Wendy, The Super Librarian and blogger maven, tells us why westerns are better than chocolate. Well. Almost…
When AAR’s latest Top 100 Romances poll was released I was highly annoyed to see the total lack (OK, one LaVyrle Spencer title!) of any American-set or western romances on the list. C’mon people! But I’m willing to give you all the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you just haven’t been reading the right westerns? So here I am, Wendy The Super Librarian, to help you out. I’m all about using my super powers for good!
Wendy The Super Librarian’s Top 12 Western Romances (in no particular order)…
1. A Reason To Live by Maureen McKade. A gut-wrenching book about a Civil War nurse’s mission to bring dying soldiers’ last words to their relatives. All the while battling post-traumatic stress and traveling with the hero, a man haunted by the deaths of his wife and son.
2. Courting Miss Hattie by Pamela Morsi. Possibly one of the best friends-to-lovers stories ever written. A plain-jane heroine finds herself with a suitor thanks to the prime farm land she’s sitting on. The hero, who has worked her farm for years, finds himself jealous – even though he’s set to marry the prettiest girl in the county. Then an innocent kiss turns into a barn-burner and all bets are off!
3. The Horseman by Jillian Hart. A hero to die for. Seriously, if this guy showed up on my doorstep tomorrow I’d leave The Boyfriend so fast his head would spin. Her marriage over thanks to a miscarriage, and her family disowning her for “disgracing the family name,” the heroine finds herself rescued by the hero, a horse trainer on her father’s estate.
4. The Seduction Of Samantha Kincade by Maggie Osborne. Some readers dislike the “tomboy” heroine, but at least Osborne had the guts to write real tomboys. The heroine disguises herself as a man (no really, she cuts her hair off and everything! No flowing locks stuffed under a hat! Ugh, I hate that!) and works as a bounty hunter in the hopes of tracking down the man who raped and murdered her mother – thereby causing her father’s suicide. She runs across the hero, also looking for the same man. Did I mention the murderous outlaw is also the hero’s half-brother?
5. I Do, I Do, I Do by Maggie Osborne. Three romances for the price of one, plus charming and funny to boot. Three very different women discover they’ve all married, and been swindled by, the same con man. Determined to get back their money, and unravel the mess, they follow him to the Yukon Gold Rush, only to discover three perfect heroes just waiting for them. But are any of them really married to the con man? And where the heck is the guy anyway? Added bonus: This story features one of the most memorable love scenes I’ve ever read.
6. Patterns Of Love (Coming to America, Book 2) by Robin Lee Hatcher. The heroine is the plain sister in a family full of Swedish beauties. Determined to have an adventure (and a life) she takes a housekeeping job for the hero, a widower with two daughters and a sick mother. I read and loved the original 1998 mass market paperback. The book was “rewritten” years later for the inspirational market, an edition I haven’t read so not sure how it compares.
7. Hope’s Captive by Kate Lyon. The heroine, a former Indian captive, has heard that the man and tribe who rescued her is being forced onto a squalid reservation. Determined to take a wagon full of medicine and supplies, she needs to find a man to travel with her. Along comes the hero, who suspects the tribe the heroine wants to help has kidnapped his young son. Epic, glorious, and a real page-turner.
8. The Heartbreaker by Nicole Jordan. I love a good jackass hero who ends up groveling and this one is for all the Alpha hero lovers out there. The hero had a “perfect first wife” (or was she?) and enters into a marriage of convenience with the heroine. He treats her like crap, and she (bless her heart) doesn’t back down.
9. Cherish by Catherine Anderson. Vintage Anderson, but not as sugary as some of her other work. The heroine is deeply religious and deplores violence of any kind. She’s traveling west with her family on a wagontrain when outlaws attack, murdering everybody except her. She’s rescued by the hero, a former gunslinger with a haunted past. Anderson has a made a name for herself writing “innocent heroine, world-weary hero” stories, but what I especially liked about this one was the heroine’s crisis of faith and how the hero “brings her back.”
10. Prairie Wife by Cheryl St.John. It’s hard to pick one St.John book because she’s written many wonderful westerns. This one is my favorite, perhaps because she hit an emotional peak with this marriage-in-trouble story. After the death of their toddler son, the heroine closes herself off emotionally and the hero falls into a bottle. Can they work their way back to each other?
11. The Texas Trilogy (a.k.a. The Leigh Brothers Series) by Lorraine Heath. Texas Destiny, Texas Glory and Texas Splendor features three brothers who all find romance on the Texas plains. While most readers tend to favor the first two books, Splendor is probably my favorite because I’m a sucker for “younger hero who wants to prove himself” storylines. I’m a sap like that.
12. The Rock Creek Six series by Lori Handeland and Linda Devlin. I saw some mixed reviews for some of the books when they were first released, but know many readers who count these as real favorites – me included. It follows six men who survived the Civil War and now ride together like a band of vigilante lawmen. The series starts out when one of the heroines hires Reese, their leader, to rid tiny Rock Creek, Texas of some outlaws. It’s always a little weird for me to recommend this series because the first book is my least favorite, and the last three are really fantastic (if I do say so myself). But it gives readers that epic, saga-like quality in bite size pieces, which is part of it’s charm. In order: Reese, Sullivan, Rico, Jed, Nate and Cash.
Courting Miss Hattie is my favorite Morsi title! I am so glad you mentioned it. Everyone thinks of peaches because of JR Ward, but “peaches” first came from this book IMO 😉
YAY wonderful list!!! (except #6)
1 is great. Love that book and McKade is just a wonderful author. 2 is grand and I so hope one day we see Morsi back in historical romance.
