What do you think?
Rate this book
Conard County #1
Exile's End
SOMEONE WAS STALKING HIM
After being held captive for four years, CIA agent
Ransom Laird just wanted to enjoy the wide-open spaces and warm sunshine of Wyoming. He hadn't expected to meet a woman whose very soul touched him, warmed him-- a woman he could grow old with.
And now that he'd found her, he was about to lose her to an unknown assassin. Someone who wanted Ransom dead. Someone who was willing to kill Mandy to get to him...
Writer Mandy Grant saw Ransom as a wounded warrior seeking shelter within her fortress walls and herself as the lonely princess, too frightened to love. Because for Mandy, loving mean losing. And unless the stopped the killer first, they were both going to lose...
After being held captive for four years, CIA agent
Ransom Laird just wanted to enjoy the wide-open spaces and warm sunshine of Wyoming. He hadn't expected to meet a woman whose very soul touched him, warmed him-- a woman he could grow old with.
And now that he'd found her, he was about to lose her to an unknown assassin. Someone who wanted Ransom dead. Someone who was willing to kill Mandy to get to him...
Writer Mandy Grant saw Ransom as a wounded warrior seeking shelter within her fortress walls and herself as the lonely princess, too frightened to love. Because for Mandy, loving mean losing. And unless the stopped the killer first, they were both going to lose...
260 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1992
3 people are currently reading
215 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Lee
368 books140 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Rachel Lee is a New York Times best-selling author and the winner of Six Romantic Times magazine Reviewers' Choice Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a five-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA® Award. She has penned a wide variety of novels in several genres including fantasy, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy. She resides in Tampa, Florida.
Rachel Lee is a New York Times best-selling author and the winner of Six Romantic Times magazine Reviewers' Choice Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a five-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America's RITA® Award. She has penned a wide variety of novels in several genres including fantasy, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy. She resides in Tampa, Florida.
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
July 20, 2011
Exile's End is the first Conrad County book and you can feel that it is a bit dated, with too many metaphors used by the characters for what they were feeling or have been been through.
Ransom(CIA) has come to Conrad County to rest and recuperate after his four year captivity and torture. His wife betrayed him and even aborted his kid, his legs are held together by steel and he has many physical scars and he believes that he's all out of the emotional ones. His Nam buddy Nate is the sheriff and he gets him a job as a handy-man at Mandy's place.
Mandy is someone who is scared of emotional risks due to her losses in life. She was put up for adoption, lost her parents and bounced from foster home to foster home, so she took refuge as a teacher and a writer. Her husband John chased her for three years and for a while she was happy then John died and her baby was still-born. So, for the past four years she's just been writing again.
Mandy treats Ransom less as a guest and more as a friend. She looks at his scars and tells him not to be ashamed and they move towards something more slowly with shared kisses, but Mandy has a tendency to get scared and then someone is after Ransom.
The book was a decent read, I guess I just wasn't that invested in it. Ransom and Mandy did get on my nerves atimes, Ransom treating Mandy like she was glass and Mandy's constant fears.
Ransom(CIA) has come to Conrad County to rest and recuperate after his four year captivity and torture. His wife betrayed him and even aborted his kid, his legs are held together by steel and he has many physical scars and he believes that he's all out of the emotional ones. His Nam buddy Nate is the sheriff and he gets him a job as a handy-man at Mandy's place.
Mandy is someone who is scared of emotional risks due to her losses in life. She was put up for adoption, lost her parents and bounced from foster home to foster home, so she took refuge as a teacher and a writer. Her husband John chased her for three years and for a while she was happy then John died and her baby was still-born. So, for the past four years she's just been writing again.
Mandy treats Ransom less as a guest and more as a friend. She looks at his scars and tells him not to be ashamed and they move towards something more slowly with shared kisses, but Mandy has a tendency to get scared and then someone is after Ransom.
The book was a decent read, I guess I just wasn't that invested in it. Ransom and Mandy did get on my nerves atimes, Ransom treating Mandy like she was glass and Mandy's constant fears.
October 29, 2016
1.5 Stars.
Pages and pages of internal monologues and nothing happening much in real. I truly disliked the Heroine, always whining about the past...how she doesn't want to care about anyone till last but few pages. I wanted to shake her and say "Please move on! Life is all about ups and downs!"
Only saving grace is the Hero...such a warrior!
Pages and pages of internal monologues and nothing happening much in real. I truly disliked the Heroine, always whining about the past...how she doesn't want to care about anyone till last but few pages. I wanted to shake her and say "Please move on! Life is all about ups and downs!"
Only saving grace is the Hero...such a warrior!
November 12, 2013
Maybe closer to a 3.5? There were parts I really liked. That being said, I definitely don't read romance novels expecting great literature, so I admit, I grade them on a different scale than I do other types of novels. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I'm just a big romantic softy at heart and am incapable of being objective.
January 19, 2024
I've been a long-time fan of the Conard County series but only started reading them once I was further into the series. I liked getting my hands on the book that began it all. The story quickly drew me in with gripping suspense and emotional turmoil.
