This month’s TBR Challenge assignment was westerns. I have never been a big western reader, but after reading a review for Rosanne Bittner’s Wildest Dreams 
Lettie MacBride knew that joining a wagon train heading West was her chance to begin anew, far from the devastating memories of the night that had changed her forever. She didn’t believe she could escape the pain of innocence lost or feel desire for any man…until she meets Luke Fontaine.
Haunted by his own secrets, Luke could never blame Lettie for what had happened in the past. One glance at the pretty red-haired lass was enough to fill the handsome, hard-driving pioneer with a savage hunger.
Against relentless snows, murderous desperadoes, and raiding Sioux, Luke and Lettie will face a heartrending choice: abandon a lawless land before it destroys them, or fight for their…Wildest Dreams.
It’s one of those sweeping epics the late 80s/early 90s romances were known for. It spans many years, and includes the romances of the couple’s children. I think.
I didn’t actually get very far. I have no idea why; I started the book while I was at the beach and raced through 150 pages, really enjoying it. And then I got home. I put the book down beside my bed and haven’t picked it up since.
I kept meaning to because I knew I had this review to write, but I always managed to come up with excuses. Thanks to sales and great reviews, I read two other books, started a re-read of the Cynster books, and started a new book for bible study (The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God’s Best Version of You
I still can’t figure out why. I liked what I read, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up and keeping going. Is it because it’s so long? Or maybe because I accidentally read a little ahead and decided I didn’t like the direction the book was going in? Are sweeping western epics just not my thing? I guess we’ll never know.
I’m not marking this a DNF (did not finish) because there wasn’t any real reason for me to stop reading, other than my own lack of motivation. If I keep it by my bed, I might eventually pick it up again. Probably not until I finish reading my favorites in the Cynster series (the first 6) …but maybe. 🙂
I did want to mention the two books I bought because they were on sale and had gotten really good reviews. I highly recommend both of them. Warning: Fading opens with a rape, so it may be trigging to some. I posted the blurbs below.
Beyond Shame
A dangerous world of sex, lust and violence…
All Noelle Cunningham has ever wanted is a life beyond-beyond the walls of Eden, where only the righteous are allowed to remain, and beyond her stiflingly restrictive existence as a councilman’s daughter. But only ruins lie outside the City, remnants of a society destroyed by solar storms decades earlier.
The sectors surrounding Eden house the corrupt, the criminal-men like Jasper McCray, bootlegger and cage fighter. Jas clawed his way up from nothing to stand at the right hand of Sector Four’s ruthless leader, and he’ll defend the O’Kane gang with his life. But no fight ever prepared him for the exiled City girl who falls at his feet.
Her innocence is undeniable, but so is their intense sexual attraction, and soon they’re crossing every boundary Noelle barely knew she had. But if she wants to belong to Jas, first she’ll have to open herself to a world where passion is power, and freedom is found in submission.
Fading
Fine arts major, Candace Parker, grew up with a mother who thinks image is everything, and her daughter’s perfection will never be good enough. About to graduate college and pursue her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, Candace decides it’s time to let go and have a little fun. But fun is short-lived when a brutal attack leaves her completely shattered. The memories that consume and torment Candace are starting to destroy her when she meets Ryan Campbell, a successful bar owner. He feels instantly connected and tries to show her that hope is worth fighting for. But is Ryan harboring his own demons? As walls slowly begin to chip away, the secrets that are held within start to become painful burdens. At what point do secrets become lies?
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I liked this one – but it was an exhausting read for me. I think it’s the “saga” thing. Something about following the same characters, plus their children, over the course of 500+ pages and 20 years can wear me down to the nub if I’m not in the right frame of mind for such a story. Which might be why it worked for you while you were “at the beach” but failed to grab you once you were “back to reality.”
I always gravitate towards sagas when I’m away from home. Heck, that’s how I finally read Lonesome Dove 🙂 I was stuck visiting my in-laws, and they live in the middle-of-nowhere. A perfect recipe for reading a saga…..