This one started out better than it ended. The humor of the arrival of the hero's special-ordered bed, and the conflict between him and the heroine Sarah over it, was far more subtle and funny than Sandra Hill's "comedy." However, there was some slapsticky stuff with a group of Donovan's farmhands that was only lacking Uncle Joe down at the Junction. It sort of wore a little thin after a bit, and the hero's constant use of "sassy girl" also grew tedious. The arrival of Sarah's sister Susannah, a singer from San Fran, could have been far more interesting than it ended up being - she was a shallow character, whose supposed worldliness and wisdom wasn't apparent at all. Instead, she's a brash and beautiful busybody who is given a U.S. Marshal to bump heads with for an inevitable sequel (in fact, the next book Mullins wrote). When Sarah is kidnapped by her former lover Luke Petrie, and Donovan goes back into his bounty hunter persona of the past like putting on a mask, the scene just seemed to be clunky and pedestrian. By that point in the book, it was becoming the norm. (The town meeting scene about the foundation of a school was clunky in the extreme as the hero expounds on women's rights, etc. I agree with the sentiments, but the scene just didn't work for me.)

For a second book by the author, I suppose it's no more than one could expect. I hope she's improved, and might jump to her latest for a look-see.

In the end, it was an average read. Fast, and not that memorable with a blatant set-up for more books in the verse - an all too common "milk it for all it's worth" trend in the genre.

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