3… le sigh… why 4 you leave me Hart… come back to HH!
4 & 5 I haven’t read. But I have them. Does that count?
Sybil: I deliberately chose two Osborne books that were very different in tone. I Do, I Do, I Do is a “lighter” book and there are moments of humor in it (most notably that memorable love scene I mentioned). On the flipside is Samantha Kincaid, which is “vintage” Osborne and a darker story. Another great Osborne I didn’t mention is Prairie Moon, and as for her other titles? I’m still working on her backlist.
Katiebabs: For me Courting Miss Hattie is one “hot” book. Not because Morsi writes a ton of sex scenes (she’s somewhere around PG to PG-13 in my book), but because she does very good sexual tension. Courting Miss Hattie has fabu sexual tension….
Wendy,
Everything you said I agree with perfectly.:)
Sometimes the tension is all you need. I think I need to re-read this book now.
Ah that scene on the porch swing….
7 I own because of you. 9 I own, read and loved because of you too. No wonder I like you.
8… I LOVED Heartbreaker. love, love, love it… I buy it when I see extra copies to give others. One of my wishes (other than that Wildstar falls into my lap) is Nicole Jordan will one day finish this triolgy.
10! I think everyone must know of my love for all books Cheryl St.John. Of course my favorite changes weekly.
11 may be one of my all time faves. Rawley where forth are thou!
And 12… I gots them all. But haven’t read them yet. I think I am afraid they will not live up to how high I have set them. All your fault btw 😉
Katiebabs: OMG – I know! That porch swing scene just does me in every time! IWillNotRereadThisNow, IWillNotRereadThisNow, IWillNotRereadThisNow – do you have any idea how much of Morsi’s backlist I own and haven’t read yet? It’s embarrassing, really…..
Simple Jess by Morsi is another good one.
Porch Swing and peaches…. drool!
If no one knows what I am talking about, go read this book and sigh along with me and Wendy 🙂
Sybil: I’m waiting on Wildstar too! If I wasn’t so notoriously cheap I’d order it online. Me too on St. John – it’s hard to pick just one title because of all her westerns that I’ve read she’s marvelously consistent. I haven’t “hated” one yet. As for the Rock Creek series – I tend to hype them up too much 😉 If Rosie swings by, I know she’s read and “liked” the series, although last I heard she still hasn’t read Cash (one of my favorites!).
I haven’t read any of these. I’m terribly underread with Westerns. It’s a weird thing, b/c I think it won’t interest me, but then they sound awesome. I think I read some bad ones in my younger years or something. I must get my hands on Courting Miss Hattie to start. I do have some Cheryl St. John’s in the TBR, thanks to this site.
But… but… where are the GAY cowboys?!
Straight westerns seldom trip my trigger, but put two cowboys together, the ultimate manly men who can’t go all alpha on each other, and mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, MMMMMMM!
Start with the Cowboy Up anthology from Torquere Press.
hmmpphh
BevQB: Well I don’t “do” eBooks. Nothing against them, but at this time I don’t own a reader and I refuse on principal to 1) read on my computer (I’m on the computer ALL DAY at work) or 2) print them out. One of these days I’ll break down and get a reader – but with 900+ books in my TBR alone (yes, 900!) I’m not all that anxious to discover a new way to horde books.
Also, while I’ve enjoyed m/m romances as secondary story lines I suspect I’d have a hard (Ha!) time if it was the primary romance. Why? Because unlike 99.9999% of romance readers out there, I tend to squeeee over great heroines more so than great heroes. (Although I will squeeee over heroes, I am not totally immune).
Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m thrilled to make the list! You have my favorites, including Courting Miss Hattie and The Seduction of Samantha Kincaid, though my favorite Anderson is Coming Up Roses.
I am shooting right over to amazon to buy The Heartbreaker right now, because my western reading must be sorely lacking if this is on the list with these others and I’ve never read it!
SMOOCHES!
I’d add The Outsider by Penelope Williamson. Gorgeous book!
Ha! I was waiting for someone to mention The Outsider. The reason it’s not on this list is because I haven’t read it yet. I know, I know. It is in the TBR though, so one of my missions in 2008 is to get the thing read!
I’m actually re-reading The Outsider right now!
I love me some Westerns. 😉
I’ll have to print this out and do some shopping on Amazon. My fav western is an old Zebra … Desperado’s Caress by Carla Simpson.
The Heart Breaker is a sequel to The Outlaw and wolf’s book was never completeled 🙁
I love Elizabeth Lowell’s Only Series, Winter Fire and Reckless Love as well. Oh and Susan Kay Law has some yummy westerns to not be missed.
For those of you playing along at home… Wildstar has still not fallen out of the sky 🙁
I loved this list! I adore western romances!
I haven’t read all of them yet though…and don’t even own #12 and a few others.
The Heart Breaker is a great book…I never did read The Outlaw though…and I wondered about Wolf’s book…thanks for the info Sybil.
Pamela Morsi wrote some wonderful ones…as well as Jodi Thomas (love hers).
Thanks for the list Wendy!
You recommended the Texas Trilogy to me over at Dear Author a month or so ago and after some very stressful e-baying I managed to get my hands on all three… They were worth every penny too. Thanks for the recs! I have been on a bit of a Western kick ever since.
Cherish by Catherine Anderson is by far and away one of my all-time favorite westerns. Deep and tragically realistic. I love the flaws in a character as much as the strengths–and these two have both in abundance. Read it twice.