel books. 😍💕💖 No way would a person express disappointment after reading this book.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. The story was so sweet that I didn't care that it was about time travel, a genre I never really got into. This story is so intriguing! You will go crazy with all the twists and turns.There was never a dull moment and it was not predictable. Highly recommend this one. One great book.

[Terryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I've read a book by Linda Lael Miller and I'm glade I did. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love historical western romance themes and with the time travel it added a different twist to the story. The story line kept me interested and at the end I did not want to put the book down.

[Malika-Liki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have rate it 4.5 stars. I liked the writing, and the characters : Keighly and Darby the brooding illegimate son of Angus Kavannah but also the other characters his brothers Will and Simon, the kids, Julian ...
really good read.

[Karen Sheldon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess I just couldn't get into this story...it reminded me too much of a book that I read many,many years ago ("Knight in Shining Armor") just a different century. I very much like the author's writing and will continue to read her other books.

[Brat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read before this book but never loved the stories until this one and honestly I’ve thought of it often and I can’t read it again one of the best books I’ve ever read and I’m so glad I found it again!

[Sandy Frediani · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent time travel story. I really enjoyed this. Darby and Keighly are fascinating, well rounded characters and the story line in intriguing. The "process" of the time travel is well done and quite plausible.
Excellent.

[mangotango · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book. I had no idea that so many romance books written in the 1980s and 1990's featured time travel but I'm really glad about it.

I really like the characters of Keighly and Darby a lot of suspension of disbelief but I honestly don't mind this in books.

4 stars

[Michaela Atkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

If ever there was a book to read over and over this one fits the bill. A great love story that spans time itself with a great ending.

[Miara Farnsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book has time traveling if you like that theme. The writing itself could be a little more polished but the story was good!

[ike pauh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Time travel historical romance, I like.
The characters of My Outlaw, not so much.

[Tracy's Place · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5

[sheryl boltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book

Great story. Laughed about him being shot and what happened. How convenient. So happy about Garrett! And Francine and her friend.

[Vivi · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute story

[L.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these old time travel romances. This one was a bit of a twist from the typical plot line of these types of stories, which made things interesting and upped the suspense factor a bit.

[Sandy Forman-Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

very different for this author

[Nssan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darby.

[Kbee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audible Romance Package

AUDIOBOOK: Read 12 & 13 July 2020
10hrs 13min

Narrator: Jeanine Bartel does a good job
It was pretty good a lot of back and fro tt.

[Massanutten Regional Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Denise, Main patron, July 2015, 4 stars:

I didn't like this book as much as I do most of her books, but it is still a good read. It is about a woman, Keighly Barrow, that inherits her grandmother's old mansion in Redemption, Nevada and goes back to see it. It is rundown and in need of repair and her fiance, Dr. Julian Drury, a very successful surgeon, wants her to sell it, give it to a charity or whatever and come back to L.A. where he is. The mansion was a part of a very complicated and involved estate and it took quite a while to settle it and that is why it has gone into disrepair. When she gets back there she just feels like she can't give it up and starts calling repairmen in and fixing it up. The grand ballroom is the most interesting place because it has a mirror that she has seen through to another time and another person and that person can see her. They cannot hear the other person talking or any noise from the other place, but she knows it is a saloon. She finds out this is Darby Elder and he is about the same age as she is. That mirror is a time travel mirror and that is what the story is based on. You are taken back 100 years and then brought back and forth. It is a good story but I like the ones that stay in the same time frame. Would I recommend it....yes!!!!

[Kat Desi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal.

Keighly Barrow first met Darby Elder through the antique mirror in her grandmother's mansion. 20 years later, she's back in her grandmother's mansion. Once again facing the mirror, she saw him again - although a man now, devastating and roguish, there was no doubt it was him.

One moment they were staring at each other, the next she's passed out. When she woke up, she was in Darby's arms... in his lifetime...

I always thought that time-travel is a bit tacky even though I haven't read much of them but after reading this? I found out how wrong I was. Maybe the ones I read before this weren't good.... but this one is definitely good. Excellent even.

Intense, deep and very well put together. I was hooked from the very beginning. The characters are very well developed and the story line was just perfect.

I also have a confession to make: I cried. Twice.