Ransom escaped from four years in a forced labor camp, then spent several months in the hospital recovering from his injuries. Looking for somewhere to finish his recuperation sent him to his friend, Nate, who lives in rural Wyoming. In addition to the wide-open spaces Ransom craves, Nate recommends him for a ranch hand position. He never expected to find a woman whose soul spoke to his.
Mandy became something of a recluse after the death of her husband four years earlier and the latest of many losses. She's afraid of caring for someone only to lose again. She immerses herself in the books she writes about warriors and princesses. Ransom's arrival creates cracks in the walls she's built around her heart.
I enjoyed watching the relationship develop between Ransom and Mandy. Ransom touched me from the start. He is scarred, inside and out, by his experiences, but he wants this chance at a new life. After many years of subduing his emotions, allowing himself to feel again is difficult. He has a hard time believing anyone could care for him. Mandy is drawn to the wounded warrior in ways she's never felt before. As they spent more time together and grew closer, each had to face their fears before looking to a future together.
Mandy and Ransom spend a lot of time inside their own heads. When danger threatens, Ransom's protectiveness insists that she would be better off without him. Mandy pulls back every time her relationship with Ransom moves a little forward, terrified of risking her heart. There were times when I wanted to shake her for how she treated him. There's an emotional scene where he calls her out on it but disregards his own actions. It takes some in-depth self-examination, brought on by extreme danger, to open their eyes to the truth.
The suspense of the story was excellent. It began in the prologue with someone watching Ransom in his hospital bed, thinking about how easy it would be to kill him then. But they want to make him suffer first. When unexplained incidents happen to Ransom and Mandy, he is initially reluctant to believe someone is after him. After all, he's been inactive as an agent for years, and very few people even know he's alive. But his instincts tell him he's the target and he needs to protect Mandy. Though I figured out who the killer was pretty early, I was fully invested in seeing how it turned out. The final confrontation kept me glued to the pages as Ransom used his abilities to get to Mandy before it was too late.
This book was published in 1992, so some things are a little dated. One more noticeable was the realization that when Ransom, Nate, and Micah spoke of the war they fought, they were referring to Vietnam. There are no cell phones for quick communication, and the computer Mandy uses for writing her books uses disks. But those were all minor considerations in my enjoyment of the story.
Ransom escaped from four years in a forced labor camp, then spent several months in the hospital recovering from his injuries. Looking for somewhere to finish his recuperation sent him to his friend, Nate, who lives in rural Wyoming. In addition to the wide-open spaces Ransom craves, Nate recommends him for a ranch hand position. He never expected to find a woman whose soul spoke to his.
Mandy became something of a recluse after the death of her husband four years earlier and the latest of many losses. She's afraid of caring for someone only to lose again. She immerses herself in the books she writes about warriors and princesses. Ransom's arrival creates cracks in the walls she's built around her heart.
I enjoyed watching the relationship develop between Ransom and Mandy. Ransom touched me from the start. He is scarred, inside and out, by his experiences, but he wants this chance at a new life. After many years of subduing his emotions, allowing himself to feel again is difficult. He has a hard time believing anyone could care for him. Mandy is drawn to the wounded warrior in ways she's never felt before. As they spent more time together and grew closer, each had to face their fears before looking to a future together.
Mandy and Ransom spend a lot of time inside their own heads. When danger threatens, Ransom's protectiveness insists that she would be better off without him. Mandy pulls back every time her relationship with Ransom moves a little forward, terrified of risking her heart. There were times when I wanted to shake her for how she treated him. There's an emotional scene where he calls her out on it but disregards his own actions. It takes some in-depth self-examination, brought on by extreme danger, to open their eyes to the truth.
The suspense of the story was excellent. It began in the prologue with someone watching Ransom in his hospital bed, thinking about how easy it would be to kill him then. But they want to make him suffer first. When unexplained incidents happen to Ransom and Mandy, he is initially reluctant to believe someone is after him. After all, he's been inactive as an agent for years, and very few people even know he's alive. But his instincts tell him he's the target and he needs to protect Mandy. Though I figured out who the killer was pretty early, I was fully invested in seeing how it turned out. The final confrontation kept me glued to the pages as Ransom used his abilities to get to Mandy before it was too late.
This book was published in 1992, so some things are a little dated. One more noticeable was the realization that when Ransom, Nate, and Micah spoke of the war they fought, they were referring to Vietnam. There are no cell phones for quick communication, and the computer Mandy uses for writing her books uses disks. But those were all minor considerations in my enjoyment of the story.
July 26, 2017
WOW, WOW, WOW! Hooked from page one.
January 18, 2018
Read this series when it first came out years ago and always remembered it. So glad to re-read the series from the beginning.
March 12, 2023
Wow. These two deserve each other. Each are trapped in circular thinking of their own making. So repetitive and annoying.
April 26, 2015
What an amazing book to start with in this series.. I couldn't wait to find out what happened to the characters even though I didn't want the book to end! Exiles End is definitely the start to a book addiction and a must read for anyone looking for a good quality romance with emotional depth to the characters. 5 Stars!
Read
August 7, 2011One of my favorites in the series.
June 5, 2024
Likeable characters and a satisfying story. Good start to the series and a decent introduction to some key side characters.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews